August 13

• 1969 The British government announced that troops were being sent to Derry ‘to take all necessary steps, acting impartially between citizen and citizen, to restore law and order. Troops will be withdrawn as soon as this is accomplished. This is a limited operation.’ Taoiseach Jack Lynch, in a television broadcast, said that ‘the Irish government can no longer stand by and see innocent people injured and perhaps worse’. He announced that Irish troops and field hospitals were being moved to the border. He requested the British government to seek the despatch of a UN peacekeeping force.
• 1946 H.G. Wells (79), English writer known as the father of science-fiction, died.
• 1910 Florence Nightingale, English nurse and writer who came to prominence during the Crimean War for her pioneering work in nursing, died.