January 5

  • 1922 Sir Ernest Shackleton (47), explorer, died suddenly in South Georgia as he prepared to lead a fourth expedition to the Antarctic.
  • 1989 John A. Costello (84), taoiseach in the first two interparty governments, mainly remembered for the declaration of the Republic of Ireland (1948) and the Mother and Child Scheme controversies, died.
  • 1976 A day after the murder of five Catholics in the area, the IRA murdered ten Protestant factory workers at Kingsmills, near Bessbrook, Co. Armagh.
  • 1976 John A. Costello (84), barrister, attorney general of Ireland (1926–32) and taoiseach (1948–51, 1954–7), died.
  •  1957 In what became known as the ‘Eisenhower Doctrine’, President Dwight D. Eisenhower promised military or economic aid to any Middle Eastern country needing help in resisting communist aggression.
  •  1953 Twenty-seven people were killed when a BEA Viking aircraft crash-landed just short of the runway at Nutt’s Corner (Belfast) airport.
  • 1922 Sir Ernest Shackleton, polar explorer, died suddenly in South Georgia as he prepared to lead a fourth expedition to the Antarctic.
  • 1973 Gerald Boland (87), co-founder of Fianna Fáil, who, as minister for justice (1939–48), was vilified by republicans for interning hundreds of IRA members, died.