On this day....april 20

[Big-Paul]

1770 - Capt Cook arrives in New South Wales

1972: Apollo 16 safely on Moon after engine crisis

1954 - Michael Manning becomes the last man to be executed by the state in the Republic of Ireland: he is hanged on this date at Mountjoy jail, Dublin, for the murder of a nurse

1991- Sean O'Faolain, writer, dies at 91; he is best known for his short stories, collected in such volumes as Midsummer Night Madness, The Man Who Invented Sin, The Heat of the Sun, and The Talking Trees (1971). Among his novels are A Nest of Simple Folk and Come Back to Erin


2001 - Two cases of suspected foot-and-mouth rock the North’s agricultural community. Stormont Minister Bríd Rodgers admits her department is concerned about symptoms in animals at Ballintoy, near Ballycastle, and in a herd at Ardboe.