1869 The Irish Church Act disestablished the Church of Ireland, a pivotal moment in the dismantling of Protestant Ascendancy.
1987 Stephen Roche became the first Irish rider to win the Tour de France.
1914 Arms and ammunition landed in Howth by Erskine Childers on the Asgard.
1956 Egyptian leader Gamel Nasser announced the immediate nationalisation of the Suez Canal.
1866 Mary Anne McCracken (96), sister of Henry Joy McCracken, revolutionary and philanthropist who championed Belfast’s poor, died.
1866 Mary Anne McCracken, revolutionary, philanthropist and sister of Henry Joy McCracken (1767–98), died.
1575 On the orders of the earl of Essex, English forces under Captain John Norris and Francis Drake massacred the Scots garrison on Rathlin Island, Co. Antrim, along with hundreds of the Clan MacDonnell—mainly women and children, including the family of the clan leader, Sorley Boy MacDonnell (c. 1505–90), who had taken refuge on the island.
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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
1972 Neil Blaney was expelled from Fianna Fáil for ‘conduct unbecoming a member of the organisation’.
1972 The Provisional IRA announced a ceasefire.
1917 The first of over one million troops of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), under General John J. ‘Black Jack’ Pershing, arrived in France.
1966 Peter Ward (18), a Catholic barman, was shot dead by the UVF in Malvern Street, off Belfast’s Shankill Road. Three members of the UVF, including Augustus ‘Gusty’ Spence, were later convicted of his murder.
1986 A referendum on making divorce available in the Irish Republic was defeated, with a vote of 63% against and 36% for, in a 62% turnout.
1996 Veronica Guerin (35), investigative journalist with the Sunday Independent, was shot dead in Dublin.
1981 The 22nd Dáil Éireann assembled. Garret Fitzgerald was elected taoiseach in a Fine Gael–Labour coalition government.
1963 US President John F. Kennedy arrived in Ireland on a four-day official visit.
1819 Sir Francis Leopold McClintock, explorer who confirmed the deaths of Sir John Franklin and his crew of 129 in an attempt to chart and navigate the Northwest Passage (1845), born in Seatown Terrace, Dundalk.
1819 Ellen Hanley (15), the celebrated ‘Colleen Bawn’, was murdered on the River Shannon by Stephen Sullivan, servant of her alleged husband, John Scanlan.