1821 Jane Francesca Elgee, Lady Wilde, poet and writer, widely known by her pen-name, Speranza, and mother of Oscar Wilde (1856–1900), born in Dublin. 1969 Dan Breen (75), IRA veteran, the first Fianna Fáil TD to take the oath of allegiance (April 1927), died. 1997 Billy Wright (36), notorious leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force, … Read more
2004 An earthquake and tsunami with its epicentre off northern Sumatra, Indonesia, killed an estimated 227,898 in fourteen countries. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. 1591 Red Hugh O’Donnell and Henry and Art O’Neill escaped from Dublin Castle and were subsequently rescued in the Dublin mountains by Fiach MacHugh O’Byrne. … Read more
1980 Percival Arland Ussher, writer, philosopher and Irish scholar who published the first translation of Brian Merriman’s The midnight court, died. 1989 The Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed after a brief military trial. 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union. The Cold War ended the following day, … Read more
1863 William Makepiece Thackeray (52), journalist and novelist, died. Thackeray is perhaps best remembered for his panoramic social satire Vanity Fair (1848), a novel which made him as famous as Dickens, and for An Irish sketchbook (1843), an account of an extensive four-month tour that he made from July to October the previous year. Well received by his … Read more
1920 The Sinn Féin president, Éamon de Valera, returned to Ireland after an eighteen-month fund-raising tour of the United States. 1920 The Act for the Better Government of Ireland created the states of Northern Ireland (six counties) and Southern Ireland (26 counties). 1996 Sophie Toscan du Plantier (39), French film producer, was murdered outside her holiday … Read more