1979 Lord Mountbatten, his nephew and a 15-year-old boy killed by an IRA bomb on their boat. That afternoon the IRA killed 18 soldiers at Narrow Water, Co. Down.
1969 The British home secretary, James Callaghan, toured troubled parts of Belfast. The following day, from an upstairs bedroom window of a house near Free Derry Corner, he made a speech by megaphone, recognising past wrongs and promising justice in the future.
1923 General election in the Irish Free State: Cumann na nGaedheal took 63 seats whilst Sinn Féin, with a policy of abstentionism, took 44.
1874 John Henry Foley (56), sculptor, notably of the O’Connell monument, Dublin, and the statue of Prince Albert for the Albert Memorial in London, 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
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.
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