January 3

  • 1521 Martin Luther was excommunicated by Pope Leo X in the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem for refusing to recant some 41 sentences from his various writings.
  • 1967 John Hughes, County Tyrone-born first archbishop of the archdiocese of New York from 1850, died. Hughes laid the foundation stone of St Patrick’s Cathedral, New York (1858).
  • 1946 William Joyce (39), Nazi propagandist known as ‘Lord Haw-Haw’, was hanged for treason in Wandsworth Jail.
  • 1864 John Hughes, County Tyrone-born first archbishop of the archdiocese of New York from 1850, died. Hughes laid the foundation stone of St Patrick’s Cathedral, New York (1858).
  • 1984 Michael Mills, former political correspondent of the Irish Press, took up office as Ireland’s first Ombudsman.