1769 Arthur Wellesley, 1st duke of Wellington (‘the Iron Duke’), soldier, politician and prime minister (1828–30), born at Mornington House, 24 Upper Merrion Street, Dublin, the fourth son of Garrett Wellesley, 1st earl of Mornington. 1917 Following the disaster of the second Battle of the Aisne that month, almost half of the French infantry divisions … Read more
1822 Ulysses Simpson Grant, general in the Union army and 18th president of the United States (1869–77), born in Ohio. 1521 Ferdinand Magellan (c. 40), Portuguese navigator, was killed by natives on the island of Mactan in the Philippines during the first circumnavigation of the Earth. 1920 The IRA attacked the RIC station at Ballylanders, … Read more
1937 During the Spanish Civil War, the Basque town of Guernica, a bastion of Republican resistance, was pounded by the German Condor Legion with high-explosive bombs and at least 3,000 incendiary bombs. Over 1,600 people were killed in the subsequent firestorm. 1900 Queen Victoria concluded her final, three-week visit to Ireland, the purpose of which … Read more
1922 Commandant O’Neill, 3rd Cork Brigade IRA, was shot dead at the home of a Protestant family in Bandon, Co. Cork. In a series of unattributed reprisals, thirteen Protestant civilians were shot dead in the surrounding area over the following four days. 1920 RIC Sergeant Cornelius Crean, brother of the explorer Tom Crean, was killed by … Read more
1951 Enda Kenny, TD for Mayo West (1975–97) and Mayo (1997–2020), leader of Fine Gael (2002–17) and taoiseach (2011–17), born in Derrycoosh, Islandeady, near Castlebar, Co. Mayo. 1945 During the last week of the Second World War, the Monmouth Coast, an unescorted steamship en route from Sligo to Liverpool with a cargo of barytes ore … Read more