August 14, 2019: A look back at what happened on this day in years gone by

We take a trip down memory lane and check out what happened on this day in years gone by by looking back at some Irish Examiner front pages and highlighting other events which went down in history across the world.

August 14 - 50 years ago

August of 1969 was a month of events in Northern Ireland which have echoed down through history. August 13 of that year was no different and led to one of the most iconic broadcasts ever made by an Irish taoiseach.

The following day, The Cork Examiner, dedicated much of its front page to the broadcast where then taoiseach Jack Lynch called on the British government to request a peace keeping force from the United Nations. He said the Northern Ireland government was no longer in control of the situation in the province and that the Irish Army had set up field hospitals along the border.

In a now iconic and often misquoted broadcast, Mr Lynch said:

It is clear now that the present situation cannot be allowed to continue. It is evident also that the Stormont government is no longer in control of the situation. Indeed, the present situation is the inevitable outcome of the policies pursued for decades by successive Stormont governments. It is clear also that the Irish Government can no longer stand by and see innocent people injured and perhaps worse.

Such was the enormity of the events and the intervention by Mr Lynch, the Examiner dedicated an entire front page to the broadcast.

20 years ago

On August 14, 1999, the Examiner had happier news announcing that one of Ireland’s greatest ever athletes Sonia O’Sullivan was making a return to racing after becoming a new mother — and talking about how nervous she felt to be leaving her month-old daughter even for a couple of hours of training.

Another Cork sporting icon had Manchester United fans holding their breaths as Roy Keane pondered whether to stay with the Red Devils or make a lucrative move to Juventus.

He decided not to make the move to the Italian giants.

10 years ago

The recession was in full swing 10 years ago today, but there was good news for the cash strapped on the Examiner front page that the cost of living was falling at the fastest rate in seven decades — and a prediction that the price of food and clothing would continue to plummet.

Katie Taylor also had reason to cheer after the International Olympic Committee cleared the way for women to box at London 2012. The Bray boxer subsequently brought home the gold medal in those games.

5 years ago

Ireland had another fight on its hands on August 14, 2014, as tobacco producing nations were threatening to challenge this country’s move to outlaw branded tobacco packaging. A constitutional challenge was expected as well as complaints to the World Trade Organisation.

On the same day, this newspaper reported on novel Air Accidents Investigation Branch report. A captain on Flybe flight from Birmingham with 47 passengers onboard lost control of the plane as it was coming into land in Belfast — because his artificial arm became detached from the yoke clamp. Thankfully no one was hurt.

Last year

This time last year, the Examiner reported that we have become overly dependent on state payouts with almost every person in the country benefiting directly or indirectly from some form of social welfare payment.

A report for the Department of Finance said we rely too much on “monetary social transfers” to address social inequalities.

Across the world on this day ...

Notable moments

1040 King Duncan of Scotland was murdered by Macbeth, according to Shakespeare’s play. In reality, Macbeth killed Duncan in battle before taking the crown.

1777 Danish scientist Hans Christian Oersted, discoverer of electromagnetism, was born.

1888 The demonstration in London of Thomas Edison’s phonograph included an audio recording of Arthur Sullivan’s composition, ‘The Lost Chord’.

1908 The world’s first international beauty contest was held at the Pier Hippodrome at Folkestone, England.

1917 China declared war on Germany and Austria during the First World War.

1930 The Church of England gave a cautious go-ahead for the use of birth control, following weeks of debate by the bishops. However, the Archbishop of Canterbury called for strict controls over the sale and advertising of contraceptives.

1945 Japan accepted the Allies’ terms of unconditional surrender, ending the Second World War.

1947 Pakistan came into existence, satisfying demands for a separate Muslim state on the eve of India’s independence from British rule. Muhammad Ali Jinnah became its first prime minister.

1948 Australian cricket star Don Bradman began his final test cricket match in London.

1949 Konrad Adenauer was appointed as the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.

1951 William Randolph Hearst, influential US newspaper owner and publisher, died. Orson Welles’s film Citizen Kane was based on the life of Hearst.

1969 British troops arrived in Northern Ireland to intervene in the sectarian violence that originated in the Catholic Bogside district of Derry between Protestants and Catholics. The ensuing conflict claimed the lives of more than 3,500 people.

1988 Enzo Ferrari, Italian racing pioneer and sports car builder, died at his home in Modena aged 90.

1989 PW Botha resigned as president of South Africa.

1992 Judge John Sirica, a central figure in the Watergate scandal, died. He ordered President Nixon to hand over his White House tapes.

1996 The National Party, the architects of South African apartheid, moved to the opposition benches for the first time in 48 years.

1997 Californian model Kelly Fisher issued a writ against millionaire Dodi Fayed over his romance with Princess Diana, claiming Fayed was engaged to her.

1999 US presidential hopeful George W Bush faced an awkward grilling from the press over whether he had ever taken cocaine; he finally admitted to using drugs in his youth but said he had taken no illegal drugs in the last 25 years.

2001 Israeli tanks and bulldozers rumbled into the West Bank town of Jenin and razed a police building in the most far-reaching raid into Palestinian-ruled territory since the Oslo peace accords were signed in 1993.

2003 A major power blackout hit the northeastern US and Canada, leaving around 50 million people without electricity for up to two days.

2003 France declared a medical state of emergency amid a record heatwave which ultimately caused 14,800 heat-related deaths in France alone, with many more across much of Europe.

2007 The Sea Stallion, a 30-metre-long replica Viking vessel, arrived in Dublin, Ireland, after completing the first half of a two-year round trip from Roskilde in Denmark. The Vikings settled in Ireland from 841 onwards and the original Sea Stallion was built in Dublin around 1,000 years ago.

2010 US President Barack Obama staunchly defended controversial plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City. Many were bitterly opposed to the construction of an Islamic cultural centre and mosque close to the site of the destroyed Twin Towers, but Obama, while acknowledging “sensitivities” concerning the 9/11 site, said that America’s “commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable”.2015 The US flag was raised outside the newly reopened embassy in Havana, Cuba, in a ceremony attended by Secretary of State John Kerry, further easing of 50 years of strained relations between the two nations