Strikes and other forms of labour unrest were common in 1950s Singapore. The year 1955 saw 57 cases of labour unrest involving bus company workers, including the Hock Lee bus workers’ strike and riot. That same year, bus workers of the Singapore Traction Company ...

Boustead and Co., which was set up by Edward Boustead, one of Singapore’s earliest merchants, is almost as old as modern Singapore itself. Established as a small trading house less than 10 years after the founding of Singapore by Stamford Raffles, the company expanded ...

Leung Kai Fook Medical Company (Pte) Ltd is the maker of Axe Brand Universal Oil (also known as Axe Brand Medicated Oil), a popular brand of medicated oil recognised by its logo, which features an arm holding an axe. Axe Brand Medicated Oil is colourless, and contains ...

The Straits Steamship Company (SSC) was formed as The Straits Navigation Company in Singapore on 20 January 1890. It was the brainchild of Dutchman Theodore Cornelius Bogaardt, who was one of the company’s seven directors. Before the establishment of SSC, European ...

The Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) was set up in 1974 to provide housing for middle-income households in Singapore. At the time, middle-income families did not qualify for Housing and Development Board (HDB) units but yet could not afford private ...

The ARTS FISSION Company is a local non-profit dance company founded by choreographer Angela Liong and visual artist S. Chandrasekaran in 1994. As the first multidisciplinary contemporary dance group in Singapore, the company creates original works and new dance ...

Also known as Southern Hotel or Nam Tin, the Great Southern Hotel commenced operations in 1927. Occupying a building named Nam Tin at the junction of Eu Tong Sen Street and Cross Street, it was the first Chinese hotel in Singapore with a lift. Nam Tin was the tallest ...

Goodyear Orient Company (Private) Limited (GOCPL) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company (GTRC), one of the largest tyre companies in the world. It was established in Singapore in 1917 to ensure continual access to rubber plantations and ...

Launched by then prime minister Goh Chok Tong at the National Stadium on 3 October 1993, the Great Singapore Workout is a fitness routine that formed part of the month-long National Healthy Lifestyle Programme. The workout is a specially designed low-impact aerobic ...

The Straits Trading Company Limited (STC) was incorporated as a tin-smelting company on 8 November 1887. Its smelter on Pulau Brani was famed for its production of “Straits Tin”, which by the 1900s had become internationally recognised as the purest quality of ...

Radio broadcasting began in Singapore in 1924 through the initiatives of a small circle of amateur radio enthusiasts and hobbyists. It was developed further by commercial companies until it was nationalised by the colonial government in response to the threat of ...

The Human Expression Dance Company, better known as T.H.E Dance Company, is a non-profit contemporary dance company founded by dancer and choreographer Kuik Swee Boon in September 2008. Known for its dancers’ nifty techniques and classical-trained grace, the company ...

Alexander Laurie Johnston (b. Dumfriesshire, South Scotland–d. February 1850, Bluehill, Kircudbright, Scotland), a former ship’s owner/captain, merchant, businessman, magistrate and Justice of the Peace, arrived in Singapore between 1819 and 1820. One of the earliest ...

First established in Singapore in 1931 as International Assurance Co. Ltd. (INTASCO), AIA Singapore is now a leading life insurance company in the Asia-Pacific region.

Tuberculosis, commonly known as TB, is an infectious disease caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterium. It spreads from person to person via airborne respiratory droplets from an infected person, and primarily affects the lungs. In the 19th century, Singapore’s ...

Singapore is served by a modern sanitation system in which all used water is collected through a network of sewers and channelled to water reclamation plants. But this was not always so. In the 1800s, the sewage collection and disposal system in Singapore relied ...

The Lady Mary Wood was a 49-metre-long wooden paddle steamer launched on 16 September 1841 and registered in January 1842. It is said to be named after the wife of Charles Wood, who was England’s secretary to the Admiralty. The steamer had a gross tonnage of 556 ...

Published for the first time on 8 October 1835, The Singapore Free Press was Singapore’s second English-language newspaper after the Singapore Chronicle. It was founded by William Napier, George D. Coleman, Edward Boustead and Walter Scott Lorrain, and remained ...

Temasek Holdings is an investment holding company incorporated on 25 June 1974 under the Singapore Companies Act to manage the Singapore government’s investments in government-linked companies (GLCs). Headquartered in Singapore, the company covers a broad spectrum ...

With a history dating back to 1845, The Straits Times is the most widely read newspaper in Singapore with a reported combined print and digital readership of 1.34 million in 2014. It is currently the flagship English-language daily newspaper of Singapore Press ...