We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades in arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations.—”Poblacht na hÉireann”

The Easter Rising began 100 years ago today and lasted five days.

Seven men—Thomas J. Clarke, Seán Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, P. H. Pearse, Éamonn Ceannt, James Connolly, and Joseph Plunkett—printed and signed a document headed “Poblacht na hÉireann” (Republic of Ireland), which declared Ireland’s independence from the United Kingdom. Although the independence movement possessed a force of more than 1000 insurgents, the far larger British Army suppressed the uprising after a week. After the uprising was put down, the seven signatories were court-martialed and executed, but the movement toward a free and independent Republic of Ireland was born. It took years to achieve.

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The Armenian Genocide started on this date in 1915.

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The Woolworth Building, for two decades the tallest building in the world and still one of the tallest in New York City, opened 103 years ago today.

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Bud Abbott died on this date in 1974. Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, died 30 years ago today.

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Willem de Kooning was born on this date in 1904. Robert Penn Warren was born in 1905 on this date.

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Shirley MacLaine is 82 today. John Barbour is 82. Sue Grafton is 76 today. Barbra Streisand is 74 today. Jean Paul Gaultier is 64. Eric Bogosian is 63. Mumia Abu-Jamal is 62 today. Michael O’Keefe is 61. Cedric The Entertainer is 52. Kelly Clarkson is 34. Lydia Ko is 19.

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