1885 — The Fall of Khartoum & General Gordon's Death

Before dawn on January 26, 1885, Mahdist forces stormed Khartoum after a siege of nearly a year. They killed British Major-General Charles Gordon on the palace steps, and his garrison was massacred. A British relief column, sent across the desert to save the city, arrived two days too late.

The shock of the fall brought down Prime Minister Gladstone's government in London, so complete was the humiliation. An empire that prided itself on reach had failed to rescue its own general in time. Sudan stayed under Mahdist rule until 1898, thirteen years in which Khartoum's fall stood as a warning written in blood.