1809- After having marched 42 miles in 26 hours only a day before, Black Bob Crauford's Light Infantry Brigade had to do another 15 hours march to seize the Almaraz Bridge and secure Wellington's lines of communication between Lisbon and Spain.
1914- Russia mobilised her army. German troops massed on the French border.
1915- British positions at Hooge in the Ypres salient were attacked with flamethrowers, the first time this weapon, as we know it, was used in warfare. Hooge was an area frequently occupied by the Leinster Regiment. A crossroads near the village was called Birr Crossroads after the Offaly town that was the Leinster’s Depot.
1919- Detective Sergeant Patrick Smyth of the G Division DMP was shot by the IRA in Millmount Avenue, Drumcondra on the orders of Michael Collins. He was the first member of the Division to be shot in the War of Independence. Smyth was brought to Mater Hospital where he died on 8th September.
1920- Gen Lucas escaped from his IRA captors near Oola, Co. Limerick and was found by a passing British Army patrol. His pursuers engaged the patrol in a fight in which two soldiers died.
In Dublin, Collins Squad shot dead Frank Brooke, Director of the Great Southern and Eastern Railways and a member of Lord French's Advisory Council.
1922- Gen Eoin O’Duffy captured Bruree, Co. Limerick from the IRA.
1990- British Conservative Party MP, Ian Gow, was killed by an IRA bomb.
Births
1914- Michael Morris, better known as Lord Kilanin and famous for being President of the International Olympic Committee. His father was killed a month after his birth commanding the Irish Guards in France.
1979- Graeme McDowell, golfer, born in Portrush.
1983- Sean Dillon, footballer, born in Dublin.
Deaths
1680- Thomas Butler, Earl of Ossory. Eldest son of the Duke of Ormond, he was a high flyer in the Stuart administration after the restoration until his early death at 46.
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