August 31
Published in On this Day listing- 1971 Clifford Loring (18) of the Royal Artillery Regiment was shot dead by an IRA sniper whilst on checkpoint duty in West Belfast, the 35th death since the introduction of internment that month.
- 1994 The IRA announced a ‘complete cessation of military operations’.
- 1997 Diana, Princess of Wales (36), was killed in a road traffic accident in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris. Her funeral, a week later, attracted a worldwide television audience of over one billion.
- 1969 Figures published showed that ten deaths had occurred in Northern Ireland during the violence of July/August; 154 people had suffered gunshot wounds and 745 had been injured in other ways; 170 homes had been destroyed and another 417 damaged. Catholic-owned or occupied property accounted for 83.5% of the damage.
- 1994 The IRA announced ‘a complete cessation of military operations’.
- 1767 Henry Joy McCracken, United Irishman, born in High Street, Belfast.
- 2003 The remains of Jean McConville (38), a widowed mother of ten who had been ‘disappeared’ by the IRA in December 1972, were discovered on Templetown beach on the Cooley peninsula, Co. Louth.
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