1366 – The parliament, alarmed at the apparent undermining by native influences of the settler population’s Englishness, passes the ‘Statute of Kilkenny’.

1608 – O’Doherty’s Rebellion is launched by the Burning of Derry.

1780 – Henry Grattan moves resolutions in favour of legislative independence in Irish House of Commons.

1798 – The Earl of Clare begins a 3-day visit to Trinity College, Dublin to purge United Irishmen; 19 are expelled.

1873 – Birth of Thomas Joseph Crean in Dublin. He was a rugby player and a doctor in the British Army. During the Second Boer War, he was awarded the Victoria Cross. In 1894, he was a member of the first Ireland team to win both a Home Nations Championship and a Triple Crown. Then in 1896 he helped Ireland win their second Home Nations title. His VC medal is displayed at the Army Medical Services Museum. On 1 August 2001 the South African Post Office issued a stamp featuring Crean as part of their commemorations for the Second Boer War.

1875 – Charles Stewart Parnell is elected MP for Co Meath.

1909 – Conel Hugh O’Donel Alexander, master mathematician, expert on codes, and chess champion, is born in Cork; he learns chess at the age of 8. From a Derry college he goes to King Edward’s School, Birmingham, where as a schoolboy he wins the Birmingham Post cup, which carries with it the unofficial championship of Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Going on to Cambridge, he not only wins the University championship four years in succession, but picks up first-class honours. He wins the British championship in 1938.

1912 – Titanic Inquiry Opens, four days after sinking.

1922 – In Belfast, four people were shot dead and many others injured.

1923 – Two Anti-Treaty fighters are killed in action at Kealkil, West Cork.

1958 – Birth of Denis O’Brien in Co Cork. He is a billionaire who was listed among the World’s Top 200 Billionaires in 2015 and is also Ireland’s richest native-born citizen. O’Brien owns Communicorp, a media holding company which operates across Europe, but particularly in Ireland where it dominates national radio (apart from RTÉ) via stations like Newstalk and Today FM.

1969 – Fierce rioting breaks out in Derry after the RUC ban a civil rights march from Burntollet Bridge.

1972 – Lord Widgery’s report exonerating “Bloody Sunday” troops is issued. The report said that the British troops had only returned fire after coming under attack themselves. The marchers claimed that no one was armed and the British troops opened fire without cause.

1975 – Birth of actor, Hugh Charles O’Conor, in Dublin. He started his acting career when he was ten. His first film appearance was opposite Liam Neeson in the 1985 movie, Lamb. He won Young Artist Awards of 1990 for his role in the film, My Left Foot, in which he portrayed the childhood days of Christy Brown, an Irishman born with cerebral palsy, who could control only his left foot. It was his biggest hit to date. Currently, he has two upcoming projects: Finding Fate and Operation H²O. In 2012 he appeared in the docudrama Saving The Titanic as the ship’s 2nd Engineer Jonathan Shepherd.

1997 – US Navy commissions The Sullivans, the second ship to be named after the five Sullivan brothers who perished on the USS Juneau, November 1942 during the Battle of Guadalcanal. The Sullivans were descendants of Irish immigrants.

1998 – Key members of the 32 County Sovereignty Committee, led by the sister of H-Block hunger striker, Bobby Sands, meet to draft an outright condemnation of the Good Friday peace deal.

2001 – Jenny Hegarty, a 72-year-old Dublin grandmother, takes on a host of international players and wins £10,000 at the Irish and European Open Poker Championship.

2001 – EU restrictions on farm exports due to foot and mouth are lifted one month after the Republic’s only outbreak.

2002 – Ireland’s first cash-free petrol station, Carrigdhoun Service Station, near Ballygarvan, Co Cork, opens with all business being transacted by credit card or petrol card.

2003 – The British army is called in to deal with rioting in North Belfast where up to 200 people are involved in disturbances at the junction of Limestone and Halliday Roads.

2003 – Bono surpasses competition from British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac to become Europe’s greatest hero. The U2 lead singer is picked by online voters from a list of 36 other Europeans compiled by Time magazine.

2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church following the death of Pope John Paul II. The new Pope takes on the regnal name Benedict XVI.

Photo: Coumeenole Beach, Dunquin, Co Kerry, Photo credit: Michael Corcoran

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