Today in History

Billy "the kid," born William McCarty, commits his first murder on this day in 1877. The infamous outlaw was born in an Irish neighborhood of New York to a family who had immigrated during the famine. His mother moved his family west, where McCarty became involved with small crimes as a teenager. After getting into an argument with Irish immigrant Frank Cahill, Billy the kid … [Read more...] about August 17, 1877

The ship "Catalpa," which carried six Irish Fenians who escaped from Australia, docked in the U.S. on this day in 1876. Funded by Clan na Gael and several pardoned Fenians already in the U.S., the "Catalpa" was purchased by the organization and set sail for western Australia where Thomas Darragh, Martin Hogan, Michael Harrington, Thomas Hassett, Robert Cranston and James Wilson … [Read more...] about August 19, 1876

Forrest Reid, Irish novelist and literary critic, was born on this day in Belfast in 1875. To this day, Reid is regarded amongst the likes of J.M. Barrie and Hugh Walpole as a pre-war British boyhood novelist. His most famous work was Young Tom, for which he won a James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1944. … [Read more...] about June 24, 1875

Arctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton was born on this day in 1874 in Co. Kildare. Shackleton was the son of a privileged Anglo-Irish family originally from Yorkshire. At age 16, he left school to go to sea as an apprentice and was a certified Master Mariner by 1898. After befriending the son of the main financial backer for the National Antarctic Expedition, Shackleton was … [Read more...] about February 15, 1874

The Transcontinental Railroad was completed. The first spikes were driven in 1863 during the Civil War, and over the following 6 year period, over 2,000 miles of track was laid entirely by hand over rugged terrain including the Sierra Nevada mountains. The Central Pacific Company built East from Sacramento, while the Union Pacific built West from Omaha, Nebraska. Both teams … [Read more...] about May 10, 1869