June 12

  • 1916 The Ulster Unionist Council agreed to accept Lloyd George’s offer of the permanent exclusion of six north-eastern counties from Home Rule.
  • 1964 The Rivonia Trial in South Africa, which had begun the previous October, concluded. Nelson Mandela and two of his co-accused were sentenced to life imprisonment.
  • 1972 Twelve prominent Irish businessmen were amongst the 118 victims when a BEA Trident crashed at Staines, Middlesex, a few minutes after taking off from Heathrow. It was Britain’s worst air disaster to date.
  • 1889 The Armagh railway disaster, the worst in Irish railway history—80 killed and almost 400 injured.
  • 1973 Six elderly people, four women and two men, including three from the same family, were killed when an IRA car bomb exploded in Coleraine, Co. Derry.