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January 24

Published in On this Day listing

1991 John Kelly (59), Fine Gael politician, government minister, attorney general (May–July 1987) and lawyer who wrote extensively on legal matters, notably The Irish Constitution (1980), died.
1920 Percy French (65), civil engineer, watercolourist and entertainer, died from pneumonia in Formby, Lancashire.
1986 By-elections were held for the fifteen House of Commons seats held by Unionists. Under the slogan ‘Ulster says no’, Unionist MPs had resigned their seats and used the elections as a referendum on the Anglo-Irish Agreement (November 1985); 418,230 votes were cast against the Agreement.
1966 Indira Ghandi, daughter of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlai Nehru, took office as prime minister.
1862 Myles Byrne, United Irishman who fought at Vinegar Hill in 1798 and later for France in the Napoleonic campaigns of 1804–15, died in Paris.
1973 Willie Clancy (51), acclaimed piper and folklorist, died.

On this Day

1992 The Maastricht Treaty, the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU), was signed by the then twelve member states of the European Communities. It was ratified by referendum in the Republic of Ireland in June by 69.1% to 30.9%.
1991 An IRA mortar bomb exploded in the garden of 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister John Major and his cabinet were discussing the progress of the Gulf War.
1991 The Provisional IRA fired a mortar bomb into the garden of Number 10 Downing Street, which landed less than fifteen yards from a room where Prime Minister John Major was chairing a meeting of his cabinet.
1940 Peter Barnes and James McCormack were hanged in Birmingham following their convictions for the IRA bombing in Coventry the previous August.
1867 William Dargan (68), engineer and railway-builder, who at one time employed 50,000 men on various projects, died in poverty.
1812 Charles (John Huffam) Dickens, English novelist, was born in Landport, Portsmouth, the son of a clerk in the navy pay office.
1873 Sheridan Le Fanu, writer of mysterious and spine-chilling tales, notably Uncle Silas (1864), died.
1993 The Maastricht Treaty, the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU), signed by the then twelve member states of the European Communities, came into effect.