Nick Maxwell

1942 Six weeks after the US entered the Second World War, the first US soldiers came ashore at Belfast’s Dufferin Quay. By May 1942 some 37,000 US servicemen were stationed in Northern Ireland. 1871 Sir Arthur Philip Du Cros, pioneer of the pneumatic tyre industry who founded the multinational Dunlop Rubber Company (1901), born in … Read more

1971 Idi Amin, British-trained commander of the Ugandan armed forces, deposed President Milton Obote. His rule (1971–9) was one of the most brutal in African history. 1917 The White Star liner Laurentic, carrying 479 passengers (mostly British Army personnel) and a secret cargo of gold bullion, struck German mines a few miles off Lough Swilly … Read more

1991 John Kelly (59), Fine Gael politician, government minister, attorney general (May–July 1987) and lawyer who wrote extensively on legal matters, notably The Irish Constitution (1980), died. 1920 Percy French (65), civil engineer, watercolourist and entertainer, died from pneumonia in Formby, Lancashire. 1986 By-elections were held for the fifteen House of Commons seats held by … Read more

1986 In Westminster by-elections forced by their resignations in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement, fourteen of the fifteen Unionist MPs regained their seats. Seamus Mallon won a seat for the SDLP. 1980 Guiseppe Conlon (57), one of the ‘Maguire Seven’ whose convictions were overturned in 1991, died in Hammersmith Hospital, London, in the fifth year … Read more

1981 Sir Norman Stronge (86), former speaker of the Stormont parliament, and his son James (48), a member of the RUC reserve, were shot dead by the IRA at their home, Tynan Abbey, close to the Armagh/Monaghan border. 1981 Sir Norman Stronge, former speaker of the Stormont parliament, and his son James were shot dead … Read more