971- The clergy of Winchester tried to move the body of St Swithin to a shrine inside the Old Minster from the grave in which he was interred in 862. Swithin had decreed that he be buried outside next to his church where the rain could fall on his grave and his people walk on it. As a sign of his displeasure the saint made it rain for 40 days and nights and ever since we have believed that if it rains on St Swithin's day it will do so for the following 40 days also.
1940- The Irish merchant ship City of Limerick was sunk by aircraft off Cape Ushant in the Bay of Biscay. Two sailors died. They were Hugh Brennan from Dublin and John Sullivan from Liverpool.
Births
1899- Sean Lemass was born in Dublin. He was leader of Fianna Fáil and Taoiseach from 1959 to 1966.
1919- Iris Murdoch, author. Born Dublin.
1943- Jocelyn Bell, astrophysicist, was born in Belfast. She co-discovered the first radio pulsars in July 1968.
Deaths
1927- Countess Constance de Markievicz died.
1942- Wing Commander Brendan Finucane, RAF, from Dublin, from was shot down and killed off the French coast. "Paddy" Finucane was the RAF's youngest ever Wing Commander at 21 years of age. He had 32 kills to his credit.
1967-PFC John Collopy from Limerick was killed in Vietnam serving with the 4th Inf Div, US Army.
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