1941 Sixteen soldiers were killed in an explosion while conducting tests with anti-tank mines in the Glen of Imaal, Co. Wicklow—the worst disaster in the annals of the Irish Defence Forces.
1968 African-American athletes Tommie Smith and Juan Carlos raised black-gloved fists as the Star-Spangled Banner played during their medal ceremony at the Olympic Games in Mexico City. The gesture was not a ‘Black Power’ salute, Smith later declared, but a ‘human rights salute’.
1964 Harold Wilson (Labour) became British prime minister.
1859 John Brown, American abolitionist, with 21 followers seized the US armoury at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.
1854 Oscar Wilde born in Dublin.
1888 Birth of playwright and Nobel laureate Eugene O’Neill in New York. He is best known for the epic (and autobiographical) Long day’s journey into night, depicting the travails of a ‘lace-curtain’ Irish-American family.
