… in 2001, the iPod was launched.

… in 1993 a suicide truck-bombing at Beirut International Airport in Lebanon killed 241 U.S. Marines and sailors; a near-simultaneous attack on French forces killed 58 paratroopers. The attack led Ronald ‘Hopalong’ Reagan to withdraw US troops from Lebanon.

… in 1956, the Hungarians revolted against Soviet rule, with predictable results. The USSR, taking advantage of the West’s distraction in Suez, crushed the uprising without much trouble. I was ten at the time, and I remember standing in our kitchen in Donegal listening to the news with my mother. “What will happen, Ma?” I asked. “Oh”, she replied calmly, “the Americans will help them”.