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January 08

Published in On this Day listing

1871 James Craig, Unionist politician and first prime minister of Northern Ireland, born in Sydenham, Belfast, the son of a wealthy whiskey distiller.
1979 An explosion on Whiddy Island, Bantry Bay, Co. Cork, killed 50 and destroyed the French tanker Betelgeuse.
1989 A Boeing 737, en route from Heathrow to Belfast, crashed on the M1 at Kegworth, near East Midlands Airport; 47 lost their lives.

On this Day

1969 Robert Briscoe (75), Dáil deputy for 38 years and the first Jewish lord mayor of Dublin (1956), died.
1914 The Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Ireland sank on the St Lawrence River after colliding with the Norwegian collier SS Storstad; 1,012 passengers and crew died.
1972 The Official IRA ordered a cessation of hostilities following the killing, four days earlier, of Ranger William Best while visiting his family.
1660 Charles II entered London, marking the restoration of the monarchy. He had been proclaimed king of Ireland on 14 May.
1917 John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th president of the United States (1961–3), born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the second of nine children of businessman Joe Kennedy and philanthropist/socialite Rose Fitzgerald.