1987 Stephen Roche, who became the first Irish rider to win the Tour de France in July that year, became the first Irish rider to win the World Professional Road Race Championship, in Villich, Austria.
1914 The Battle of the Marne began, in which the French, under General Joffre, halted the German advance. It concluded six days later with losses of c. 250,000 on both sides.
1813 Isaac Butt, barrister, writer and founder of the Irish Home Government Association (1870), born in Glenfin, Co. Donegal.
1522 Ferdinand Magellan’s ship, the Vittoria, under the command of Juan Sebastian Elcano, arrived back in Spain, minus Magellan who was killed in the Philippines the previous year, having completed the first circumnavigation of the world.
1620 The Mayflower departs on what will be its first successful voyage to North America. It arrived at Cape Cod on 21 November, bringing the so-called ‘Pilgrim Fathers’, 41 of whom had signed a compact committing themselves to establishing a new colony in what was known as New England.
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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
1920 General Tom Barry’s Cork No. 3 (West Cork) Brigade wiped out an eighteen-man Auxiliary patrol at Kilmichael, on the Macroom–Dunmanway road, Co. Cork.
1979 John Hume MEP was elected leader of the SDLP in succession to Gerry Fitt.
1990 Margaret Thatcher, Conservative prime minister of the UK since May 1979, resigned. She was succeeded by John Major.
1979 John Hume succeeded Gerry Fitt as leader of the SDLP, a position he held until 2001.
1905 The Sinn Féin movement—the name famously coined by Máire Butler, a cousin of Irish unionist leader Sir Edward Carson—was launched by Arthur Griffith with the aim of re-establishing the independence of Ireland by withdrawing from the Westminster parliament and setting up a government in Dublin.
1863 First edition of the Fenian newspaper the Irish People. Circulating chiefly in Dublin, it was suppressed by the authorities in September 1865.
1977 Following a strike (from 3 August) at the Ferenka steel cord factory in County Limerick, the plant was closed with the loss of 1,400 jobs.