Nick Maxwell

1878 Paul Cullen, Ireland’s first cardinal and the principal architect of modern Catholicism in Ireland, died.

1921 John Dunlop (81), Scottish-born veterinary surgeon based in Belfast, who invented the pneumatic tyre (1887) in response to his son’s plea to make his solid-tyred bicycle go faster, died. 1960 Seamus MacManus (91), poet, historian and novelist, died. His wife, the writer Ethna Carbery, died suddenly just a year after their marriage (1902). 1969 … Read more

1966 The British spy George Blake was sprung from Wormwood Scrubs prison by Limerickman Seán Burke. 1935 Sir Edward Carson, Unionist leader, died. 1641 The Rising in Ulster began when Sir Phelim O’Neill took over Charlemont Fort, Co. Armagh. 1811 Franz Liszt, international piano virtuoso, inventor of the master class and prolific composer, born in … Read more

1966 One hundred and forty-four died—116 children and 28 adults—when a landslide of coal slag demolished a school and houses in the village of Aberfan, Merthyr Valley, South Wales. 1805 The Royal Navy, under Admiral Horatio Nelson, heavily defeated a combined Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, off the south-west coast of Spain. On … Read more

1870 Michael Balfe (62), composer who wrote several operas for performance at Drury Lane, most famously The Bohemian Girl (1843), died. 1999 Jack Lynch, outstanding Gaelic footballer and hurler, leader of Fianna Fáil (1966–79) and taoiseach (1966–73, 1977–9), died. 1986 General Michael J. Costello, colonel commandant in the National Army during the Civil War (1922–3) at the … Read more