She achieved breakout international fame in Berlin under the legendary director Max Reinhardt. She was widely praised for her lead performance in George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan (1924). Her signature role was Gemma Jones in Escape Me Never. After originating the character on stages in London and Broadway, she starred in the 1935 film adaptation and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

She played the title character in The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934) and starred as Rosalind in As You Like It (1936) alongside a young Laurence Olivier. Her talent inspired prominent writers of her time. Notably, Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie wrote his final play, The Boy David (1936), specifically for her.

Following the rise of the Nazi regime in 1933, Bergner and her husband, the prominent Czech film director Paul Czinner, left Germany and resettled in London. Beyond her artistry, historical records compiled by the Jewish Women’s Archive note that she actively used her resources to help other Jewish actors escape Nazi Germany.

She spent the World War II years working on Broadway and in American cinema before returning to Europe. In her later years, she traveled back to Germany and Austria for various theatrical tours, eventually earning the prestigious Schiller Prize in 1963 for her immense contributions to German cultural life. She continued acting into the 1980s and passed away in London at the age of 88.

Front row left to right: Harry A. Longabaugh, alias the Sundance Kid; Ben Kilpatrick, alias the Tall Texan; Robert Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy. Standing: Will Carver & Harvey Logan, alias Kid Curry; Fort Worth, Texas, 1900.

The event took place at Grainger’s Pub on Great Strand Street in Dublin. A massive, lively crowd packed into the pub to cheer him on, turning the record attempt into a night of incredible “craic” (fun and entertainment). Despite his determined effort and the roaring support of the packed house, Lynch did not officially complete the challenge and failed to secure a spot in the record books.

Because Guinness is notoriously thick and filling, consuming that volume in a single sitting proved to be too grueling of a task. Even though he fell short of the official milestone, the highly publicized event cemented his name in local history. Decades later, his grand attempt is still widely celebrated and shared across social platforms alongside other famous Irish pub myths, such as the legend of “Pintman” Paddy Losty.

Mastermind Ramzi Yousef packed a rented Ryder van with roughly 1,200 to 1,500 pounds of urea nitrate explosives enhanced with hydrogen gas. His goal was to compromise the North Tower’s foundation so violently that it would collapse into the South Tower, potentially killing up to 250,000 civilians.

The explosion detonated at 12:18 p.m., tearing a crater roughly 100 to 150 feet wide and several stories deep into the basement parking structure. While the structural integrity of the buildings held, heavy smoke rushed up the elevator shafts and stairwells, trapping thousands in darkness during a grueling multi-hour rescue effort. The six casualties were local workers and Port Authority employees: John DiGiovanni, Robert Kirkpatrick, Stephen Knapp, Wilfredo Mercado, Monica Rodriguez Smith (who was pregnant), and William Macko. They are honored at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.

Investigators sifted through thousands of tons of rubble to locate a blown-apart piece of wreckage containing a vehicle identification number (VIN). The VIN was traced to a van reported stolen by Mohammed Salameh. The FBI arrested Salameh when he foolishly returned to a Jersey City rental agency to try and reclaim his $400 cash rental deposit. Ramzi Yousef fled the country but was tracked down by federal agents in Islamabad, Pakistan, in 1995. Yousef and five other co-conspirators, including the van driver Eyad Ismoil, Mahmud Abouhalima, Ahmad Ajaj, Nidal Ayyad, and Mohammed Salameh, were captured, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. One suspect, Abdul Rahman Yasin, remains at large.

The 1993 bombing serves as a historic precursor to the catastrophic attacks of September 11, 2001. Ramzi Yousef’s uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would later become the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks, executing his nephew’s original objective of bringing down the Twin Towers using commercial airplanes instead of a truck bomb.