January 04

  • 1960 Albert Camus (46), Algeria-born French philosopher, writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature (1957), died in a car crash.
  • 1969 A People’s Democracy civil rights march from Belfast to Derry was violently attacked by loyalists and local members of the B Special Constabulary at Burntollet Bridge, near Claudy, Co. Derry, as an RUC force of c. 80 officers looked on. Dozens were injured.
  • 1967 Donald Campbell was killed when his jet-powered ‘Bluebird’ became airborne a split second before breaking his own water speed record on Coniston Water in the Lake District.
  • 1974 On his third day as Northern Ireland’s Chief Executive, Brian Faulkner was forced to resign as leader of the Official Unionist Party when the party rejected the establishment of a Council of Ireland under the terms of the Sunningdale Agreement.
  • 1999 The euro made its debut on European financial markets.