| 1. | Also called Black Hole of Cal⋅cut⋅ta. a small prison cell in Fort William, Calcutta, in which, in 1756, Indians are said to have imprisoned 146 Europeans, only 23 of whom were alive the following morning. |
| 2. | (lowercase ) any usually wretched place of imprisonment or confinement. |
A cell in the jail of a British fort in Calcutta, India. In the middle of the eighteenth century, British and Indian troops clashed at the fort. The Indian troops drove a reported 146 defenders of the fort into the cell, which measured about fifteen by eighteen feet. Many had suffocated by the next morning.
In astronomy, an object so massive that nothing, not even light, can escape its gravitation. Black holes were given their name because they absorb all the light that falls on them. The existence of black holes was first predicted by the general theory of relativity. Supermassive black holes have been found in the centers of many galaxies. Stellar black holes are thought to arise from the death of very massive stars. Astronomers expect to find many stellar black holes in the Milky Way.
Note: Figuratively, the term black hole is used to refer to a total disappearance: “They never saw the man again — he might as well have fallen into a black hole.”
Black Hole of Calcutta
scene of an incident (June 20, 1756) in which the remaining European defenders of Calcutta were shut away and many died, following the capture of the city by the nawab Siraj-ud-Dawlah, of Bengal, and the surrender of the East India Company's garrison under a member of the council, John Z. Holwell. The incident became a cause celebre in the idealization of British imperialism in India and a subject of controversy. The nawab attacked Calcutta because of the company's failure to stop fortifying the city as a defense against its rivals in anticipation of war (the Seven Years' War, 1756-63). Following his surrender, Holwell and the other Europeans were placed for the night in the company's local lockup for petty offenders, popularly known as the Black Hole. It was a room 18 feet (5.5 m) long and 14 feet 10 inches wide, and it had two small windows. According to Holwell, 146 people were shut up, and 23 emerged alive. The incident was held up as evidence of British heroism and the nawab's callousness.
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