November (Samhain) 26th

 

1624 - Birth in Dublin of John Stearne, founder and first president of the College of Physicians

 

1781 - Units of Dillon's and Walshes regiments of the Irish Brigade of France help capture the island of St. Eustache.

 

1789 - George Washington proclaimed this a National Thanksgiving Day in honor of the new Constitution. He made it clear that the day should be one of prayer and giving thanks to God, to be celebrated by all the religious denominations. This date was later used to set the date for Thanksgiving.

 

1791 - First convicts from Ireland arrive in New South Wales, Australia aboard the Queen.

 

1852 - Aeneas Coffey, inventor of the Coffey Still, dies

 

1873 - Birth in Cork of Celtic scholar Osborn Joseph Bergin

 

1885 - Death of Thomas Andrews, chemist and physicist

 

1886 - Marshal Robert McGuire and Depty Marshal E. D. Henry (NM) were shot and killed as they attempted to arrest two suspects for rustling and robbery.

 

1916 - T.E. Lawrence reports on Arab affairsOn November 26, 1916, Thomas Edward Lawrence, a junior member of the British government’’s Arab Bureau during World War I, publishes a detailed report analyzing the revolt led by the Arab leader Sherif Hussein against the Ottoman Empire in the late spring of 1916.

 

1920 - Cyril Cusack, Irish actor, was born.

 

1926 - Rugby player Karl Mullen is born in Courtown Harbour, Co. Wexford

 

1932 - Deputy Warden William McConnell (NYC) was shot and killed as a prisoner attempted to escape from the Brooklyn City Prison (Raymond Street Jail).

 

1943 - Edward H "Butch" O'Hare, US pilot, lt-comdr (Chicago Airport named for him), died in battle.

 

1955 - Saor Uladh (Free Ulster) a splinter group of the IRA, attacks the police barracks in Rosslea, Co. Fermanagh

 

1972 - RTÉÉ Journalist Kevin O'Kelly is imprisoned for contempt of court arising out of an interview with then Provisional IRA chief Sééan MacStiofááin. Mr O’’Kelly had refused to identify his interviewee in court

 

1972 - Eight armed men protesting against the imprisonment of IRA leader Sean MacStiofain try to rescue him from a Dublin hospital. Police foil the attempt

 

1978 - Albert Miles, governor of the maze prison, was murdered when gunmen forced their way into his home and shot him while restraining his wife. Two men were later convicted of his murder and given life sentences.

(www.palacebarracksmemorialgarden.org/Northern%20Ireland%20Prison%20Service.htm)

 

1998 - Prime Minister Tony Blair makes a historic address to the Houses of the Oireacthas.

 

1998 - In the first speech ever by a British prime minister to an Irish parliament, Tony Blair predicted that Northern Ireland's troubled peace accord would ultimately work because of a strengthened cooperative spirit uniting Britain and Ireland.

 


2003 - Northern Ireland voted for representatives to their provincial legislature. Hard-liners defeated moderates in Northern Ireland's legislative elections.