1820 John Tyndall, physicist, mountaineer and promoter of science in the Victorian era, born in Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow.
1969 Alfred O’Rahilly (84), Professor of Mathematical Physics and president of UCC (1943–54), founder of Cork University Press and ordained priest (1955), died.
1981 Kieran Doherty (25), IRA Volunteer and TD for Cavan–Monaghan, died on the 73rd day of his hunger strike in the Maze Prison.
1969 The RUC dispersed a loyalist crowd massing at Unity Flats. Clashes began as they pushed them back to the Shankill, barricades went up, shops were looted and police cars set on fire. Fighting went on over night until B-Specials were sent in and the situation calmed down.
1914 Germany demanded of the Belgian government that they permit the free passage of German forces across her territory into northern France. Belgian neutrality had been guaranteed by Germany, France and Britain under the Treaty of London (1839). Belgium refused the German demand the following day. Around 100,000 people attended anti-war rallies across Britain, organised by the Labour Party and socialist activists.
1812 Edward Smyth, sculptor, notably of the sixteen heads symbolising the rivers of Ireland and the statue of ‘Commerce’ on Gandon’s Custom House, Dublin, 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
1972 Neil Blaney was expelled from Fianna Fáil for ‘conduct unbecoming a member of the organisation’.
1972 The Provisional IRA announced a ceasefire.
1917 The first of over one million troops of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), under General John J. ‘Black Jack’ Pershing, arrived in France.
1966 Peter Ward (18), a Catholic barman, was shot dead by the UVF in Malvern Street, off Belfast’s Shankill Road. Three members of the UVF, including Augustus ‘Gusty’ Spence, were later convicted of his murder.
1986 A referendum on making divorce available in the Irish Republic was defeated, with a vote of 63% against and 36% for, in a 62% turnout.
1996 Veronica Guerin (35), investigative journalist with the Sunday Independent, was shot dead in Dublin.
1981 The 22nd Dáil Éireann assembled. Garret Fitzgerald was elected taoiseach in a Fine Gael–Labour coalition government.
1963 US President John F. Kennedy arrived in Ireland on a four-day official visit.
1819 Sir Francis Leopold McClintock, explorer who confirmed the deaths of Sir John Franklin and his crew of 129 in an attempt to chart and navigate the Northwest Passage (1845), born in Seatown Terrace, Dundalk.
1819 Ellen Hanley (15), the celebrated ‘Colleen Bawn’, was murdered on the River Shannon by Stephen Sullivan, servant of her alleged husband, John Scanlan.