Ten Years Ago (2004): Ireland bans smoking in pubs; the Beslan massacre happened; a huge tsunami hits the Indian Ocean coasts of South-east Asia, claiming 230,000 lives. New website called “Facebook” launched.

Twenty Years Ago (1994): The Rwandan genocide; an IRA ceasefire announced after 25 years of violence; Fred West is arrested, bodies discovered underneath his house on 25 Cromwell St; Nelson Mandela becomes president of South Africa.

Thirty Years Ago (1984): Announcement that HIV virus is responsible for AIDS; Ronald Reagan visits Ireland; Ethiopian famine prompts huge international reaction; Bhopal chemical disaster in India.

Forty Years Ago (1974): Dublin and Monaghan bombings; Birmingham pub bombings; Richard Nixon resigns as US President; worst tornado outbreak in US history; Rubik’s Cube invented.

Fifty Years Ago (1964): The Beatles take America by storm, Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment; Martin Luther King wins Nobel Peace Prize; Mary Poppins is released.

Sixty Years Ago (1954): First polio mass vaccinations; first kidney transplant from a live donor; Rock and Roll begins with “Rock Around The Clock”; Alan Turing commits suicide.

Seventy Years Ago (1944): Most recent eruption of Mount Vesuvius; Normandy D-Day invasions; Warsaw Uprising; Battle of the Bulge; “Doodlebug” bombs hit London; attempted assassination of Hitler; Asperger’s Syndrome first described.

Eighty Years Ago (1934): US Dust Bowl; Bonnie and Clyde killed; Night of the Long Knives; Hitler becomes “Führer” of Germany.

Ninety Years Ago (1924): Irish language made compulsory in schools; Hitler arrested for Munich Beer Hall Putsch; Vladimir Lenin dies; last vestiges of Ottoman Empire abolished.

One Hundred Years Ago (1914): Beginning of World War I; first successful blood transfusion; Irish Home Rule bill passed; electric traffic lights first introduced.

Two Hundred Years Ago (1814): Napoleon abdicates, is exiled to Elba; British forces burn down White House in Washington; end of the War of 1812.

Three Hundred Years Ago (1714): Longitude Prize announced; End of War of the Spanish Succession; King George I of Hanover takes UK throne after Queen Anne dies.

Four Hundred Years Ago (1614): Logarithms invented by John Napier; Moriscos – Muslim descendants – expelled from Spain; Juan Rodriguez becomes first European settler in what would later become New York City.

Five Hundred Years Ago (1514): Copernicus first outlines his theory of Heliocentrism.

Six Hundred Years Ago (1414): Council of Constance begins, ending the Western Schism, where rival popes contended for supreme authority of the Catholic Church.

Seven Hundred Years Ago (1314): The Scots defeat the English in the Battle of Bannockburn; Last of the Knights Templar burned at the stake.

Eight Hundred Years Ago (1214): The Mongol Army, under Ghengis Khan, lays siege to Beijing.

Nine Hundred Years Ago (1114): A crusade is launched on the Muslim held Balearic Islands.

One Thousand Years Ago (1014): Brian Boru defeats his enemies in the Battle of Clontarf. Brian is killed in during the subsequent rout.

One Thousand One Hundred Years Ago (914): Foundation of Waterford, Ireland’s oldest city.

One Thousand Two Hundred Years Ago (814): Death of Charlemagne, first Emperor of Europe since the collapse of the Roman Empire.

One Thousand Four Hundred Years Ago (614): Persians capture Jerusalem, carry off the True Cross, the Holy Lance and the Holy Sponge. Birth of Aisha, wife of Muhammad.

Two Thousand Years Ago (14): First Roman Emperor, Augustus, dies.

Two Thousand Three Hundred Years Ago (287 BC): Archimedes of Syracuse, mathematician, engineer and possible inventor of the Antikythera Mechanism, is born.