1871 The Great Fire of Chicago broke out, reputedly in Mrs O’Leary’s barn, when a cow upset a lantern. Over three days c. 300 lives were lost and over 100,000 residents left homeless.
1974 Seán MacBride became the first Irish citizen to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.
1967 Clement Attlee (84), Labour prime minister of the United Kingdom (1945–51) and leader of the Labour Party (1935–55), the longest-ever serving leader of that party, died.
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Personal Histories
Personal Histories is an initiative by History Ireland,
which aims to capture the individual histories of Irish
people both in Ireland and around the world. It is hoped
to build an extensive database reflecting Irish lives,
giving them a chance to be heard, remembered and to
add their voice to the historical record.
Click Here to go to the Personal Histories page
1869 Birth of Sir Edwin Lutyens, acclaimed British architect, whose works in Ireland include the Irish National War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge, Dublin.
1912 Captain Robert Falcon Scott (43) died in Antarctica whilst returning from his expedition to the South Pole.
1859 The first edition of The Irish Times, Ireland’s first daily penny newspaper, appeared.
1793 Charlotte Brooke (c. 52), poet and translator, notably of Reliques of Irish poetry (1789), a collection of Ulster songs and poems in their original Irish forms along with her own translations, died. A daughter of the writer Henry Brooke (c. 1703–83), she was an ancestor of Lord Brookeborough, prime minister of Northern Ireland (1943–63).
1973 The last US serviceman departed from Vietnam. The Vietnam War claimed the lives of 58,281 US servicemen.