August 9

  • 1971 Internment was introduced by the Stormont government with the arrest of 342 men, of whom 226 were detained. Thirteen lives were lost that day during widespread violence, particularly in West and North Belfast.
  • 1920 The Restoration of Order in Ireland Act extended the terms of the Defence of the Realm Act (1914) to allow the authorities to impose curfews, restrict movement of traffic, establish military courts of inquiry to replace coroners’ inquests, and provide for trial of civilians by court martial and imprisonment of Sinn Féiners on suspicion.
  • 1971 Internment without trial was introduced in Northern Ireland. In the violence that followed, 22 were killed over a four-day period, including eleven by the Parachute Regiment in Ballymurphy, West Belfast, in what has become known as the ‘Ballymurphy massacre’.
  • 1969 The actress Sharon Tate was murdered along with four others in her Hollywood home, which she shared with her husband, the director Roman Polanski, by followers of Charles Manson.