1971 A 15lb. Provisional IRA bomb exploded at the Electricity Board of Northern Ireland’s offices in Belfast’, killing Harry Beggs (23), a close schoolfriend of Peter Robinson, later first minister of Northern Ireland (2008–16), and injuring 35 others. Robinson disclosed years later that it was Beggs’s death that prompted him to enter politics.
1819 Alan Pinkerton, emigrant to the United States who founded the national detective agency that bears his name, born in the Gorbals, Glasgow.
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.
1986 Hurricane Charley, one of the century’s worst storms, caused extensive damage, particularly in the east of the country.
1580 Battle of Glenmalure, Co. Wicklow. Crown forces under George Moore were heavily defeated by rebels.
