July 30

• 1919 Detective Sergeant Pat ‘the Dog’ Smyth of G Division was assassinated in Drumcondra, Dublin, the first DMP G Division detective to die in the War of Independence. (See pp 40–3.)
• 1990 Ian Gow, Conservative MP for Eastbourne, was assassinated by the Provisional IRA, who placed a bomb under his car at his home in East Sussex.
• 1986 Leading Seaman James Magennis VC (66), from West Belfast, the only serviceman from Northern Ireland to be awarded the Victoria Cross during World War II, died.
• 1966 England won the World Cup, beating West Germany 4–2 in Wembley.
• 1914 Tsar Nicholas II ordered a full mobilisation of Russian forces. Germany demanded that Russia cease her mobilisation within 24 hours and that France announce her neutrality. The Russians failed to reply. The French refused to comply.
• 1862 Eugene O’Curry, scholar, author notably of Manners and customs of the ancient Irish (1873), died.
• 1818 Emily Bronte, author of Wuthering Heights (1847), born in Thornton, West Yorkshire.