1327 The accession of King Edward III. During his long reign of 50 years (the second longest in medieval England) he transformed the country into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe and saw vital developments in legislation and government, in particular the evolution of the English Parliament.
1533 The Bishop of Lichfield secretly married King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn,the second of Henry's six wives. She had ten days previously discovered that she was pregnant.
1554 Sir Thomas Wyatt gathered an army of 4000 men in Kent at the start of his rebellion against Queen Mary. His fellow conspirators were timid and inept and he eventually surrendered. He was executed and his body 'quartered' on 11th April.
1759 The birth of Robert Burns,Scotland’s national poet. His birthday is celebrated as ‘Burns Night’ by Scotsmen all over the world. Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland often revising or adapting them. His poem (and song) Auld Lang Syne is often sung on New Year's Eve or Hogmanay as it's known in Scotland.
1858 Mendelssohn's Wedding March was first played at the wedding of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Victoria and Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia.
1899 The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company began manufacture of the first radio sets at Chelmsford.
1911 The Daily Herald was launched. It was the first newspaper to sell two million copies.
1919 The founding of The League of Nations,forerunner of the United Nations. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace.
1924 1st Winter Olympic Games open in Chamonix, France.
1971 Charles Manson & 3 women followers convicted of Tate-LaBianca murders.
1979 1st documented case of a robot killing a human in US.
1980 Paul McCartney is released from Tokyo jail & deported.
1981 ‘The Gang of Four’ (Roy Jenkins, Dr. David Owen, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers) split from the British Labour party to form the Social Democrats.
1989 Actor John Cleese won damages for libel at the High Court over an article in the Daily Mirror, which claimed he had become like Basil Fawlty in his comedy series Fawlty Towers.
1990 The so called Burns' Day Storm occurred on this day over north-western Europe, and was one of the strongest storms on record. It started on the birthday of poet Robert Burns lasted for two days,caused widespread damage and was responsible for 97 deaths.
1999 Supernatural horror film "The Blair Witch Project" premieres at the Sundance Film festival.
2013 Thorpe Park ordered experts to redesign its £20m new rollercoaster 'The Swarm', due to open on 15th March after dummies lost limbs during dry run tests.
After being sent off In a Premier League match at Crystal Palace Eric Cantona launched a king-fu attack on Palace 'fan' Matthew Simmonds.He narrowly escaped going to prison for the attack but did receive an 8-month playing ban.
1340 English king Edward III proclaimed king of France.
1666 France declares war on England & Munster.
1748 Britain, Netherlands, Austria & Sardinia sign anti-French treaty.
1788 The British First Fleet led by Arthur Phillip sailed into Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) to establish Sydney the first permanent European settlement on the continent. 26th January is now commemorated as Australia Day.
1823 The death of Edward Jenner the pioneer of smallpox vaccine. Sometimes referred to as the 'Father of Immunology'; it's been said that his work 'saved more lives than the work of any other man'.
1841 Hong Kong was proclaimed British sovereign territory.
1871 The Rugby Football Union was formed in London by an initial 20 clubs.
1905 World's largest diamond, the 3,106-carat Cullinan, is found in South Africa. The largest ever diamond was discovered at a mine in Pretoria by Frederick Wells a surface manager at the Premier No. 2 mine in Cullinan, Transvaal Colony (now South Africa). Just over ten years before the Excelsior Diamond had been discovered at the Jagersfontein Mine in South Africa it was the largest but the Cullinan was three times the size.
Cullinan was 4 inches long,2.5 in wide,2.3 in deep and weighed 3,106 carats (621.2 grams). After its discovery it went on display at the Standard Bank in Johannesburg before being sent to London.
To avoid attempted robberies detectives were put on board a steamboat believed to be carrying the diamond to London and was ceremoniously locked in the captain's safe. This was a diversion as the diamond on board was a fake and Cullinan was sent to England on regular standard post in a box.
The diamond however went unsold for two years.The Transvaal Colony ended up buying the diamond on behalf of King Edward VII for a price of £150,000 (£15 million in 2016). It was then presented to the king who chose the Asscher Brothers in Amsterdam to cut the diamond for him. Nine diamonds were cut two are part of the Crown Jewels and the remainder are owned privately by the UK sovereign.
1907 A riot broke out in the Abbey Theatre Dublin on the first night of J.M. Synge’s Playboy of the Western World,when the audience took offence at the ‘foul language’. The riots continued for a week but the show went on heavily guarded by police.
1907 The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III was officially introduced into British Military Service.Its name comes from the designer of the rifle's bolt system, James Paris Lee and the factory in which it was designed the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield.
1908 The 1st Glasgow Boy Scout group the first Scout group ever was registered. Today there are nearly 32 million members in 218 countries and territories and the movement is still growing. In the UK, the total membership is over 500,000.
1926 John Logie Baird gave a special public demonstration of television to members of the Royal Institution in London. Baird's invention used mechanical rotating disks to scan moving images into electronic impulses.
1942 World War II: The first United States forces arrived in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
1962 US launches Ranger 3, it misses the Moon by 22,000 miles.
1968 The National Provincial Bank and the Westminster Bank merged to form the National Westminster (NatWest).
1970 "Bridge over Troubled Water" 5th and final studio album by Simon & Garfunkel is released.
1979 "The Dukes of Hazzard" premieres on US TV network CBS.
1982 Conservative Prime Minister Mrs. Thatcher was elected in 1979 on the slogan 'Labour isn't working', yet the number of people out of work in Britain rose above three million for the first time since the 1930s.
1986 The Sunday Times and News of the World were printed at Wapping for the first time as the nation's presses moved away from Fleet Street.
1994 A protester fired two blank shots from a starting pistol at Prince Charles the Prince of Wales,as he prepared to speak at an Australia Day rally in Sydney.
2010 The World Health Organization rejects claims that it overstated the severity of the swine flu pandemic under pressure from vaccine companies.
2014 The Mayor of London Boris Johnson was named Honorary Australian of the Year for displaying 'archetypal Aussie characteristics in abundance'.
2014 Police stopped a learner driver for speeding on the M62 in West Yorkshire. She was accompanied only by her pet parrot. 'Since parrots are not allowed to supervise learner drivers her vehicle has been seized,' police tweeted.
1998 President Bill Clinton says "I want to say one thing to the American people; I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky".
January 26, 1998 — President Bill Clinton called a news conference at the White House on this day and abruptly denied that he had had sexual relations with a 22-year-old aide Monica Lewinsky. He left the room without answering any questions after his brief but categorical denial.
The issue would not go away and resulted in political humiliation for both Clinton himself and for his wife Hillary when she ran for the presidency in 2016. Her husband’s sexual transgressions were repeatedly raised by rival Donald Trump in a notoriously bitter election campaign.
For Bill Clinton the seeds were sown in July 1995 when Lewinsky became an unpaid summer intern at the White House. She moved to a paid position in December of that year.
Between then and March 1997 she said in a later statement,she had nine sexual encounters with President Clinton,including sexual acts – though not actual intercourse – in the Oval Office.
As rumours of the affair began to circulate and Clinton came under intense media scrutiny,independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr stepped up an investigation into the President’s activities.Soon Clinton was accused of asking Lewinsky to lie about the relationship.
At the White House Press conference an emotional President his voice trembling and fist clenched declared: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.
"I never told anybody to lie,not a single time,never.
"These allegations are false and I need to get back to work for the American people."
Hillary Clinton the First Lady said she was standing by her husband and was said to be “in fighting mood.”
However after repeatedly denying an inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky the President finally acknowledged the affair in a televised speech to a grand jury in August – six months after his strenuous denial. But he insisted that because certain acts were performed on him,not by him,he did not engage in sexual relations.
A month later Kenneth Starr's 445-page report on his investigation into the President was studied by the House Judiciary Committee which then proposed four articles of impeachment.
Clinton was only the second president in American history to face such an indictment – the first was Andrew Johnson in 1868.
Having refused to resign Clinton’s trial began on 7 January 1999 and ended on 12 February. A move to remove him from office failed to gain the necessary backing and senators voted to acquit him of the impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
After leaving the White House Monica Lewinsky became active in a number of fields.She designed a line of handbags bearing her name which were successful for a while,she led an advertising campaign for a diet plan and she became a television personality.
In 2005 she moved to London and studied for a degree in social psychology. By 2014 she had become known as a social activist speaking out against cyberbullying.
But she will be forever associated with President Bill Clinton. Among the millions watching what became known as the Lewinsky Affair unfold over those agonising months for the Clintons was a billionaire businessman in New York, a man at that time without any known political ambitions – Donald Trump.
The Football Pools were a far more important part of life in the 1960s than they are now and the postponements caused by the freezing winter weather from December 1962 caused havoc with the Pools in the 1962/63 season. After three Saturdays in succession when the coupons were declared void the 'Pools Panel' came into being. The first panel of experts consisted of four former players (Ted Drake, Tom Finney, Tommy Lawton and George Young) and a former ref (Arthur Ellis) and determined the results for four more Saturdays and became a regular feature in the winters to come. In their first Saturday of deliberations, January 26th 1963, the chairman of the Panel, Lord Brabazon, declared seven draws, 23 home wins and eight away wins.
Football On This Day - 26th January 1993.
A Tuesday night in January is probably never going to be the easiest date to fill a football ground but on Tuesday 26th January 1993 one of those did-it-really-happen records was set. Just 3,039 turned up at Selhurst Park for the Premier League match between Wimbledon and Everton - the lowest ever Premier crowd.
1591 The death of Dr. John Fian a Scottish schoolmaster and purported sorcerer from Prestonpans. He and other witches were arrested and extensively tortured (including having his fingernails removed with wooden splints placed into the wounds) by order of King James VI. The events became known as the North Berwick witch trials. 'On This Day' he was finally taken to Castlehill in Edinburgh placed in a cart, strangled and burnt.
1606 The trial of Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators began. They were charged with treason for attempting to blow up the Houses of Parliament in November 1605.
1671 Pirate Henry Morgan lands at the gates of Panama City.
1832 The birth of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (‘Lewis Carroll’), the English mathematician and keen photographer who wrote Alice in Wonderland.
1868 E.D. Young reported to the Royal Geographical Society that Dr. Livingstone, the British explorer and missionary in Africa, was still alive.
1880 Thomas Edison patents electric incandescent lamp.
1918 "Tarzan of the Apes", 1st Tarzan film, premieres at Broadway Theatre.
1944 Siege of Leningrad lifted by the Soviets after 880 days and more than 2 million Russians killed.
1945 The ****' biggest concentration camp at Auschwitz in south-western Poland was liberated. The millions killed during the Holocaust are remembered each year in services across the UK, as part of Holocaust Memorial Day.
1948 1st tape recorder sold.
1956 "Heartbreak Hotel" single released by Elvis Presley his first million-selling single.
1967 The Beatles sign a 9 year worldwide contract with EMI records.
1976 Viv Richards scores his 1st Test century against Australia.
1981 Rupert Murdoch's bid to buy 'The Times' and 'Sunday Times' was given the go ahead without the investigation usually required by the Monopolies Commission.
1983 Seikan Tunnel the world's longest tunnel with an underwater segment (34 miles in total) opens connecting Honshu-Hokkaido.
1984 Michael Jackson is burned during filming for Pepsi commercial.
1992 Mike Tyson goes on trial for rape.
1992 Presidential candidate Bill Clinton & Genifer Flowers accuse each other of lying over her assertion they had a 12-year affair.
1993 Mrs. Thatcher told journalist Woodrow Wyatt that she thought most of the members of the House of Lords were so useless that the Lords needed to be reformed.
1993 Veronica Bland became the first passive smoking worker in the UK to win compensation for damage to her health at work when she agreed to a settlement of £15,000 from Stockport Council in a personal injury claim.
1995 Manchester United's Eric Cantona was fined £20,000 and a football ban over his kung fu-style attack on a fan.
2001 The first Holocaust Memorial Day was held in Britain on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops. The Holocaust resulted in the annihilation of 6 million European Jews and millions of others by the Nazi regime.
2003 Tony Blair and George Bush held talks at Camp David (the country retreat of the President of the United States) and vowed to hound Saddam Hussein for 'as long as it takes' to drive him from power.
2008 Australian Open Men's Tennis: Novak Đoković beats Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 to become first Serbian player to win a Grand Slam title.
2013 Australian Open Men's Tennis: Novak Đoković wins Open era record 4th Australian crown; beats Andy Murray of Scotland 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-2.
2019 Australian Open Men's Tennis: Novak Đoković of Serbia wins his record 7th Australian singles title; beats Spaniard Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.
Liverpool's Jamie Carragher was hit by a coin thrown from the crowd in an FA Cup tie against Arsenal at Highbury. He threw it back into the crowd for which he was red-carded followed by a police warning, £40,000 club fine and three-match FA ban.
Football On This Day - 27th January 2008.
Manchester City fans unexpectedly helped opponents Sheffield United to a 2-1 FA Cup victory at Bramall Lane on this day in 2008. City fans caused the problem when they released blue and white balloons into the Manchester City penalty area. An early cross into the City penalty area saw the ball hit a couple of balloons before nutmegging Michael Ball and leaving a straightforward goal for Sheffield United's Luton Shelton. If being knocked out of the cup by a balloon was bad enough when the City players got back to the dressing room they found that thieves had made off with £2000 of their cash.
You probably couldn't think of anything more sedate to do as the grey hairs take over - walking football. Similar rules as the normal football but for the over 50s and played at a walking pace. But in January 2016 when Canterbury Walking Football Club played Herne Bay Walking Football Club - players were aged up to 70 - the outcome was a tad surprising. Within five seconds there was a 'robust' shoulder charge followed soon after by a 'crunching tackle' which was followed by a brawl which included the ref. The match was abandoned after just two minutes, proving that there is life after 50.
1457 The birth of Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty in England. Henry won the throne when he defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field.He was the last king of England to win his throne on the field of battle and he restored order after the Wars of the Roses.
1547 The death of Henry VIII, exactly 90 years after the birth of his father Henry VII. His nine year old son Edward VI succeeded him and became the first Protestant ruler of England.
1596 Sir Francis Drake died from dysentery aboard his ship off Porto Bello. His exploits were legendary making him a hero to the English but a pirate to the Spaniards. It's claimed that King Philip II of Spain offered a reward of 20,000 ducats, (equivalent to £4,000,000 in today's money) for Drake's life.
1671 British pirate Henry Morgan captures Panama City from its Spanish defenders.
1813 The novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was first published. It follows Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with the issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England.
1829 The public hanging of Irish body-snatcher William Burke in Edinburgh. Burke and his accomplice William Hare sold the corpses of their 17 victims to provide material for dissection to Doctor Robert Knox. Hare was offered immunity from prosecution if he confessed and if he testified against Burke. After Burke was hanged he was publicly dissected at the Edinburgh Medical College.
1841 The birth in Denbigh,of Sir Henry Morton Stanley (born John Rowlands), Welsh journalist and explorer famous for his exploration of Africa. His mother abandoned him as a very young baby and he was eventually sent to St. Asaph Union Workhouse for the Poor. The New York Herald sent him to Africa in search of Dr. Livingston,upon finding Livingstone,Stanley allegedly uttered the now-famous greeting, 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume?'
1855 The first locomotive runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean on the Panama Railway.
1887 Work begins on the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
1896 Walter Arnold of Kent was the first British motorist to receive a speeding fine,for exceeding 2 mph in a built-up area. He was doing 8 mph as he passed the house of the local policeman. The constable gave chase on his bicycle and after a 5 mile chase Mr. Arnold was arrested. He was fined one shilling for his offence.
1951 "La Vie Commence Demain" the 1st X-rated movie, depicting artificial insemination, opens in London.
1953 19 year-old Derek Bentley was hanged at Wandsworth Prison. On 2nd November 1952, he and 16-year-old Christopher Craig were attempting to rob a confectioner’s warehouse in Croydon when they were caught by police. It was alleged that Bentley urged Craig to fire his gun,injuring one policeman and killing another. Both boys were found guilty of murder. Craig, too young to hang was imprisoned while Bentley was sentenced to death despite considerable public protest.
1956 Elvis Presley's 1st appearance on national TV on the Dorsey Brothers's "Stage Show".
1958 The Lego company patents their design of Lego bricks,still compatible with bricks produced today.
1960 "The Goon Show"'s final episode on BBC radio.
1962 Johanne Relleke gets stung by bees 2,443 times in Rhodesia & survives.
1965 The Who make their 1st appearance on British television programme "Ready Steady Go!"
1967 Rolling Stones release "Let's Spend the Night Together".
1969 1969 NFL Draft: O.J. Simpson from USC first pick by Buffalo Bills.
1983 The death, aged 42, of Ronald William Wycherley,better known by his stage name Billy Fury. He equalled the Beatles' record of 24 hits in the 1960s, and spent 332 weeks on the UK chart,without a chart-topping single or album.
1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, with all 7 crew members killed, including Christa McAuliffe who was to be the first teacher in space.
The Space Shuttle Challenger moments after it exploded above Cape Canveral on January 28, 1986.
2014 A report by the Commons public accounts committee found that the Queen’s advisers were failing to control her finances,while the royal palaces were 'crumbling'. MPs said that her advisers had overspent to such an extent that her reserve fund had fallen from £35 million in 2001 to just £1 million. The Queen's courtiers were advised to take money-saving tips from the Treasury.
THE LAMBRETTAS – POISON IVY On this date in 1980, THE LAMBRETTAS released the single POISON IVY, (January 28th 1980). Hailing from Lewes and Brighton, THE LAMBRETTAS were one of the leading bands in the mod revival of the late 70s/early 80s, not to mention one of the most commercially successful. Formed by singer and songwriter Jez Bird and guitarist Doug Sanders, the line-up was completed by bassist Mark Ellis (bass) and sticksman Paul Wincer. Summer ’79 saw the band sign to Elton John's Rocket Record and a debut single ‘Go Steady’ was issued on the label in November that year. Although the song failed to chart it did pave the way for their big hit, a brass-laden cover of the old Coasters hit POISON IVY.
1595 William Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet" is thought to have been first performed. Officially published early 1597.
1801 The birth of the illegitimate daughter of Lord Nelson and Emma Hamilton. She was christened Horatia Nelson Thompson. One of Nelson's last wishes was that Horatia should take the name Nelson. He left her £200 a year in his will, adding : "I desire she will use in future the name of Nelson only."
1802 First celebration of Burns night in honor of poet Robert Burns's birthday by The Mother Club in Greenock (later realized his actual birthday 25th January)
1817 Birth of John Callcott Horsley. He designed the first commercial Christmas cards in 1843.
1820 King George III died,aged 81. At the time he was the longest reigning monarch and served for more than 59 years.
1856 Queen Victoria instituted Britain’s highest military decoration the Victoria Cross (VC). The medal is awarded to British and Commonwealth armed forces for outstanding bravery ‘on the field of battle’. The medal was originally made from the metal of cannon captured from the Russians at Sevastopol, until the supply came to an end in 1942.
1886 Karl Benz patents the "Benz Patent-Motorwagen" in Karlsruhe, Germany, the world's 1st automobile with a burning motor.
1892 The Coca-Cola Company is incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia.
1916 British military tanks had their first trials in Hertfordshire.
1920 Walt Disney starts work as an artist with KC Slide Co for $40 a week.
1924 Ice cream cone rolling machine patented by Carl Taylor, Cleveland.
1928 The death of Field Marshal Douglas Haig,British senior officer during World War I. He was commander during the Battle of the Somme,the battle with one of the highest casualties in British military history. In the 1960s he became an object of criticism for his leadership during the First World War and has been dubbed "Butcher Haig" for the two million British casualties under his command.
1930 Barton Airport, Manchester's first international airport was opened.
1942 The first broadcast of Desert Island Discs on BBC radio devised and presented by Roy Plomley. It is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio.
1943 The birth of Tony Blackburn,English disc jockey. He broadcast on the "pirate" stations Radio Caroline and Radio London in the 1960s and was the first disc jockey to broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in 1967.
1944 285 German bombers attack London.
1959 Walt Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" released.
1963 A French veto stopped Britain joining the European Common Market.
1979 Brenda Spencer kills 2, inspires Boomtown Rats "I Don't Like Mondays".
1966 A bill was published by the government permitting random breath tests.
1983 "Down Under" by Men At Work hits #1 on UK pop chart.
1985 Oxford University snubbed Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by refusing her an honorary degree. Academics led a campaign against honouring Mrs. Thatcher in protest against the government's cuts in funding for education.
1989 The artificial leg that had belonged to Sir Douglas Bader was catalogued for sale. His widow was selling memorabilia to raise money to buy her own house, instead of renting.
2016 The Land Rover Defender ceased production at 9:30am GMT (and at 8:30pm on the same day for the East Coast of Australia). Over 2 million Land Rover Series and Defender vehicles were produced since 1948. To mark the Defender’s passing the Sunshine Coast Land Rover Owners' Club held a gathering at the exact time that production ceased to hold a wake and to remember the Defender.
1606 Sir Everard Digby,Thomas Winter,John Grant and Thomas Bates who along with others had tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in November 1605 were hanged, drawn and quartered for their part in the 'Gunpowder Plot'.
1647 After nine months of negotiations Scottish Presbyterians sell captured Charles I to English Parliament for around £100,000.
1649 The executioner Richard Brandon beheaded King Charles I at Whitehall.
1661 Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, was exhumed and formally executed after having been dead for two years! Ironically it took place on the anniversary of the execution of King Charles I, the monarch who Cromwell himself had deposed 12 years previously.
1736 The birth of James Watt, Scottish inventor,mechanical engineer and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1781. His engine was fundamental to the changes of the Industrial Revolution.
1790 The first purpose-built lifeboat, The Original, was launched on the River Tyne at South Shields. The boat was 28 feet long and was rowed by up to 12 crew for whom cork life jackets were provided.
1826 The opening of the Menai Bridge, the world's first modern suspension bridge. It was designed by Thomas Telford and links North Wales to the island of Anglesey.
1873 "Around the World in 80 Days" by Jules Verne is published in France by Pierre-Jules Hetzel.
1883 England team presented with ashes of a bail after Sydney Test.
1933 President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor of Germany who forms a government with Franz von Papen.
1933 After Paul von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, his former WWI colleague General Erich Ludendorff sends a letter to him stating "this accursed man will cast our Reich into the abyss and bring our nation to inconceivable misery".
1934 Hitler proclamation on German unified states.
1939 Adolf Hitler threatens Jews during his speech to the German Reichstag (Parliament).
1943 Adolf Hitler promotes Friedrich Paulus, commander of the 6th Army, to Field Marshal in the hope that he will not surrender.
1948 Mahatma Gandhi assassinated by Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse.
1956 Elvis Presley records his version of "Blue Suede Shoes".
1961 "I Fall to Pieces" single released by Patsy Cline (Billboard Song of the Year 1961).
1965 The state funeral in London of Sir Winston Churchill former Prime Minister of Britain. It was the biggest state funeral of its kind since the burial of the Duke of Wellington in 1852. After his state funeral service his body was taken by train to Bladon, Oxfordshire and there the private burial took place conducted by the rector. By contrast with the earlier service only relatives and close friends were present. The grave of Winston Churchill is in Bladon churchyerd,the bells in the church were rung for 2 hrs and 40 minutes.
1969 The Beatles played their last public performance on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert was broken up by the police.
1972 ‘Blood y Sunday’ in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. British paratroopers believing they were under fire from Catholic protesters on a banned march which had become a violent riot opened fire killing 13 people.
1973 Rock band Kiss plays their 1st show at the Coventry Club in Queens, NY.
1975 Ernő Rubik applies for a patent for his "Magic Cube" invention, later to be known as a Rubik's cube.
1988 A microlight aircraft landed near Sydney, Australia, to create a record time of 55 days since leaving London.
2012 London City trader Kweku Adoboli appeared in the dock at Southwark Crown Court accused of fraudulently gambling away a record £1.5bn whilst working for Swiss bank UBS. He was subsequently jailed for seven years after being found guilty of two counts of fraud.
2015 Sir Jay Tidmarsh, Lord-Lieutenant of Bristol between 1996 and 2007, found an old school library book as he cleared his shelves. He decided to return the book to Taunton School in Somerset and made a £1,500 donation to the library in lieu of a fine for not returning the book for 65 years.
2020 The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern at a meeting in Geneva.
1606 Guy Fawkes,one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot was hanged,drawn and quartered. Known as Guido Fawkes,the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries,Fawkes belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who had planned the failed Plot in November 1605.
1747 The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital, London.
1788 Death, in Rome,of Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie). After his father's death, Charles was recognised as 'King Charles III' by his supporters.
1849 The abolition of the Corn Laws.These trade barriers had been designed to protect cereal producers in the United Kingdom against competition from less expensive foreign imports and their abolition marked a significant step towards free trade.
1858 The Great Eastern,the five-funnelled steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and John Scott Russell was launched at Millwall. At the time it was the world's largest ship.
1867 The four bronze lions at the base of Nelson's Column were completed.
1876 The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations.
1905 1st automobile to exceed 100 mph (161 kph), A G MacDonald, Daytona Beach.
1910 American-born murderer Dr. Hawley Crippen poisoned his wife before cutting her into small pieces and burying her in the cellar of his home in London. He was later executed at Pentonville Prison.
1917 As World War One raged Germany announced that submarine warfare would resume the next day following a two-year break.
1918 A series of accidental collisions on a misty night off the Isle of May at the entrance to the Firth of Forth,led to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines and damage to another five British warships. In all 270 people lost their lives.
1919 The Battle of George Square took place in Glasgow.Known as **** Friday and Black Friday,it was one of the most intense riots in the history of Glasgow. The dispute revolved around a campaign for shorter working hours,backed by widespread strike action. Clashes between the City of Glasgow Police and protesters broke out,leading to the British government sending soldiers and tanks to the city to prevent any further gatherings.
1943 Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrenders to Soviet troops at Stalingrad.
1944 Operation-Overlord (D-Day) postponed until June.
1953 307 people were killed when the Thames estuary broke its banks,flooding large areas of Kent and Essex.A car ferry also sank in the Irish Sea,in one of the worst gales in living memory claiming the lives of more than 130 passengers and crew.
1958 US launches their 1st artificial satellite, Explorer 1.
1961 Ham the chimpanzee is 1st primate in space (158 miles) aboard Mercury/Redstone 2.
1961 USAF launches Samos spy satellite to replace U-2 flights.
1971 "My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison hits #1 on UK pop chart.
1981 "The Tide Is High" by Blondie hits #1.
1983 It became compulsory in Britain to wear car seat belts.
1990 1st McDonalds in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow.
1994 German based BMW bought the Rover Group from British Aerospace for for £800,000,000 (£800M) then sold Land Rover alone for £1,800,000,000(£1.8Bn). A good purchase then for BMW!
2000 Family GP Dr. Harold Shipman was jailed for life for murdering 15 of his patients, making him Britain's most prolific convicted serial killer. An official inquiry concluded that Shipman may have killed as many as 250 patients over 23 years.
2001 In the Netherlands a Scottish court convicts a Libyan and acquits another for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed into Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
2016 The death of the radio and TV brodcaster Terry Wogan aged 77. His weekday radio programme on BBC Radio 2, 'Wake Up to Wogan' had eight million regular listeners, making him the most listened to radio broadcaster in Europe.
2020 At 11pm Greewich Mean Time the United Kingdom leaves the European Union following the referendum of 23rd June 2016 in which 51.9% of voters elected to leave.It took three years,resulted in two general elections and three prime ministers.
1327 Fourteen year old Edward III was crowned King of England but the country was ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
1587 Under pressure from her Council Queen Elizabeth I of England signed the warrant authorising the execution of her Cousin Mary Queen of Scots.
1709 Scotsman Alexander Selkirk was rescued from an uninhabited desert island (Mas à Tierra, off the coast of Chile), inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
1793 France declares war on Great Britain and Netherlands.
1884 The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary was published. James Murray was its most famous editor but he had only reached the letter T after working 44 hours per week for 35 years so hundreds of people sent in their own contributions.
1910 The first 80 Labour Exchanges opened in Britain to try and find jobs for the unemployed.
1915 Sir Stanley Matthews,often regarded as one of the greatest English football players was born. He is the only player to have been knighted while still playing,as well as being the first winner of both the European Footballer of the Year and the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year awards. He kept fit enough to play at the top level until he was 50 years old,was also the oldest player ever to play in England's top football division and the oldest player ever to represent his country. He played his final competitive game in 1985 at the age of 70.
1926 Land at Broadway & Wall Street sold at a record $7 per sq inch.
1930 The first ever 'Times' crossword was published.
1939 A British White Paper proposing the formation of the Home Guard (which became better known as Dad’s Army because of the average age of the volunteers) was published. The hugely popular TV series of Dad's Army was first aired on 31st July 1968 and ran for 9 series until 13th November 1977.
1949 RCA releases 1st single record ever (45 rpm).
1949 The end of clothes rationing in Britain,four years after the end of World War II.
1952 The first TV detector van was demonstrated. It enabled the BBC to track down users of unlicensed television sets in Britain.
1958 Manchester United beats Arsenal, 5-4 at Highbury in the team's last game on British soil, 5 days prior to the plane crash at Munich airport that killed 7 players.
1965 P.J. Proby the US rock singer was banned by ABC Theatres and the BBC after he had deliberately split his trousers during his act. The mainly female audience and the tabloids who claimed Proby’s act was obscene went wild. It was the beginning of the end for the flamboyant performer. In a concert later that year as Proby had been banned he was replaced with a then unknown singer called Tom Jones!
1965 Prescriptions on the NHS became free of charge and remained so until June 1968.
1968 Saigon police chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executes Viet Cong officer Nguyễn Văn Lém with a pistol shot to head. The execution is captured by photographer Eddie Adams and becomes an anti-war icon.
1974 Escaped Great Train Robber Ronald Biggs was arrested by Brazilian police in Rio. He escaped extradition because he was the father of a child by his Brazilian girlfriend.
1981 Australian cricket captain Greg Chappell sensationally instructs younger brother Trevor to bowl underarm to Brian McKechnie with NZ needing 6 from last ball to tie 3rd World Series ODI in Melbourne; Australia wins by 6.
1984 Chancellor Nigel Lawson, announced that the halfpenny coin would cease to be legal tender. Its fate was sealed when it became more expensive to make than its face value.
2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
2004 Wardrobe malfunction: Janet Jackson's breast is exposed during the half-time show of Super Bowl XXXVIII.
2005 Arsenal’s English Premier League record 33-game unbeaten streak at home ends when the Gunners go down 4-2 to Manchester United at Highbury.
2013 Det. Ch. Insp. April Casburn, aged 53, became the first person to be prosecuted and jailed (15 months) as part of the investigation into payments by News of the World journalists to officials.
2017 British MPs vote in favour of the European Union Bill allowing the government to begin Brexit.
1349 By this date at least 200 people a day were being buried in London as a result of the Black Death.
1461 The Battle of Mortimer's Cross,near Wigmore in Herefordshire. It was part of the Wars of the Roses,with the Yorkists being the victors. The victory paved the way for Edward's crowning later in the year.
1650 The birth of Nell (Eleanor) Gwynne,former orange seller at Drury Lane Theatre,who became a comedy actress and later mistress of Charles II, by whom she had two sons.
1665 British forces captured New Amsterdam,the centre of the Dutch colony in North America. The trading settlement on the island of Manhattan was renamed New York in honour of the Duke of York,its new governor.
1852 1st British public men's toilet opens in Fleet St, London.
1887 In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the first Groundhog Day is observed.
1901 The state funeral of Queen Victoria. At the time of her death her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any other British monarch and the longest of any female monarch in history.
1920 The birth of Hughie Green,who became a 'household name' with his TV shows Double Your Money and Opportunity Knocks.
1940 The birth of Sir David John White OBE, better known by his stage name David Jason. He is best remembered as the main character Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses.
1943 The half-starved remnants of the German 6th Army gave themselves up after their five months of **** fighting for Stalingrad ended in defeat.
1959 Buddy Holly's last performance.
1972 Angry demonstrators burned the British Embassy in Dublin to the ground in protest at the shooting dead of 13 people in Londonderry on the previous Sunday, known as **** Sunday.
1976 The Queen opened the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham. It is the largest and busiest exhibition centre in the UK and the seventh largest in Europe.
1987 Reports from Lebanon said that Church of England envoy Terry Waite had been kidnapped by an Islamic militia group.
1993 The Queen's solicitors began proceedings against the Sun newspaper for publishing the text of her 1992 Christmas Day broadcast two days before its transmission.
1995 The death of Fred Perry, English tennis and table tennis player. He won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships between 1934 and 1936 and was World No. 1 four years in a row.
1999 Glenn Hoddle was sacked as England's football coach after his comments that disabled people were reaping the punishment for something done in a previous life.
2014 'The ruddy ducks with nowhere left to hide.' The Government wants to exterminate the entire British population and in January 2014, having already spent £4 million on the job announced that another £120,000 would be made available to track down and shoot the final few. The ducks’ downfall has been their fondness for breeding with an endangered Spanish species the white-headed duck. The British Birding Association said 'It’s a total waste of public money and all that will happen when the cull stops is that new ducks will fly over from the Continent, and we’ll be back to square one.'
Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-1 at Stamford Bridge,the only League defeat suffered by the Gunners on their way to the 1990/91 Premier League title. Arsenal were without captain Tony Adams who was in prison serving a sentence for a drink driving offence.
Football On This Day - 2nd February 2013.
Hartlepool United beat Notts County with goals from Peter Hartley and James Poole. So that’s Hartley and Poole score for Hartlepool.
1014 The death of Sweyn Forkbeard,son of Harald Bluetooth and Viking King of Denmark, Norway and England. He was proclaimed King of England on Christmas Day 1013, making him England's shortest-reigning king with a reign of just 40 days. The Viking king ruled England from a fortification on the site of what is now Gainsborough's Old Hall.
1743 Philadelphia establishes a "pesthouse" to quarantine immigrants.
1815 World's first commercial cheese factory established, in Switzerland.
1863 Samuel Clemens first uses the pen name Mark Twain in a Virginia City newspaper, the "Territorial Enterprise".
1882 Circus owner P. T. Barnum buys his world-famous elephant Jumbo.
1935 The first 'League of Ovaltineys' created by the manufacturer of the drink Ovaltine. It became a children's 'secret society' promoting high morals and consideration towards others. At the height of its popularity there were over five million members. In 1975 the song 'We Are The Ovaltineys' came back to a new audience when it was used by Ovaltine in a TV advertisement and also released as a single record.
1949 In Britain, 23 year old Margaret Roberts (Thatcher) was adopted as Tory candidate in Deptford but she later failed to win the seat at the General Election.
1957 The Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire, moved for the first time. The distance moved was 1 inch.
1959 "The Day the Music Died" plane crash kills musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, J. P. Richardson and pilot near Clear Lake, Iowa.
1963 Britain's worst learner driver Margaret Hunter was fined for continuing to drive on after her instructor jumped out of the car shouting 'This is suicide.'
1967 "Purple Haze" recorded by Jimi Hendrix.
1988 Nurses across the UK took part in a day of industrial action to secure more money for themselves and the NHS.
1989 BT banned chatlines because of the 'chatline junkie problem'. The company had been criticised following the widely reported case of a woman whose 12 year old son landed her a chatline bill of £6000.
1993 Federal trial of 4 police officers charged with civil rights violations in videotaped beating of Rodney King begins in Los Angeles, California.
2012 The Energy Secretary Chris Huhne resigned after being charged over allegations that he handed penalty points for a speeding offence to his then wife economist Vicky Pryce.
2012 England football captain John Terry was stripped of the captaincy for the second time amid growing concern over his pending race abuse trial.
2013 The cost of cleaning up the Sellafield nuclear waste site reached £67.5bn with no sign of when the cost would stop rising.
2016 Lord Lucan's death certificate is granted 42 years after he disappeared following the murder of nanny Sandra Rivett.
2017 The re-opening of the Tadcaster Bridge,which is believed to date from around 1700. The bridge collapsed on 29th December 2015 after flooding that followed Storm Eva. The loss of the bridge involved a 16 mile detour and loss of businesses in the town.
2020 Cruise ship Diamond Princess with 3700 passengers quarantined in Yokohama port, Japan after cases of COVID-19 found on board.
Decade 77-87 - a grown up disco: new wave, punk, postpunk, goth & indie page.
Today is the 54th anniversary of the first ever episode of TRUMPTON, the British stop-motion children's television series from the producers of Camberwick Green. First shown on the BBC on February 3rd 1967, it was the second series in the Trumptonshire trilogy, which comprised Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley. And what better way to celebrate than a rendition of TIME FLIES BY (WHEN YOU’RE THE DRIVER OF A TRAIN) by HALF MAN HALF BISCUIT. "Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew Cuthbert, Dibble, Grubb Let it happen bass player…"
211 The death in York (formerly know as Eboracum) of the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus whilst preparing to lead a campaign against the Caledonians. Leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta.
1194 £100,000 ransom is paid for Richard I, King Richard the Lionheart.
1789 1st US electoral college chooses George Washington as President and John Adams as Vice-President.
1911 Rolls-Royce commissioned their famous figurehead ‘The Spirit of Ecstasy’ by Charles Sykes.He used Lord Montague’s mistress Eleanor Thornton as his model. 60 years later to the day Rolls-Royce was declared bankrupt due to a disastrous contract to supply aero engines to Lockheed. The British government came to its rescue.
1920 Norman Wisdom actor & star of many comedy films was born. In 1995 he was given the Freedom of the City of London and also Tirana in Albania where the population were devoted to him and referred to him as 'Pitkin'.
1920 1st flight from London to South Africa departs (takes 1½ months).
1927 Malcolm Campbell reached 174.88 mph in Bluebird on Pendine Sands a 7 mile stretch of beach on the shores of Carmarthen Bay on the south coast of Wales in south Wales to set a new land speed record. A year later in 1928 at Daytona Beach Florida he reached 206.35 mph. Four years and one day later in 1931 he reached a record-breaking 245 mph again at Daytona Beach.
1938 Adolf Hitler seizes control of German army and puts **** in key posts.
1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin meet at Yalta in the Crimea to discuss the final phase of World War II.
Conference of the Big Three at Yalta (from left to right) Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin.
1962 The first colour supplement in Britain was published by The Sunday Times.
1968 The world's largest hovercraft weighing 165 tonnes was launched at Cowes on the Isle of Wight.The Hovertravel service from the mainland to the Isle of Wight is the world’s longest running commercial hovercraft service and is now the only scheduled passenger hovercraft service in Europe.
1971 British car maker Rolls Royce declared itself bankrupt.
1973 Comic strip "Hagar The Horrible" by Dik Browne debuts.
1974 The 'M62 coach bombing' when a Provisional IRA bomb exploded in a coach carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel and their family members.Twelve people (nine soldiers and three civilians,including children aged 5 and 2) were killed.
1975 Edward Heath withdrew from the Conservative party leadership after losing the first-round vote to Margaret Thatcher.
1977 "Rumours" 11th studio album by Fleetwood Mac is released (Grammy Album of the Year).
2002 Cancer Research UK was founded. It is the world's largest independent cancer research charity.
2003 The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution.
2004 Mark Zuckerberg launches Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room.
2008 The London Low Emission Zone (LEZ) scheme began to operate with hefty fines for the owners of polluting vehicles.
2012 Fifty four year old Nottingham Forest owner Nigel Doughty was found dead at his home in Skillington, Lincolnshire. The life-long Forest fan was estimated to have invested more than £100m of his personal fortune into the football club.
2012 The death aged 110 of Florence Green the last surviving veteran of the First World War from any country.
2013 A skeleton found beneath a Leicester car park in August 2012 was confirmed as that of English king Richard III. He was reintered at Leicester Cathedral on 26th March 2015 after experts from the University of Leicester said that DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the monarch's family.
2014 A new international study showed that British workers have the shortest retirements in any major EU country despite significant improvements in life expectancy.
1597 A group of early Japanese Christians known as the 26 Martyrs are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.
1782 The Spanish defeated British forces and captured the island of Minorca.
1788 The birth in Bury,Lancashire of Sir Robert Peel the first commoner to become British Prime Minister,although he was hardly from humble beginnings as his father was a cotton millionaire.Peel was the founder of the Metropolitan Police first nicknamed ‘Peelers’,then ‘Bobbies’,after his name.
1811 The Regency Act was passed in Britain allowing Prince George of Wales to rule because his father King George III was considered insane. He later became George IV.
1840 The birth of Scottish vet John Boyd Dunlop, inventor of the pneumatic bicycle tyre which he tested on his son's tricycle and patented in 1888. Two years after he was granted the patent Dunlop was officially informed that it was invalid as Scottish inventor Robert William Thomson had patented the idea in France in 1846 and in the US in 1847.
1852 The embankment of the Bilberry reservoir in West Yorkshire collapsed releasing 86 million gallons of water down the River Holme and into Holmfirth, the location for the BBC's Last of the Summer Wine. It caused 81 deaths and is recorded as the 23rd most serious worldwide in terms of loss of life from floods and landslides.
1869 World's largest alluvial gold nugget the Welcome Stranger found by John Deason and Richard Oates (weighting 97.14kg) in Moliagul, Australia.
1918 The SS Tuscania was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland by the German U-boat UB-77. She sank with the loss of 210 lives and was the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.
1919 Hollywood film studio United Artists founded by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D. W. Griffith.
1920 Founding of the RAF Training College at Cranwell in Lincolnshire.
1922 Reader's Digest magazine 1st published.
1924 The BBC time signals ('pips' from Greenwich Observatory) broadcast on the hour were heard for the first time.
1931 Malcolm Campbell sets world land speed record speed of 246.08 mph driving his famous Blue Bird car at Daytona Beach, Florida.
1944 "Captain American" serial film premieres starring **** Purcell, first appearance of a Marvel superhero outside a comic.
1953 Sweets were taken 'off ration' in Britain 8 years after the 2nd World War had ended.
1953 "Peter Pan" by Walt Disney opens at Roxy Theater, NYC.
1954 Britain opened its first atomic power station, at Harwell.
1958 Parking meters first appeared on the streets,in London's exclusive Mayfair district. The meters were first used in America in 1935.
1967 A ban by the Musicians' Union 'in the cause of decency', stopped The Rolling Stones' latest record Let's Spend the Night Together,from being performed on television.
1973 Underground,Overground,Wombling Free. The Wombles of Wimbledon Common made their TV debut.
1974 British miners begin their strike in reaction to the three-day week.
1977 Future 5-division world boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard makes his professional debut with a 6-round unanimous decision over Luis Vega at Baltimore’s Civic Center.
1982 The small independent Laker Airlines created by former British pilot Sir Freddy Laker to cut prices and make air travel more accessible collapsed with debts of £270m.
1996 Two British supermarket chains (Safeway and Sainsbury) became the first to stock genetically modified food when they sold GM tomato puree.
1997 O.J. Simpson found liable in the deaths of Ron Goldman and Nicole Simpson in a civil court action.
2004 Twenty-three Chinese people drowned when a group of 35 cockle-pickers were trapped by rising tides in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire.
2015 70s British rock star Gary Glitter is convicted of sexual child abuse charges in London.
2017 Heavy metal band Black Sabbath play their last concert in their home town Birmingham, England.
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1327 The accession of King Edward III. During his long reign of 50 years (the second longest in medieval England) he transformed the country into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe and saw vital developments in legislation and government, in particular the evolution of the English Parliament.
1533 The Bishop of Lichfield secretly married King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn,the second of Henry's six wives. She had ten days previously discovered that she was pregnant.
1554 Sir Thomas Wyatt gathered an army of 4000 men in Kent at the start of his rebellion against Queen Mary. His fellow conspirators were timid and inept and he eventually surrendered. He was executed and his body 'quartered' on 11th April.
1759 The birth of Robert Burns,Scotland’s national poet. His birthday is celebrated as ‘Burns Night’ by Scotsmen all over the world. Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland often revising or adapting them. His poem (and song) Auld Lang Syne is often sung on New Year's Eve or Hogmanay as it's known in Scotland.
1858 Mendelssohn's Wedding March was first played at the wedding of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Victoria and Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia.
1899 The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company began manufacture of the first radio sets at Chelmsford.
1911 The Daily Herald was launched. It was the first newspaper to sell two million copies.
1919 The founding of The League of Nations,forerunner of the United Nations. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace.
1924 1st Winter Olympic Games open in Chamonix, France.
1971 Charles Manson & 3 women followers convicted of Tate-LaBianca murders.
1979 1st documented case of a robot killing a human in US.
1980 Paul McCartney is released from Tokyo jail & deported.
1981 ‘The Gang of Four’ (Roy Jenkins, Dr. David Owen, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers) split from the British Labour party to form the Social Democrats.
1989 Actor John Cleese won damages for libel at the High Court over an article in the Daily Mirror, which claimed he had become like Basil Fawlty in his comedy series Fawlty Towers.
1990 The so called Burns' Day Storm occurred on this day over north-western Europe, and was one of the strongest storms on record. It started on the birthday of poet Robert Burns lasted for two days,caused widespread damage and was responsible for 97 deaths.
1999 Supernatural horror film "The Blair Witch Project" premieres at the Sundance Film festival.
2013 Thorpe Park ordered experts to redesign its £20m new rollercoaster 'The Swarm', due to open on 15th March after dummies lost limbs during dry run tests.
After being sent off In a Premier League match at Crystal Palace Eric Cantona launched a king-fu attack on Palace 'fan' Matthew Simmonds.He narrowly escaped going to prison for the attack but did receive an 8-month playing ban.
1340 English king Edward III proclaimed king of France.
1666 France declares war on England & Munster.
1748 Britain, Netherlands, Austria & Sardinia sign anti-French treaty.
1788 The British First Fleet led by Arthur Phillip sailed into Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) to establish Sydney the first permanent European settlement on the continent. 26th January is now commemorated as Australia Day.
1823 The death of Edward Jenner the pioneer of smallpox vaccine. Sometimes referred to as the 'Father of Immunology'; it's been said that his work 'saved more lives than the work of any other man'.
1841 Hong Kong was proclaimed British sovereign territory.
1871 The Rugby Football Union was formed in London by an initial 20 clubs.
1905 World's largest diamond, the 3,106-carat Cullinan, is found in South Africa.
The largest ever diamond was discovered at a mine in Pretoria by Frederick Wells a surface manager at the Premier No. 2 mine in Cullinan, Transvaal Colony (now South Africa). Just over ten years before the Excelsior Diamond had been discovered at the Jagersfontein Mine in South Africa it was the largest but the Cullinan was three times the size.
Cullinan was 4 inches long,2.5 in wide,2.3 in deep and weighed 3,106 carats (621.2 grams). After its discovery it went on display at the Standard Bank in Johannesburg before being sent to London.
To avoid attempted robberies detectives were put on board a steamboat believed to be carrying the diamond to London and was ceremoniously locked in the captain's safe. This was a diversion as the diamond on board was a fake and Cullinan was sent to England on regular standard post in a box.
The diamond however went unsold for two years.The Transvaal Colony ended up buying the diamond on behalf of King Edward VII for a price of £150,000 (£15 million in 2016). It was then presented to the king who chose the Asscher Brothers in Amsterdam to cut the diamond for him. Nine diamonds were cut two are part of the Crown Jewels and the remainder are owned privately by the UK sovereign.
1907 A riot broke out in the Abbey Theatre Dublin on the first night of J.M. Synge’s Playboy of the Western World,when the audience took offence at the ‘foul language’. The riots continued for a week but the show went on heavily guarded by police.
1907 The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III was officially introduced into British Military Service.Its name comes from the designer of the rifle's bolt system, James Paris Lee and the factory in which it was designed the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield.
1908 The 1st Glasgow Boy Scout group the first Scout group ever was registered. Today there are nearly 32 million members in 218 countries and territories and the movement is still growing. In the UK, the total membership is over 500,000.
1926 John Logie Baird gave a special public demonstration of television to members of the Royal Institution in London. Baird's invention used mechanical rotating disks to scan moving images into electronic impulses.
1942 World War II: The first United States forces arrived in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
1962 US launches Ranger 3, it misses the Moon by 22,000 miles.
1968 The National Provincial Bank and the Westminster Bank merged to form the National Westminster (NatWest).
1970 "Bridge over Troubled Water" 5th and final studio album by Simon & Garfunkel is released.
1979 "The Dukes of Hazzard" premieres on US TV network CBS.
1982 Conservative Prime Minister Mrs. Thatcher was elected in 1979 on the slogan 'Labour isn't working', yet the number of people out of work in Britain rose above three million for the first time since the 1930s.
1986 The Sunday Times and News of the World were printed at Wapping for the first time as the nation's presses moved away from Fleet Street.
1994 A protester fired two blank shots from a starting pistol at Prince Charles the Prince of Wales,as he prepared to speak at an Australia Day rally in Sydney.
2010 The World Health Organization rejects claims that it overstated the severity of the swine flu pandemic under pressure from vaccine companies.
2014 The Mayor of London Boris Johnson was named Honorary Australian of the Year for displaying 'archetypal Aussie characteristics in abundance'.
2014 Police stopped a learner driver for speeding on the M62 in West Yorkshire. She was accompanied only by her pet parrot. 'Since parrots are not allowed to supervise learner drivers her vehicle has been seized,' police tweeted.
January 26, 1998 — President Bill Clinton called a news conference at the White House on this day and abruptly denied that he had had sexual relations with a 22-year-old aide Monica Lewinsky. He left the room without answering any questions after his brief but categorical denial.
The issue would not go away and resulted in political humiliation for both Clinton himself and for his wife Hillary when she ran for the presidency in 2016. Her husband’s sexual transgressions were repeatedly raised by rival Donald Trump in a notoriously bitter election campaign.
For Bill Clinton the seeds were sown in July 1995 when Lewinsky became an unpaid summer intern at the White House. She moved to a paid position in December of that year.
Between then and March 1997 she said in a later statement,she had nine sexual encounters with President Clinton,including sexual acts – though not actual intercourse – in the Oval Office.
As rumours of the affair began to circulate and Clinton came under intense media scrutiny,independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr stepped up an investigation into the President’s activities.Soon Clinton was accused of asking Lewinsky to lie about the relationship.
At the White House Press conference an emotional President his voice trembling and fist clenched declared: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.
"I never told anybody to lie,not a single time,never.
"These allegations are false and I need to get back to work for the American people."
Hillary Clinton the First Lady said she was standing by her husband and was said to be “in fighting mood.”
However after repeatedly denying an inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky the President finally acknowledged the affair in a televised speech to a grand jury in August – six months after his strenuous denial. But he insisted that because certain acts were performed on him,not by him,he did not engage in sexual relations.
A month later Kenneth Starr's 445-page report on his investigation into the President was studied by the House Judiciary Committee which then proposed four articles of impeachment.
Clinton was only the second president in American history to face such an indictment – the first was Andrew Johnson in 1868.
Having refused to resign Clinton’s trial began on 7 January 1999 and ended on 12 February. A move to remove him from office failed to gain the necessary backing and senators voted to acquit him of the impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
After leaving the White House Monica Lewinsky became active in a number of fields.She designed a line of handbags bearing her name which were successful for a while,she led an advertising campaign for a diet plan and she became a television personality.
In 2005 she moved to London and studied for a degree in social psychology. By 2014 she had become known as a social activist speaking out against cyberbullying.
But she will be forever associated with President Bill Clinton. Among the millions watching what became known as the Lewinsky Affair unfold over those agonising months for the Clintons was a billionaire businessman in New York, a man at that time without any known political ambitions – Donald Trump.
The Football Pools were a far more important part of life in the 1960s than they are now and the postponements caused by the freezing winter weather from December 1962 caused havoc with the Pools in the 1962/63 season. After three Saturdays in succession when the coupons were declared void the 'Pools Panel' came into being. The first panel of experts consisted of four former players (Ted Drake, Tom Finney, Tommy Lawton and George Young) and a former ref (Arthur Ellis) and determined the results for four more Saturdays and became a regular feature in the winters to come. In their first Saturday of deliberations, January 26th 1963, the chairman of the Panel, Lord Brabazon, declared seven draws, 23 home wins and eight away wins.
Football On This Day - 26th January 1993.
A Tuesday night in January is probably never going to be the easiest date to fill a football ground but on Tuesday 26th January 1993 one of those did-it-really-happen records was set. Just 3,039 turned up at Selhurst Park for the Premier League match between Wimbledon and Everton - the lowest ever Premier crowd.
1591 The death of Dr. John Fian a Scottish schoolmaster and purported sorcerer from Prestonpans. He and other witches were arrested and extensively tortured (including having his fingernails removed with wooden splints placed into the wounds) by order of King James VI. The events became known as the North Berwick witch trials. 'On This Day' he was finally taken to Castlehill in Edinburgh placed in a cart, strangled and burnt.
1606 The trial of Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators began. They were charged with treason for attempting to blow up the Houses of Parliament in November 1605.
1671 Pirate Henry Morgan lands at the gates of Panama City.
1832 The birth of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (‘Lewis Carroll’), the English mathematician and keen photographer who wrote Alice in Wonderland.
1868 E.D. Young reported to the Royal Geographical Society that Dr. Livingstone, the British explorer and missionary in Africa, was still alive.
1880 Thomas Edison patents electric incandescent lamp.
1918 "Tarzan of the Apes", 1st Tarzan film, premieres at Broadway Theatre.
1944 Siege of Leningrad lifted by the Soviets after 880 days and more than 2 million Russians killed.
1945 The ****' biggest concentration camp at Auschwitz in south-western Poland was liberated. The millions killed during the Holocaust are remembered each year in services across the UK, as part of Holocaust Memorial Day.
1948 1st tape recorder sold.
1956 "Heartbreak Hotel" single released by Elvis Presley his first million-selling single.
1967 The Beatles sign a 9 year worldwide contract with EMI records.
1976 Viv Richards scores his 1st Test century against Australia.
1981 Rupert Murdoch's bid to buy 'The Times' and 'Sunday Times' was given the go ahead without the investigation usually required by the Monopolies Commission.
1983 Seikan Tunnel the world's longest tunnel with an underwater segment (34 miles in total) opens connecting Honshu-Hokkaido.
1984 Michael Jackson is burned during filming for Pepsi commercial.
1992 Mike Tyson goes on trial for rape.
1992 Presidential candidate Bill Clinton & Genifer Flowers accuse each other of lying over her assertion they had a 12-year affair.
1993 Mrs. Thatcher told journalist Woodrow Wyatt that she thought most of the members of the House of Lords were so useless that the Lords needed to be reformed.
1993 Veronica Bland became the first passive smoking worker in the UK to win compensation for damage to her health at work when she agreed to a settlement of £15,000 from Stockport Council in a personal injury claim.
1995 Manchester United's Eric Cantona was fined £20,000 and a football ban over his kung fu-style attack on a fan.
2001 The first Holocaust Memorial Day was held in Britain on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops. The Holocaust resulted in the annihilation of 6 million European Jews and millions of others by the Nazi regime.
2003 Tony Blair and George Bush held talks at Camp David (the country retreat of the President of the United States) and vowed to hound Saddam Hussein for 'as long as it takes' to drive him from power.
2008 Australian Open Men's Tennis: Novak Đoković beats Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 to become first Serbian player to win a Grand Slam title.
2013 Australian Open Men's Tennis: Novak Đoković wins Open era record 4th Australian crown; beats Andy Murray of Scotland 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-2.
2019 Australian Open Men's Tennis: Novak Đoković of Serbia wins his record 7th Australian singles title; beats Spaniard Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.
Liverpool's Jamie Carragher was hit by a coin thrown from the crowd in an FA Cup tie against Arsenal at Highbury. He threw it back into the crowd for which he was red-carded followed by a police warning, £40,000 club fine and three-match FA ban.
Football On This Day - 27th January 2008.
Manchester City fans unexpectedly helped opponents Sheffield United to a 2-1 FA Cup victory at Bramall Lane on this day in 2008. City fans caused the problem when they released blue and white balloons into the Manchester City penalty area. An early cross into the City penalty area saw the ball hit a couple of balloons before nutmegging Michael Ball and leaving a straightforward goal for Sheffield United's Luton Shelton. If being knocked out of the cup by a balloon was bad enough when the City players got back to the dressing room they found that thieves had made off with £2000 of their cash.
Football On This Day - 27th January 2016.
You probably couldn't think of anything more sedate to do as the grey hairs take over - walking football. Similar rules as the normal football but for the over 50s and played at a walking pace. But in January 2016 when Canterbury Walking Football Club played Herne Bay Walking Football Club - players were aged up to 70 - the outcome was a tad surprising. Within five seconds there was a 'robust' shoulder charge followed soon after by a 'crunching tackle' which was followed by a brawl which included the ref. The match was abandoned after just two minutes, proving that there is life after 50.
1457 The birth of Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty in England. Henry won the throne when he defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field.He was the last king of England to win his throne on the field of battle and he restored order after the Wars of the Roses.
1547 The death of Henry VIII, exactly 90 years after the birth of his father Henry VII. His nine year old son Edward VI succeeded him and became the first Protestant ruler of England.
1596 Sir Francis Drake died from dysentery aboard his ship off Porto Bello. His exploits were legendary making him a hero to the English but a pirate to the Spaniards. It's claimed that King Philip II of Spain offered a reward of 20,000 ducats, (equivalent to £4,000,000 in today's money) for Drake's life.
1671 British pirate Henry Morgan captures Panama City from its Spanish defenders.
1813 The novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was first published. It follows Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with the issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England.
1829 The public hanging of Irish body-snatcher William Burke in Edinburgh. Burke and his accomplice William Hare sold the corpses of their 17 victims to provide material for dissection to Doctor Robert Knox. Hare was offered immunity from prosecution if he confessed and if he testified against Burke. After Burke was hanged he was publicly dissected at the Edinburgh Medical College.
1841 The birth in Denbigh,of Sir Henry Morton Stanley (born John Rowlands), Welsh journalist and explorer famous for his exploration of Africa. His mother abandoned him as a very young baby and he was eventually sent to St. Asaph Union Workhouse for the Poor. The New York Herald sent him to Africa in search of Dr. Livingston,upon finding Livingstone,Stanley allegedly uttered the now-famous greeting, 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume?'
1855 The first locomotive runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean on the Panama Railway.
1887 Work begins on the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
1896 Walter Arnold of Kent was the first British motorist to receive a speeding fine,for exceeding 2 mph in a built-up area. He was doing 8 mph as he passed the house of the local policeman. The constable gave chase on his bicycle and after a 5 mile chase Mr. Arnold was arrested. He was fined one shilling for his offence.
1951 "La Vie Commence Demain" the 1st X-rated movie, depicting artificial insemination, opens in London.
1953 19 year-old Derek Bentley was hanged at Wandsworth Prison. On 2nd November 1952, he and 16-year-old Christopher Craig were attempting to rob a confectioner’s warehouse in Croydon when they were caught by police. It was alleged that Bentley urged Craig to fire his gun,injuring one policeman and killing another. Both boys were found guilty of murder. Craig, too young to hang was imprisoned while Bentley was sentenced to death despite considerable public protest.
1956 Elvis Presley's 1st appearance on national TV on the Dorsey Brothers's "Stage Show".
1958 The Lego company patents their design of Lego bricks,still compatible with bricks produced today.
1960 "The Goon Show"'s final episode on BBC radio.
1962 Johanne Relleke gets stung by bees 2,443 times in Rhodesia & survives.
1965 The Who make their 1st appearance on British television programme "Ready Steady Go!"
1967 Rolling Stones release "Let's Spend the Night Together".
1969 1969 NFL Draft: O.J. Simpson from USC first pick by Buffalo Bills.
1983 The death, aged 42, of Ronald William Wycherley,better known by his stage name Billy Fury. He equalled the Beatles' record of 24 hits in the 1960s, and spent 332 weeks on the UK chart,without a chart-topping single or album.
1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, with all 7 crew members killed, including Christa McAuliffe who was to be the first teacher in space.
The Space Shuttle Challenger moments after it exploded above Cape Canveral on January 28, 1986.
2014 A report by the Commons public accounts committee found that the Queen’s advisers were failing to control her finances,while the royal palaces were 'crumbling'. MPs said that her advisers had overspent to such an extent that her reserve fund had fallen from £35 million in 2001 to just £1 million. The Queen's courtiers were advised to take money-saving tips from the Treasury.
On this date in 1980, THE LAMBRETTAS released the single POISON IVY, (January 28th 1980).
Hailing from Lewes and Brighton, THE LAMBRETTAS were one of the leading bands in the mod revival of the late 70s/early 80s, not to mention one of the most commercially successful.
Formed by singer and songwriter Jez Bird and guitarist Doug Sanders, the line-up was completed by bassist Mark Ellis (bass) and sticksman Paul Wincer.
Summer ’79 saw the band sign to Elton John's Rocket Record and a debut single ‘Go Steady’ was issued on the label in November that year. Although the song failed to chart it did pave the way for their big hit, a brass-laden cover of the old Coasters hit POISON IVY.
1595 William Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet" is thought to have been first performed. Officially published early 1597.
1801 The birth of the illegitimate daughter of Lord Nelson and Emma Hamilton. She was christened Horatia Nelson Thompson. One of Nelson's last wishes was that Horatia should take the name Nelson. He left her £200 a year in his will, adding : "I desire she will use in future the name of Nelson only."
1802 First celebration of Burns night in honor of poet Robert Burns's birthday by The Mother Club in Greenock (later realized his actual birthday 25th January)
1817 Birth of John Callcott Horsley. He designed the first commercial Christmas cards in 1843.
1820 King George III died,aged 81. At the time he was the longest reigning monarch and served for more than 59 years.
1856 Queen Victoria instituted Britain’s highest military decoration the Victoria Cross (VC). The medal is awarded to British and Commonwealth armed forces for outstanding bravery ‘on the field of battle’. The medal was originally made from the metal of cannon captured from the Russians at Sevastopol, until the supply came to an end in 1942.
1886 Karl Benz patents the "Benz Patent-Motorwagen" in Karlsruhe, Germany, the world's 1st automobile with a burning motor.
1892 The Coca-Cola Company is incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia.
1916 British military tanks had their first trials in Hertfordshire.
1920 Walt Disney starts work as an artist with KC Slide Co for $40 a week.
1924 Ice cream cone rolling machine patented by Carl Taylor, Cleveland.
1928 The death of Field Marshal Douglas Haig,British senior officer during World War I. He was commander during the Battle of the Somme,the battle with one of the highest casualties in British military history. In the 1960s he became an object of criticism for his leadership during the First World War and has been dubbed "Butcher Haig" for the two million British casualties under his command.
1930 Barton Airport, Manchester's first international airport was opened.
1942 The first broadcast of Desert Island Discs on BBC radio devised and presented by Roy Plomley. It is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio.
1943 The birth of Tony Blackburn,English disc jockey. He broadcast on the "pirate" stations Radio Caroline and Radio London in the 1960s and was the first disc jockey to broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in 1967.
1944 285 German bombers attack London.
1959 Walt Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" released.
1963 A French veto stopped Britain joining the European Common Market.
1979 Brenda Spencer kills 2, inspires Boomtown Rats "I Don't Like Mondays".
1966 A bill was published by the government permitting random breath tests.
1983 "Down Under" by Men At Work hits #1 on UK pop chart.
1985 Oxford University snubbed Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by refusing her an honorary degree. Academics led a campaign against honouring Mrs. Thatcher in protest against the government's cuts in funding for education.
1989 The artificial leg that had belonged to Sir Douglas Bader was catalogued for sale. His widow was selling memorabilia to raise money to buy her own house, instead of renting.
2016 The Land Rover Defender ceased production at 9:30am GMT (and at 8:30pm on the same day for the East Coast of Australia). Over 2 million Land Rover Series and Defender vehicles were produced since 1948. To mark the Defender’s passing the Sunshine Coast Land Rover Owners' Club held a gathering at the exact time that production ceased to hold a wake and to remember the Defender.
1606 Sir Everard Digby,Thomas Winter,John Grant and Thomas Bates who along with others had tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in November 1605 were hanged, drawn and quartered for their part in the 'Gunpowder Plot'.
1647 After nine months of negotiations Scottish Presbyterians sell captured Charles I to English Parliament for around £100,000.
1649 The executioner Richard Brandon beheaded King Charles I at Whitehall.
1661 Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, was exhumed and formally executed after having been dead for two years! Ironically it took place on the anniversary of the execution of King Charles I, the monarch who Cromwell himself had deposed 12 years previously.
1736 The birth of James Watt, Scottish inventor,mechanical engineer and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1781. His engine was fundamental to the changes of the Industrial Revolution.
1790 The first purpose-built lifeboat, The Original, was launched on the River Tyne at South Shields. The boat was 28 feet long and was rowed by up to 12 crew for whom cork life jackets were provided.
1826 The opening of the Menai Bridge, the world's first modern suspension bridge. It was designed by Thomas Telford and links North Wales to the island of Anglesey.
1873 "Around the World in 80 Days" by Jules Verne is published in France by Pierre-Jules Hetzel.
1883 England team presented with ashes of a bail after Sydney Test.
1933 President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor of Germany who forms a government with Franz von Papen.
1933 After Paul von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, his former WWI colleague General Erich Ludendorff sends a letter to him stating "this accursed man will cast our Reich into the abyss and bring our nation to inconceivable misery".
1934 Hitler proclamation on German unified states.
1939 Adolf Hitler threatens Jews during his speech to the German Reichstag (Parliament).
1943 Adolf Hitler promotes Friedrich Paulus, commander of the 6th Army, to Field Marshal in the hope that he will not surrender.
1948 Mahatma Gandhi assassinated by Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse.
1956 Elvis Presley records his version of "Blue Suede Shoes".
1961 "I Fall to Pieces" single released by Patsy Cline (Billboard Song of the Year 1961).
1965 The state funeral in London of Sir Winston Churchill former Prime Minister of Britain. It was the biggest state funeral of its kind since the burial of the Duke of Wellington in 1852. After his state funeral service his body was taken by train to Bladon, Oxfordshire and there the private burial took place conducted by the rector. By contrast with the earlier service only relatives and close friends were present. The grave of Winston Churchill is in Bladon churchyerd,the bells in the church were rung for 2 hrs and 40 minutes.
1969 The Beatles played their last public performance on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert was broken up by the police.
1972 ‘Blood y Sunday’ in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. British paratroopers believing they were under fire from Catholic protesters on a banned march which had become a violent riot opened fire killing 13 people.
1973 Rock band Kiss plays their 1st show at the Coventry Club in Queens, NY.
1975 Ernő Rubik applies for a patent for his "Magic Cube" invention, later to be known as a Rubik's cube.
1988 A microlight aircraft landed near Sydney, Australia, to create a record time of 55 days since leaving London.
2012 London City trader Kweku Adoboli appeared in the dock at Southwark Crown Court accused of fraudulently gambling away a record £1.5bn whilst working for Swiss bank UBS. He was subsequently jailed for seven years after being found guilty of two counts of fraud.
2015 Sir Jay Tidmarsh, Lord-Lieutenant of Bristol between 1996 and 2007, found an old school library book as he cleared his shelves. He decided to return the book to Taunton School in Somerset and made a £1,500 donation to the library in lieu of a fine for not returning the book for 65 years.
2020 The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern at a meeting in Geneva.
1606 Guy Fawkes,one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot was hanged,drawn and quartered. Known as Guido Fawkes,the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries,Fawkes belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who had planned the failed Plot in November 1605.
1747 The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital, London.
1788 Death, in Rome,of Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie). After his father's death, Charles was recognised as 'King Charles III' by his supporters.
1849 The abolition of the Corn Laws.These trade barriers had been designed to protect cereal producers in the United Kingdom against competition from less expensive foreign imports and their abolition marked a significant step towards free trade.
1858 The Great Eastern,the five-funnelled steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and John Scott Russell was launched at Millwall. At the time it was the world's largest ship.
1867 The four bronze lions at the base of Nelson's Column were completed.
1876 The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations.
1905 1st automobile to exceed 100 mph (161 kph), A G MacDonald, Daytona Beach.
1910 American-born murderer Dr. Hawley Crippen poisoned his wife before cutting her into small pieces and burying her in the cellar of his home in London. He was later executed at Pentonville Prison.
1917 As World War One raged Germany announced that submarine warfare would resume the next day following a two-year break.
1918 A series of accidental collisions on a misty night off the Isle of May at the entrance to the Firth of Forth,led to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines and damage to another five British warships. In all 270 people lost their lives.
1919 The Battle of George Square took place in Glasgow.Known as **** Friday and Black Friday,it was one of the most intense riots in the history of Glasgow. The dispute revolved around a campaign for shorter working hours,backed by widespread strike action. Clashes between the City of Glasgow Police and protesters broke out,leading to the British government sending soldiers and tanks to the city to prevent any further gatherings.
1943 Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrenders to Soviet troops at Stalingrad.
1944 Operation-Overlord (D-Day) postponed until June.
1953 307 people were killed when the Thames estuary broke its banks,flooding large areas of Kent and Essex.A car ferry also sank in the Irish Sea,in one of the worst gales in living memory claiming the lives of more than 130 passengers and crew.
1958 US launches their 1st artificial satellite, Explorer 1.
1961 Ham the chimpanzee is 1st primate in space (158 miles) aboard Mercury/Redstone 2.
1961 USAF launches Samos spy satellite to replace U-2 flights.
1971 "My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison hits #1 on UK pop chart.
1981 "The Tide Is High" by Blondie hits #1.
1983 It became compulsory in Britain to wear car seat belts.
1990 1st McDonalds in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow.
1994 German based BMW bought the Rover Group from British Aerospace for for £800,000,000 (£800M) then sold Land Rover alone for £1,800,000,000(£1.8Bn). A good purchase then for BMW!
2000 Family GP Dr. Harold Shipman was jailed for life for murdering 15 of his patients, making him Britain's most prolific convicted serial killer. An official inquiry concluded that Shipman may have killed as many as 250 patients over 23 years.
2001 In the Netherlands a Scottish court convicts a Libyan and acquits another for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed into Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
2016 The death of the radio and TV brodcaster Terry Wogan aged 77. His weekday radio programme on BBC Radio 2, 'Wake Up to Wogan' had eight million regular listeners, making him the most listened to radio broadcaster in Europe.
2020 At 11pm Greewich Mean Time the United Kingdom leaves the European Union following the referendum of 23rd June 2016 in which 51.9% of voters elected to leave.It took three years,resulted in two general elections and three prime ministers.
1327 Fourteen year old Edward III was crowned King of England but the country was ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
1587 Under pressure from her Council Queen Elizabeth I of England signed the warrant authorising the execution of her Cousin Mary Queen of Scots.
1709 Scotsman Alexander Selkirk was rescued from an uninhabited desert island (Mas à Tierra, off the coast of Chile), inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
1793 France declares war on Great Britain and Netherlands.
1884 The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary was published. James Murray was its most famous editor but he had only reached the letter T after working 44 hours per week for 35 years so hundreds of people sent in their own contributions.
1910 The first 80 Labour Exchanges opened in Britain to try and find jobs for the unemployed.
1915 Sir Stanley Matthews,often regarded as one of the greatest English football players was born. He is the only player to have been knighted while still playing,as well as being the first winner of both the European Footballer of the Year and the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year awards. He kept fit enough to play at the top level until he was 50 years old,was also the oldest player ever to play in England's top football division and the oldest player ever to represent his country. He played his final competitive game in 1985 at the age of 70.
1926 Land at Broadway & Wall Street sold at a record $7 per sq inch.
1930 The first ever 'Times' crossword was published.
1939 A British White Paper proposing the formation of the Home Guard (which became better known as Dad’s Army because of the average age of the volunteers) was published. The hugely popular TV series of Dad's Army was first aired on 31st July 1968 and ran for 9 series until 13th November 1977.
1949 RCA releases 1st single record ever (45 rpm).
1949 The end of clothes rationing in Britain,four years after the end of World War II.
1952 The first TV detector van was demonstrated. It enabled the BBC to track down users of unlicensed television sets in Britain.
1958 Manchester United beats Arsenal, 5-4 at Highbury in the team's last game on British soil, 5 days prior to the plane crash at Munich airport that killed 7 players.
1965 P.J. Proby the US rock singer was banned by ABC Theatres and the BBC after he had deliberately split his trousers during his act. The mainly female audience and the tabloids who claimed Proby’s act was obscene went wild. It was the beginning of the end for the flamboyant performer. In a concert later that year as Proby had been banned he was replaced with a then unknown singer called Tom Jones!
1965 Prescriptions on the NHS became free of charge and remained so until June 1968.
1968 Saigon police chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executes Viet Cong officer Nguyễn Văn Lém with a pistol shot to head. The execution is captured by photographer Eddie Adams and becomes an anti-war icon.
1974 Escaped Great Train Robber Ronald Biggs was arrested by Brazilian police in Rio. He escaped extradition because he was the father of a child by his Brazilian girlfriend.
1981 Australian cricket captain Greg Chappell sensationally instructs younger brother Trevor to bowl underarm to Brian McKechnie with NZ needing 6 from last ball to tie 3rd World Series ODI in Melbourne; Australia wins by 6.
1984 Chancellor Nigel Lawson, announced that the halfpenny coin would cease to be legal tender. Its fate was sealed when it became more expensive to make than its face value.
2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
2004 Wardrobe malfunction: Janet Jackson's breast is exposed during the half-time show of Super Bowl XXXVIII.
2005 Arsenal’s English Premier League record 33-game unbeaten streak at home ends when the Gunners go down 4-2 to Manchester United at Highbury.
2013 Det. Ch. Insp. April Casburn, aged 53, became the first person to be prosecuted and jailed (15 months) as part of the investigation into payments by News of the World journalists to officials.
2017 British MPs vote in favour of the European Union Bill allowing the government to begin Brexit.
1349 By this date at least 200 people a day were being buried in London as a result of the Black Death.
1461 The Battle of Mortimer's Cross,near Wigmore in Herefordshire. It was part of the Wars of the Roses,with the Yorkists being the victors. The victory paved the way for Edward's crowning later in the year.
1650 The birth of Nell (Eleanor) Gwynne,former orange seller at Drury Lane Theatre,who became a comedy actress and later mistress of Charles II, by whom she had two sons.
1665 British forces captured New Amsterdam,the centre of the Dutch colony in North America. The trading settlement on the island of Manhattan was renamed New York in honour of the Duke of York,its new governor.
1852 1st British public men's toilet opens in Fleet St, London.
1887 In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the first Groundhog Day is observed.
1901 The state funeral of Queen Victoria. At the time of her death her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any other British monarch and the longest of any female monarch in history.
1920 The birth of Hughie Green,who became a 'household name' with his TV shows Double Your Money and Opportunity Knocks.
1940 The birth of Sir David John White OBE, better known by his stage name David Jason. He is best remembered as the main character Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses.
1943 The half-starved remnants of the German 6th Army gave themselves up after their five months of **** fighting for Stalingrad ended in defeat.
1959 Buddy Holly's last performance.
1972 Angry demonstrators burned the British Embassy in Dublin to the ground in protest at the shooting dead of 13 people in Londonderry on the previous Sunday, known as **** Sunday.
1976 The Queen opened the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham. It is the largest and busiest exhibition centre in the UK and the seventh largest in Europe.
1987 Reports from Lebanon said that Church of England envoy Terry Waite had been kidnapped by an Islamic militia group.
1993 The Queen's solicitors began proceedings against the Sun newspaper for publishing the text of her 1992 Christmas Day broadcast two days before its transmission.
1995 The death of Fred Perry, English tennis and table tennis player. He won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships between 1934 and 1936 and was World No. 1 four years in a row.
1999 Glenn Hoddle was sacked as England's football coach after his comments that disabled people were reaping the punishment for something done in a previous life.
2014 'The ruddy ducks with nowhere left to hide.' The Government wants to exterminate the entire British population and in January 2014, having already spent £4 million on the job announced that another £120,000 would be made available to track down and shoot the final few. The ducks’ downfall has been their fondness for breeding with an endangered Spanish species the white-headed duck. The British Birding Association said 'It’s a total waste of public money and all that will happen when the cull stops is that new ducks will fly over from the Continent, and we’ll be back to square one.'
Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-1 at Stamford Bridge,the only League defeat suffered by the Gunners on their way to the 1990/91 Premier League title. Arsenal were without captain Tony Adams who was in prison serving a sentence for a drink driving offence.
Football On This Day - 2nd February 2013.
Hartlepool United beat Notts County with goals from Peter Hartley and James Poole. So that’s Hartley and Poole score for Hartlepool.
1014 The death of Sweyn Forkbeard,son of Harald Bluetooth and Viking King of Denmark, Norway and England. He was proclaimed King of England on Christmas Day 1013, making him England's shortest-reigning king with a reign of just 40 days. The Viking king ruled England from a fortification on the site of what is now Gainsborough's Old Hall.
1743 Philadelphia establishes a "pesthouse" to quarantine immigrants.
1815 World's first commercial cheese factory established, in Switzerland.
1863 Samuel Clemens first uses the pen name Mark Twain in a Virginia City newspaper, the "Territorial Enterprise".
1882 Circus owner P. T. Barnum buys his world-famous elephant Jumbo.
1935 The first 'League of Ovaltineys' created by the manufacturer of the drink Ovaltine. It became a children's 'secret society' promoting high morals and consideration towards others. At the height of its popularity there were over five million members. In 1975 the song 'We Are The Ovaltineys' came back to a new audience when it was used by Ovaltine in a TV advertisement and also released as a single record.
1949 In Britain, 23 year old Margaret Roberts (Thatcher) was adopted as Tory candidate in Deptford but she later failed to win the seat at the General Election.
1957 The Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire, moved for the first time. The distance moved was 1 inch.
1959 "The Day the Music Died" plane crash kills musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, J. P. Richardson and pilot near Clear Lake, Iowa.
1963 Britain's worst learner driver Margaret Hunter was fined for continuing to drive on after her instructor jumped out of the car shouting 'This is suicide.'
1967 "Purple Haze" recorded by Jimi Hendrix.
1988 Nurses across the UK took part in a day of industrial action to secure more money for themselves and the NHS.
1989 BT banned chatlines because of the 'chatline junkie problem'. The company had been criticised following the widely reported case of a woman whose 12 year old son landed her a chatline bill of £6000.
1993 Federal trial of 4 police officers charged with civil rights violations in videotaped beating of Rodney King begins in Los Angeles, California.
2012 The Energy Secretary Chris Huhne resigned after being charged over allegations that he handed penalty points for a speeding offence to his then wife economist Vicky Pryce.
2012 England football captain John Terry was stripped of the captaincy for the second time amid growing concern over his pending race abuse trial.
2013 The cost of cleaning up the Sellafield nuclear waste site reached £67.5bn with no sign of when the cost would stop rising.
2016 Lord Lucan's death certificate is granted 42 years after he disappeared following the murder of nanny Sandra Rivett.
2017 The re-opening of the Tadcaster Bridge,which is believed to date from around 1700. The bridge collapsed on 29th December 2015 after flooding that followed Storm Eva. The loss of the bridge involved a 16 mile detour and loss of businesses in the town.
2020 Cruise ship Diamond Princess with 3700 passengers quarantined in Yokohama port, Japan after cases of COVID-19 found on board.
Today is the 54th anniversary of the first ever episode of TRUMPTON, the British stop-motion children's television series from the producers of Camberwick Green.
First shown on the BBC on February 3rd 1967, it was the second series in the Trumptonshire trilogy, which comprised Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley.
And what better way to celebrate than a rendition of TIME FLIES BY (WHEN YOU’RE THE DRIVER OF A TRAIN) by HALF MAN HALF BISCUIT.
"Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew
Cuthbert, Dibble, Grubb
Let it happen bass player…"
211 The death in York (formerly know as Eboracum) of the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus whilst preparing to lead a campaign against the Caledonians. Leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta.
1194 £100,000 ransom is paid for Richard I, King Richard the Lionheart.
1789 1st US electoral college chooses George Washington as President and John Adams as Vice-President.
1911 Rolls-Royce commissioned their famous figurehead ‘The Spirit of Ecstasy’ by Charles Sykes.He used Lord Montague’s mistress Eleanor Thornton as his model. 60 years later to the day Rolls-Royce was declared bankrupt due to a disastrous contract to supply aero engines to Lockheed. The British government came to its rescue.
1920 Norman Wisdom actor & star of many comedy films was born. In 1995 he was given the Freedom of the City of London and also Tirana in Albania where the population were devoted to him and referred to him as 'Pitkin'.
1920 1st flight from London to South Africa departs (takes 1½ months).
1927 Malcolm Campbell reached 174.88 mph in Bluebird on Pendine Sands a 7 mile stretch of beach on the shores of Carmarthen Bay on the south coast of Wales in south Wales to set a new land speed record. A year later in 1928 at Daytona Beach Florida he reached 206.35 mph. Four years and one day later in 1931 he reached a record-breaking 245 mph again at Daytona Beach.
1938 Adolf Hitler seizes control of German army and puts **** in key posts.
1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin meet at Yalta in the Crimea to discuss the final phase of World War II.
Conference of the Big Three at Yalta (from left to right) Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin.
1962 The first colour supplement in Britain was published by The Sunday Times.
1968 The world's largest hovercraft weighing 165 tonnes was launched at Cowes on the Isle of Wight.The Hovertravel service from the mainland to the Isle of Wight is the world’s longest running commercial hovercraft service and is now the only scheduled passenger hovercraft service in Europe.
1971 British car maker Rolls Royce declared itself bankrupt.
1973 Comic strip "Hagar The Horrible" by Dik Browne debuts.
1974 The 'M62 coach bombing' when a Provisional IRA bomb exploded in a coach carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel and their family members.Twelve people (nine soldiers and three civilians,including children aged 5 and 2) were killed.
1975 Edward Heath withdrew from the Conservative party leadership after losing the first-round vote to Margaret Thatcher.
1977 "Rumours" 11th studio album by Fleetwood Mac is released (Grammy Album of the Year).
2002 Cancer Research UK was founded. It is the world's largest independent cancer research charity.
2003 The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution.
2004 Mark Zuckerberg launches Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room.
2008 The London Low Emission Zone (LEZ) scheme began to operate with hefty fines for the owners of polluting vehicles.
2012 Fifty four year old Nottingham Forest owner Nigel Doughty was found dead at his home in Skillington, Lincolnshire. The life-long Forest fan was estimated to have invested more than £100m of his personal fortune into the football club.
2012 The death aged 110 of Florence Green the last surviving veteran of the First World War from any country.
2013 A skeleton found beneath a Leicester car park in August 2012 was confirmed as that of English king Richard III. He was reintered at Leicester Cathedral on 26th March 2015 after experts from the University of Leicester said that DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the monarch's family.
2014 A new international study showed that British workers have the shortest retirements in any major EU country despite significant improvements in life expectancy.
1597 A group of early Japanese Christians known as the 26 Martyrs are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.
1782 The Spanish defeated British forces and captured the island of Minorca.
1788 The birth in Bury,Lancashire of Sir Robert Peel the first commoner to become British Prime Minister,although he was hardly from humble beginnings as his father was a cotton millionaire.Peel was the founder of the Metropolitan Police first nicknamed ‘Peelers’,then ‘Bobbies’,after his name.
1811 The Regency Act was passed in Britain allowing Prince George of Wales to rule because his father King George III was considered insane. He later became George IV.
1840 The birth of Scottish vet John Boyd Dunlop, inventor of the pneumatic bicycle tyre which he tested on his son's tricycle and patented in 1888. Two years after he was granted the patent Dunlop was officially informed that it was invalid as Scottish inventor Robert William Thomson had patented the idea in France in 1846 and in the US in 1847.
1852 The embankment of the Bilberry reservoir in West Yorkshire collapsed releasing 86 million gallons of water down the River Holme and into Holmfirth, the location for the BBC's Last of the Summer Wine. It caused 81 deaths and is recorded as the 23rd most serious worldwide in terms of loss of life from floods and landslides.
1869 World's largest alluvial gold nugget the Welcome Stranger found by John Deason and Richard Oates (weighting 97.14kg) in Moliagul, Australia.
1918 The SS Tuscania was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland by the German U-boat UB-77. She sank with the loss of 210 lives and was the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.
1919 Hollywood film studio United Artists founded by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D. W. Griffith.
1920 Founding of the RAF Training College at Cranwell in Lincolnshire.
1922 Reader's Digest magazine 1st published.
1924 The BBC time signals ('pips' from Greenwich Observatory) broadcast on the hour were heard for the first time.
1931 Malcolm Campbell sets world land speed record speed of 246.08 mph driving his famous Blue Bird car at Daytona Beach, Florida.
1944 "Captain American" serial film premieres starring **** Purcell, first appearance of a Marvel superhero outside a comic.
1953 Sweets were taken 'off ration' in Britain 8 years after the 2nd World War had ended.
1953 "Peter Pan" by Walt Disney opens at Roxy Theater, NYC.
1954 Britain opened its first atomic power station, at Harwell.
1958 Parking meters first appeared on the streets,in London's exclusive Mayfair district. The meters were first used in America in 1935.
1967 A ban by the Musicians' Union 'in the cause of decency', stopped The Rolling Stones' latest record Let's Spend the Night Together,from being performed on television.
1973 Underground,Overground,Wombling Free. The Wombles of Wimbledon Common made their TV debut.
1974 British miners begin their strike in reaction to the three-day week.
1977 Future 5-division world boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard makes his professional debut with a 6-round unanimous decision over Luis Vega at Baltimore’s Civic Center.
1982 The small independent Laker Airlines created by former British pilot Sir Freddy Laker to cut prices and make air travel more accessible collapsed with debts of £270m.
1996 Two British supermarket chains (Safeway and Sainsbury) became the first to stock genetically modified food when they sold GM tomato puree.
1997 O.J. Simpson found liable in the deaths of Ron Goldman and Nicole Simpson in a civil court action.
2004 Twenty-three Chinese people drowned when a group of 35 cockle-pickers were trapped by rising tides in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire.
2015 70s British rock star Gary Glitter is convicted of sexual child abuse charges in London.
2017 Heavy metal band Black Sabbath play their last concert in their home town Birmingham, England.