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April 14

Published in On this Day listing

2010 Volcanic eruptions at Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland covered large areas of northern Europe in ash, forcing some twenty countries to close their airspace. Some ten million travellers were affected.
1912 The White Star Line’s Titanic, on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York with 2,201 passengers and crew on board, struck an iceberg some 400 miles (640km) south of Newfoundland at 11.40pm, sustaining a 300ft gash in her hull. She sank at 2.20am the following morning, resulting in the deaths of 1,517 people.
1923 Austin Stack, politician and leading opponent of the Anglo-Irish Treaty who supported the anti-Treaty IRA during the Civil War, was captured by Free State forces and imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail, where he led a hunger strike that severely weakened his health.

On this Day

1920 Recruitment began, mainly from among demobilised British Army officers, into a new force—the ‘Auxiliary Division’—to augment the RIC.
1939 Michael Longley, poet, notable for ‘Gorse Fires’ (1991), ‘The Weather in Japan’ (2000) and ‘The Stairwell’ (2014), born in Belfast of English parents.
2004 Bob Tisdall (96), Olympic gold medal-winner in the 400m hurdles (Los Angeles, 1932) in a world record time of 51.7 seconds—which was not recognised under the rules at the time because he had hit a hurdle—died.
1866 The SS Great Eastern completed the laying of a transatlantic telegraph cable between Valentia Island, Co. Kerry, and Heart’s Content, Newfoundland.