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June 19

Published in On this Day listing

1870 Charles Dickens (58), regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era, died.
1969 During his brief official visit to Ireland, General Charles de Gaulle hosted a reception in Áras an Uachtaráin for members of the McCartan Clan from County Down—descendants, like himself, of a McCartan who had fled to France in the wake of the Williamite Wars.
1631 Barbary pirates, led by Captain Matthew Rice, sacked the coastal town of Baltimore, Co. Cork, killing 47 and taking 107 men, women and children into captivity.

On this Day

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.