On 12 October 1984 an assassination attempt was made by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on members of the British government, including the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. Five people were killed and more than thirty injured; Thatcher was unharmed. The bombing was a key moment in the Troubles, the conflict in Northern Ireland between unionists and republicans, which took place in the late 20th century. The IRA decided to assassinate Thatcher during the 1981 hunger strike. Three weeks before the conference, the IRA member Patrick Magee planted a long-delay time bomb in the Grand Brighton Hotel, which the IRA knew would be occupied by Thatcher. The explosion dislodged a hotel chimney stack, which crashed through several floors (damage pictured). Thatcher decided to continue the conference as normal, which reopened six and a half hours after the explosion. A partial palm print was found on Magee's room registration card and after an eight-month investigation he was sent to prison for eight life sentences.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_hotel_bombing

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1890:

The Uddevalla Suffrage Association was founded in Uddevalla, Sweden, with the purpose of bringing about universal suffrage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uddevalla_Suffrage_Association

1928:

The iron lung (example pictured), a type of medical ventilator, was used for the first time at the Boston Children's Hospital to treat an eight-year-old girl paralyzed by polio. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_lung

1933:

The United States Department of Justice acquired a military prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, to be transformed into the last-resort Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_Federal_Penitentiary

2013:

Twelve people were killed in an apartment-building collapse in Medellín, leading to new construction laws being passed in Colombia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_of_the_Space_Building

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

lass: 1. A girl; also (by extension), a young woman. 2. (specifically) A female member of the Salvation Army; a hallelujah lass. 3. (especially Geordie, Wearside) A sweetheart. 4. (Northern England, Scotland) A female servant; a maid, a maidservant. 5. (Scotland, familiar) A term of address for a woman, or a female animal. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lass

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 to the Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo. This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, is receiving the Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.   --Norwegian Nobel Committee https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norwegian_Nobel_Committee