ON THIS DAY
Published in Issue 4 (July/August 2017), News, Volume 25BY AODHÁN CREALEY
JULY
16/1923
Above: The Graduate (1967) was drastically cut, including the crucial seduction scene between the Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman characters.
01/1867
Thomas Francis Meagher (44), Young Irelander, soldier and latterly acting governor of Montana Territory, mysteriously disappeared from a steamer on the Mississippi.
The British North America Act established Canada as a federal dominion.
06/1917
The Battle of Aquaba resulted in the capture of the Red Sea port from the Turks by rebels advised by T.E. Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’).
09/1917
The battleship HMS Vanguard, anchored in Scapa Flow, sank after a series of internal magazine explosions. Of the 845 men on board only two survived.
10/1917
Éamon de Valera (Sinn Féin) defeated Patrick Lynch KC in the East Clare by-election.
11/1767
John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States (1825–9), born in Massachusetts, the son of John Adams, the second president (1797–1801).
16/1967
A passage and burial chamber were discovered beneath the tumulus at Knowth, Co. Meath, by a team of archaeologists led by Dr George Eogan.
17/1917
With anti-German sentiment reaching fever pitch in Britain, George V issued a proclamation changing the royal surname from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the more patriotic-sounding ‘Windsor’.
18/1817
Jane Austen (41), English novelist, author notably of Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Emma (1815), died.
19/1997
The IRA announced a restoration of its cease-fire, with a complete cessation of military operations.
25/1917
The Irish Convention, an attempt to secure a final settlement to the Home Rule question, met at Trinity College, Dublin, under the chairmanship of Sir Horace Plunkett.
31/1917
The Battle of Passchendaele (3rd Battle of Ypres), for control of the ridges south and east of the Belgian city of Ypres, began (until 10 November).
Francis Ledwidge (29), labourer and poet, was killed by a stray German shell while building a road in Boezinge, Flanders.
31/2007
‘Operation Banner’, the British Army’s 38-year role in support of the RUC in Northern Ireland, ended. During that period 763 of its personnel had lost their lives.
AUGUST
11/1858
Above: The west flank of the Eiger (in sunshine), first climbed by Irishman Charles Barrington in 1858. The infamous North Face is to the left, in the shade.
04/1927
John Dillon (75), land agitator and Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) MP (1880–1918) who made a famous speech in the House of Commons in defence of the leaders of the 1916 Rising (11 May 1916), died.
10/1917
Alderman W.T. Cosgrave (Sinn Féin) defeated John Magennis (IPP) in the Kilkenny City by-election.
12/1867
The Public Records (Ireland) Act established the Public Records Office at the Four Courts and regulated the State Paper Office in Dublin Castle.
15/1917
Jack Lynch, outstanding Gaelic footballer and hurler, leader of Fianna Fáil (1966–79) and twice taoiseach (1966–73, 1977–9), born in Shandon, Cork City.
16/1917
The Battle of Frezenberg Ridge, part of the Battle of Passchendaele. In a disastrous attack on the German strongpoint the mostly nationalist 16th (Irish) Division and the unionist 36th (Ulster) Division suffered c. 4,000 casualties.
16/1977
Elvis Presley (42), rock-and-roll singer, actor and descendant of eighteenth-century immigrant William Presley from Shillelagh, Co. Wicklow, died in Memphis, Tennessee.
17/1987
Rudolph Hess (93), German Deputy Führer (1933–41), committed suicide in Spandau Prison, West Berlin.
19/1917
Edward O’Dwyer, bishop of Limerick since 1886, best remembered for his public rebuke of General Maxwell (May 1916), died.
20/1967
Derrynane Abbey, Co. Kerry, home of Daniel O’Connell, opened as a museum.
22/1997
Brendan Smyth (70), notorious priest, died in the Curragh Prison one month into a twelve-year prison sentence for child sexual abuse.
25/1997
The McCracken Tribunal reported that former taoiseach Charles J. Haughey had received £1.3m from supermarket co-owner Ben Dunne and that his evidence, under oath, was either ‘unacceptable’ or ‘unbelievable’ on eleven different points.
31/1767
Henry Joy McCracken, United Irishman, born in High Street, Belfast.
31/1997
Diana, Princess of Wales (36), was killed in a road traffic accident in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris. Her funeral, a week later, attracted a worldwide television audience of over one billion.
