this day in the yesteryear: Pan Am Flight 103 Is Bombed (1988)

Pan Am Flight 103 Is Bombed (1988)

The terrorist bomb that brought down New York-bound Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killed all 259 people on board and 11 others on the ground. After a three-year investigation, US and UK authorities announced indictments against two Libyan officials in connection with the bombing. Libya finally turned over the suspects in 1999. After a nine-month trial, one of them, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Why was he released in 2009? More… Discuss

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The Irish Potato Famine

The Irish Potato Famine

By the early 1840s, nearly half of the Irish population, particularly the rural poor, depended almost entirely on the potato for sustenance. The Irish Potato Famine, which lasted from 1845 to 1849, led to the deaths of more than a million people from starvation or famine-related diseases. A watershed moment in Ireland’s demographic history, it also provoked a massive exodus, and the British government‘s minimal relief efforts worsened Anglo-Irish relations. What caused the potato crop to fail? More… Discuss

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RMS Lusitania Sunk by German U-Boat (1915)

The Lusitania was a British ocean liner that was sunk off the Irish coast—an area that the ship‘s crew had been warned to avoid—by a German U-boat during World War I. The ship’s submersion took only 18 minutes, and nearly 1,200 people died. Many questions surround the incident, including why the ship sank so quickly, what caused a secondary explosion, and whether or not the vessel was transporting contraband munitions. What did dive teams recently reveal about the ship’s cargo? More… Discuss

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