Nick Maxwell

2008 Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest US investment bank, filed for bankruptcy, bringing the global financial system close to collapse. 1866 John Blake Dillon (50), lawyer, Young Irelander and co-founder of The Nation (1842), died from cholera. 1859 Isambard Kingdom Brunel (53), Victorian engineer, died. Brunel’s SS Great Britain—the world’s first liner to be made entirely … Read more

1982 Above: Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954). Princess Grace of Monaco (52) died, a day after suffering a stroke and crashing her car. Princess Grace, of course, was the former actress Grace Kelly, daughter of John B. Kelly Jr of Philadelphia, the affluent owner of a brickwork contracting company, and granddaughter of … Read more

1980 The Republic of Ireland and the People’s Republic of China exchanged ambassadors for the first time, with John Campbell taking up his post in Peking and Madame Gong Pusheng taking up residence in Dublin. 1969 The Cameron Commission report placed the blame for clashes between loyalists and supporters of NICRA and People’s Democracy over … Read more

1968 Denis McCullough (85), co-founder of the Dungannon Clubs (1905) with Bulmer Hobson and director of the IRB in Ulster at the time of the Easter Rising, died. 1954 Robert Smyllie, influential editor of the Irish Times, died. 1922 The Local Government Act (NI) abolished PR for local elections and required a declaration of allegiance from … Read more

1966 The Fianna Fáil minister for education, Donogh O’Malley, announced that free secondary education would be available throughout the state from the following year. 1922 Wilfred Scawen Blunt, poet, writer and anti-imperialist who was active in the Irish land agitation of the 1880s, died. 1602 ‘Red’ Hugh O’Donnell (c. 31), military leader during the Nine … Read more