Today in History, April 10th
The Good Friday Agreement was signed in Belfast on April 10, 1998. Plus the Titanic's departure and the first image of a black hole.
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April 10 is best known for 1998, when the Good Friday Agreement was signed in Belfast, setting up a new power-sharing government for Northern Ireland. The date also saw the Titanic leave Southampton on its maiden voyage in 1912 and astronomers release the first image of a black hole in 2019.
The big story: The Good Friday Agreement is signed (1998)
Northern Ireland had spent decades in a violent standoff between communities who wanted to stay in the United Kingdom and those who wanted a united Ireland. Multiparty peace talks had restarted in June 1996, and on April 10, 1998, which happened to be Good Friday, the British and Irish governments and several of Northern Ireland’s political parties reached a deal in Belfast. The agreement rested on three strands. Northern Ireland would get its own elected Assembly and an executive that shared power across the divide. The two parts of the island would cooperate through new cross-border bodies. London and Dublin would keep consulting each other. Voters on both sides of the border approved the deal on May 22, 1998, in the first all-Ireland vote since 1918, with 71% support in Northern Ireland and 94% in the Republic. Ireland later amended its constitution to drop its claim to the whole island.
More events on April 10
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1815 | Mount Tambora in what is now Indonesia erupted. The disaster ultimately killed more than 100,000 people. |
| 1849 | Walter Hunt patented the safety pin, then sold the rights for $400. |
| 1866 | Henry Bergh founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York City. |
| 1912 | The Titanic left Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage, bound for New York City. |
| 1919 | Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata was ambushed and killed by government forces in Morelos. |
| 1925 | F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was published, to mixed reviews and slow early sales. |
| 1942 | The Bataan Death March began in the Philippines, as Japanese forces marched captured Filipino and American soldiers to a prison camp. |
| 1963 | The nuclear submarine USS Thresher sank in the Atlantic, and all 129 people aboard were lost. |
| 1970 | Paul McCartney announced he was taking a break from the Beatles while promoting his first solo album. |
| 1971 | A U.S. table tennis team arrived in communist China, an early step toward warmer U.S.-China relations. |
| 1975 | Lee Elder became the first Black golfer to play in the Masters. |
| 2019 | Astronomers with the Event Horizon Telescope released the first image of a black hole, at the center of the galaxy M87, about 55 million light-years away. |
Born on April 10
- 1583: Hugo Grotius, Dutch jurist often called the father of international law, born in Delft.
- 1847: Joseph Pulitzer, newspaper publisher who helped shape the modern American newspaper, born in Makó, Hungary.
- 1932: Omar Sharif, actor in Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, born in Alexandria, Egypt.
Sources
- Good Friday Agreement, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- What happened on April 10, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- This Day in History: April 10, History.com
- Titanic, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Astronomers capture first image of a black hole, Event Horizon Telescope
- Hugo Grotius, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Joseph Pulitzer, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Omar Sharif, Encyclopaedia Britannica
