Ranasinghe Premadasa vs Robert Harley

Premadasa launched the Gam Udawa (Village Awakening) program, a rural development initiative aimed at providing housing, infrastructure, and employment to impoverished villages. The program built thousands of houses and improved living conditions in rural areas.

Ranasinghe Premadasa was elected President of Sri Lanka on December 19, 1988, and assumed office on January 2, 1989. He succeeded J. R. Jayewardene and became the first president from a humble background, representing the United National Party (UNP).

Premadasa initiated direct peace talks with the LTTE in 1990, leading to a temporary ceasefire. However, the negotiations collapsed in June 1990 when the LTTE resumed hostilities, escalating the civil war.

Premadasa was assassinated on May 1, 1993, during a May Day rally in Colombo by a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide bomber. The attack killed him and several others, marking the first assassination of a Sri Lankan head of state by the LTTE.

Queen Anne appointed Robert Harley as Lord Treasurer and created him Earl of Oxford. He became the head of the Tory ministry, overseeing the end of the War of the Spanish Succession and the negotiation of the Treaty of Utrecht.

Harley's ministry negotiated the Treaty of Utrecht, ending the War of the Spanish Succession. The treaty recognized Philip V as King of Spain, ceded Gibraltar and Minorca to Britain, and marked Britain's rise as a major colonial power.

After the death of Queen Anne and the accession of George I, the new Whig government impeached Harley for high treason. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London for two years before being acquitted, but his political career was ended.