On this day thread

[Muteswan]

7th January
1714 Typewriter patented by Englishman Henry Mill (built years later).
1785 1st balloon flight across English Channel by Jean Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries.
1904 Marconi Co establishes "CQD" as 1st international radio distress signal. It lasted two years before being replaced with SOS.
1922 The Anglo-Irish Treaty is ratified by Dail Eireann by a 64-57 vote.
1927 A telephone service began operating between London and New York. A three-minute call cost £15.
1943 Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American physicist (tesla motor), dies at 86.
1944 Mike McGear, English singer (Paul McCartney's brother), born in Liverpool, England.
1955 'Rock Around the Clock' by Bill Haley and his Comets, entered the UK chart for the first time.
1956 Born today in Merthyr, Johnny Owen, bantamweight champion of Europe, Great Britain and the Commonwealth. (d.4/11/80)
1965 Identical twin brothers Ronald and Reginald Kray were in custody, charged in connection with running a protection racket.
1970 Farmers sue Max Yasgur for $35,000 in damages caused by "Woodstock".
1971 Black Sabbath released 'Paranoid' their second studio album in the US.
1985 Lewis Hamilton, English auto racer (World Formula 1 Drivers Champion 2008, 14-15, 17-20), born in Stevenage, England.
1990 Tower of Pisa closed to the public after leaning too far.
1994 Oasis started recording their debut album Definitely Maybe at Monnow Valley Studio in South Wales.
1998 Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky signs affidavit denying she had an affair with President Bill Clinton.
1999 President Bill Clinton's Impeachment trial begins in the US Senate after the House voted to impeach him for lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
2002 Jon Lee, Welsh musician (Feeder) died today (b. 1968).
2015 Terrorist attack on the offices of satirical newspaper "Charlie Hebdo" in Paris kills 12 (including Jean Cabut and Stéphane Charbonnier), injures 11.
2020 Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist for Canadian rock band Rush, died from brain cancer aged 67.

 

[Muteswan]

8th January
1324 Marco Polo, Venetian explorer, dies at 69.
1642 Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer who has been called the father of science, dies at 77.
1800 London opened its first soup kitchens for the poor.
1823 Alfred Russel Wallace, British naturalist, explorer and co-discoverer of evolution through natural selection, born in Usk, Monmouthshire, Wales (d. 1913).
1902 New York state assemblyman Francis G. ​Landon gets a bill passed to criminalize men turning around on a street and "looking at a woman in that way".
1908 William Hartnell, English actor (first Doctor in Doctor Who), born in London (d. 1975).
1935 Elvis Presley, American singer and King of Rock and Roll, born in Tupelo Mississippi (d. 1977).
1937 Shirley Bassey, Welsh singer (Goldfinger, Moonraker), born in Tiger Bay, United Kingdom.
1940 Britain introduced food rationing (bacon, butter & sugar).
1941 Robert Baden-Powell, British founder of the Boy Scout movement, dies at 83.
1941 Graham Chapman, English comedian (Monty Python's Flying Circus), born in Leicester, England (d. 1989).
1942 The birth of Stephen Hawking, possibly the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Albert Einstein.
1947 David Bowie English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, painter and actor born today.
1966 The Beatles started a six week run at No.1 on the US album chart with Rubber Soul.
1982 Spain reopened the frontier of the British colony of Gibraltar.
1989 47 people were killed and over 80 injured when a British Midland 737-400 jet crashed on the M1 motorway.
1989 Born on this day in Swansea,Non Stanford, World Champion triathlete in 2013, who also came 4th in the women’s triathlon in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
1991 Steve Clark guitarist with Def Leppard, was found dead at his Chelsea flat.
1992 George H. W. Bush gets ill & vomits on Japanese prime minister's lap.
2001 The High Court ruled that the identities and whereabouts of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who murdered toddler James Bulger in 1993 would be kept secret for the rest of their lives.
2015 26 year old Charlotte Carpenter became Wales' first female Fifa referee.
2016 David Bowie released his twenty-fifth and final studio album Blackstar, coinciding with his 69th birthday and two days before his death.
2020 Ukrainian Boeing 737-800 crashes just after take-off from Tehran, Iran, killing all 176 people on board.
2020 Duke and Duchess of Sussex announce they are stepping back as "senior" royals, will work towards becoming financially independent.

 

[Muteswan]

9th January
1799 British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduces income tax to raise funds for the war against Napoleon.
1806 Lord Nelson, naval commander and hero of the Battle of Trafalgar, was buried beneath the dome of St Paul's cathedral, in London.
1816 Sir Humphry Davy tested his Davy safety lamp for miners at Hebburn Colliery.
1888 The London Financial Guide was launched. It became The Financial Times on 13th February.
1898 The birth, in Rochdale, Lancashire, of Dame Gracie Fields, internationally famous singer.
1944 Jimmy Page guitarist and producer, member of the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin born today.
1954 Born today in Swansea,John Sparkes comedian, actor, voice artist and former English teacher. Sparkes is best known for playing chat show host Barry Welsh, in the award-winning comedy series Barry Welsh is Coming and as the narrator of the children's TV show Peppa Pig.
1963 Drummer Charlie Watts joined The Rolling Stones after leaving Blues Incorporated and his job working as a graphic designer.
1969 First trial flight of Concorde supersonic jetliner, Bristol, England.
1972 British miners began their first strike since 1926, campaigning for improved pay and conditions. A season of power cuts followed.
1976 Queen were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.
1982 Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge [Kate Middleton], English wife of Crown Prince William, born in Reading, Berksire.
2001 Apple announced iTunes at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, for organizing and playing digital music and videos.
2007 Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs announces the iPhone.
2016 Ed Stewart, British DJ and broadcaster (Crackerjack), dies of a stroke at 74.
2016 The Flying Scotsman, (engine no. 60103) and the first steam engine to be officially recorded at 100mph carried its first passengers, after a 10 year restoration that cost £4.2M.

 

[Muteswan]

10th January
1939 Indian tea was auctioned in Britain for the first time. Previously, only China tea had been available, at great expense.
1840 Sir Rowland Hill introduced the Penny Post to Britain. Mail was delivered at a standard charge rather than being paid by the recipient.
1862 Samuel Colt, American inventor and industrialist (Colt 6 shot revolver), dies of gout at 47.
1863 The first section of the London Underground railway was opened, by Prime Minister Gladstone. It ran from Paddington to Farringdon Street, stopping at seven stations. The trains ran every fifteen minutes.
1917 William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, American Wild West hunter and showman (Buffalo Bill's Wild West), dies at 70.
1946 The General Assembly of the United Nations met for the first time, at Westminster Central Hall.
1948 Donald Fagen, vocals, keyboards, Steely Dan, born today.
1953 Pat Benatar [Andrezejewski], American singer born in Brooklyn, New York.
1955 Michael Schenker, German heavy metal guitarist (MSG; UFO; Scorpions), born in Sarstedt, Germany.
1958 Jerry Lee Lewis was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Great Balls Of Fire'.
1964 The Rolling Stones recorded 'Not Fade Away' at Olympic Studios, London, England.
1965 John Lennon appeared on the UK TV Peter Cook and Dudley Moore show, 'Not Only But Also.'
1971 Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, French fashion designer (Chanel), dies at 87.
1976 Howlin' Wolf [Chester Arthur Burnett], American blues musician dies of complications during kidney surgery at 65.
1981 John Lennon's Imagine started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart, 10 years after it was recorded.
1985 The C5 electric car, with a top speed of 15 mph (the fastest allowed in the UK without a driving licence) was demonstrated by its inventor, Sir Clive Sinclair.
1994 Trial of Lorena Bobbitt who cut off her husband's penis, begins.
1999 "The Sopranos", starring James Gandolfini as mobster Tony Soprano, debuts on HBO.
2001 A large piece of the chalk cliff at Beachy Head collapses into the sea.
2016 English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, painter, and actor David Bowie died from liver cancer at his New York home.
2017 Clare Hollingworth, British war correspondent who was the first to report on the outbreak of WWII, dies at 105.
2018 "Fast" Eddie Clarke, British guitarist (Fastway, Motörhead), dies from pneumonia at 67.

 

[TheLoneRanger]

10th January 1981 ...

Swans officially opened their new East Stand with the visit of West Ham - West Ham winning the match 3-1.

 

[Muteswan]

11th January
1569 The first state lottery took place in England. Lots were sold at the West Door of St Paul’s Cathedral. National lotteries continued until 1826 when it was felt that " the inducement to gambling held out by lotteries is a great moral evil, helping to impoverish many and diverting attention from the more legitimate industrial modes of moneymaking."
1838 First public demonstration of telegraph messages sent using dots and dashes at Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail.
1879 Anglo-Zulu War begins as British Lt-General Chelmsford invades Zululand in South Africa.
1895 Born today Laurens Hammond, inventor of the Hammond organ. The sound of the Hammond was used by many rock artists including; Procol Harum, Keith Emerson, Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers Band and the Faces. Hammond died on 3rd July 1973.
1922 Insulin first used on humans to treat diabetes, on Canadian Leonard Thompson, aged 14.
1946 Tony Kaye [Anthony John Selvidge], English piano and organ player (Yes, 1968-71; 1983-94; 2018–19) also played for Badfinger, born in Leicester, England.
1948 Terry Williams, Welsh rock drummer (Dire Straits and Man), born in Swansea, Wales.
1952 Lee Ritenour, American jazz-fusion guitarist, born in Los Angeles, California.
1962 Cliff Richard was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'The Young Ones'.
1967 The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded 'Purple Haze' at De Lane Lea studios in London.
1973 The first 867 graduates from the Open University were awarded their degrees after two years studying from home.
1984 French farmers hijacked British lorries in a dispute against meat imports.
2003 Pete Townshend issued a public statement denying being a paedophile after his name was linked with a police Internet porn inquiry. But The Who guitarist did admit studying child pornography for research into a campaign against it.
2008 Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer/1st to climb Mt Everest in 1953, dies from a heart attack at 88.
2018 US President Donald Trump causes worldwide controversy when it is reported he called African countries "shitholes" during immigration meeting.
2020 Diego the giant 100 year old tortoise retires to the Galapagos islands after his high libido is credited with saving his species.

 

[Muteswan]

12th January
1810 Born today in Swansea, John Dillwyn Llewelyn. Photography pioneer, politician, scientist and philanthropist.
1820 Astronomical Society of London (now the Royal Astronomical Society) founded in England.
1895 The National Trust is founded in Britain.
1932 Des O'Connor, British television presenter, singer and comedian, born in Stepney, London (d. 2020).
1939 Timely Comics (later Marvel) founded by American publisher Martin Goodman in New York.
1945 Maggie Bell, Scottish rock vocalist, born in Glasgow, Scotland.
1948 Mahatma Gandhi begins his final fast.
1948 John Etheridge, British guitarist (Soft Machine), born in Lambeth, England.
1959 American record company Motown is founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records.
1964 Jeff Bezos, American entrepreneur and founder of Amazon, born in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
1966 "Batman", starring Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin, and Cesar Romero as The Joker, debuts on ABC.
1969 Led Zeppelin's debut album was released in the UK. Recorded at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London, the album took only about 36 hours of studio time to complete at a cost of just £1,782, most of the tracks being recorded 'live' in the studio with very few overdubs.
1970 The Boeing 747 (Jumbo Jet) completed its first transatlantic flight, from New York to Heathrow.
1976 Agatha Christie, British crime writer (Murder on the Orient Express, Mousetrap), dies at 85.
1995 Major earthquake kills 5,092 in Kobe Japan.
1995 Murder trial against O.J. Simpson, begins in LA.
2003 Maurice Gibb, guitarist of the Bee Gees, dies of cardiac arrest at 53.
2004 The world's largest ocean liner, RMS Queen Mary 2, makes its maiden voyage.
2010 Earthquake devastates Haiti, killing approximately 160,000 and destroying the majority of the capital Port-au-Prince.

 

[Muteswan]

13th January
1785 John Walter publishes 1st issue of "The Times" of London.
1832 Thomas Lord, English cricketer, founder of Lord's cricket ground (b. 1755) died today.
1893 British Independent Labour Party forms (Keir Hardie as its leader).
1926 The birth of Michael Bond, English children’s writer and creator of ‘Paddington Bear’.
1929 Joe Pass [Passalaqua], American jazz guitarist ("The Trio" with Oscar Peterson; Ella Fitzgerald) and composer, born in New Brunswick, New Jersey (d. 1994).
1929 Wyatt Earp, American frontiersman and marshal who participated in the gunfight at the OK Corral, dies at 80.
1938 The Church of England accepts the theory of evolution.
1961 Bon today, Graham McPherson, (Suggs), singer from English ska band Madness.
1962 The first confirmed case of a smallpox outbreak in South Wales, occurred in a Cardiff hospital today. Between January and April, the outbreak infected 45 people in Wales and killed 19, six in the Llantrisant and Rhondda area and thirteen in Bridgend. It resulted in over 900,000 people in South Wales being vaccinated against the disease.
1964 Capital Records grudgingly released the first Beatles record, ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’, in the US to, as they said 'see how it goes’. It became their fastest selling single ever. Within only three weeks, a million copies had been sold.
1965 Bill Bailey, British comedian (Black Books, QI), born in bath, England.
1968 Johnny Cash played a show, which was recorded, for his forthcoming live album at Folsom Prison, near Sacramento, California in front of 2,000 inmates.
1969 Stephen Hendry, Scottish professional snooker player, born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
1994 Born on this day in Wrexham,Tom Lawrence, Wales football international.
2003 Rock musician Pete Townshend of The Who was arrested in London on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children. He was later cleared.
2004 Harold Shipman, a British GP who is believed to have killed more than 200 of his patients in Manchester, is found hanged in his prison cell.

 

[Muteswan]

14th January
83BC Mark Antony [Marcus Antonius], Roman politician and general (Battle of Actium), born in Rome (d. 30 BC).
1690 The musical instrument, the clarinet is invented in Nürnberg, Germany.
1742 Edmond Halley, English mathematician and astronomer (Halley's comet), dies at 85.
1872 Greyfriars Bobby, a Skye-Terrier who spent 14 years guarding the grave of his owner John Gray, dies at 16.
1896 The first public screening of a film in Britain, at the London headquarters of the Royal Photographic society.
1898 Australian cricketer Joe Darling hits the 1st six in Tests (out of the ground).
1898 The death, at Guildford, of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll and who was author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
1911 Born on this day at Cockett in Swansea, Edward George 'Taffy' Bowen - Physicist whose work on radar enabled the Royal Navy and RAF to break the Germans navy's stranglehold over the north Atlantic during World War II and whose breakthroughs in the field of electromagnetism would change the course of peoples everyday lives.Taffy was born into a working-class family, but from a very early age, his high intelligence marked him out for great things and at the age of 9 he'd already built his own valve radio transmitter. He joined Swansea University aged 16, he had his MSc by 19 and was a professor aged 24. Then in 1935, Bowen's brilliance brought him to the attention of the inventor of radar, Scottish scientist Robert Watson-Watt. Bowen managed to miniaturise radar into something that could be fitted into the noses of planes during the Battle of the Atlantic.
1926 Warren Mitchell, English actor (Alf Garnett in Till Death Us Do Part), born in London, England (d. 2015).
1934 Richard Briers, English actor, born in Raynes Park, London (d. 2013).
1941 Faye Dunaway, American actress (Chinatown, Bonnie & Clyde), born in Bascom, Florida.
1946 Harold Shipman, British serial killer, born in Bestwood Estate, Nottingham (d. 2004).
1956 Little Richard releases single "Tutti Frutti".
1957 Humphrey Bogart, American actor (Casablanca, Caine Mutiny), dies of cancer of the esophagus at 57.
1966 David Jones changed his name to David Bowie to avoid confusion with Davy Jones from The Monkees, just in time for the release of his single, 'Can't Help Thinking About Me'.
1969 Matt Busby retires from Manchester United.
1969 Dave Grohl, American drummer, singer-songwriter (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), born in Warren, Ohio.
1978 Sex Pistols' final concert held in Winterland, San Francisco.
1987 Born today in Cardiff, Jess Fishlock. Wales women’s football international.
1989 1,000 muslims burn Salman Rushdies' "Satanic Verses" in Bradford, England.
1996 Oasis went to No.1 on the UK album chart with '(What's The Story) Morning Glory'.
2013 Music and DVD chain HMV appointed an administrator.
2016 Alan Rickman, English actor (Die Hard, Harry Potter franchise), dies of cancer at 69.
2018 Marlene VerPlanck, American jazz and pop vocalist, dies of pancreatic cancer at 84. A regular visitor to Swansea Jazz.
2019 US President Donald Trump denies he is a Russian agent after NY Times article states the FBI started an investigation and the Washington Post raised issues over a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 

[Muteswan]

15th January
1535 Henry VIII declares himself head of the Church in England.
1559 Elizabeth I was crowned Queen of England at the age of 26.
1759 The opening of the British Museum, at Montague House, London.
1797 The first top hat was worn by John Hetherington, a London haberdasher. He was fined £50 the first time he wore his new creation, 'for causing a disturbance'.
1859 The National Portrait Gallery opened to the public in Great George Street.
1893 Ivor Novello [David Ivor Davies], Welsh composer, writer and actor, born in Cardiff, Wales (d. 1951).
1895 Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" premieres, St Petersburg.
1918 Born on this day in Newport,Billy Lucas, Welsh international football player in the late 1940s and 1950s, who made in excess of 400 appearances for Swindon Town, Swansea Town and Newport County. After his retirement from playing, he managed both Newport County and Swansea Town.
1919 Two million gallons of molasses flood Boston Massachusetts in the "Great Molasses Flood" when a storage tank burst, drowning 21 and injuring 150.
1927 BBC radio broadcast the first live commentary of a rugby match. Captain Teddy Wakelam narrated the match at Twickenham, between Wales and England. The following Saturday Wakelam provided the first football commentary from Highbury, where Arsenal was playing Sheffield United.
1929 Martin Luther King Jr., American clergyman and leader of the Civil Rights Movement, born in Atlanta, Georgia (d. 1968).
1946 Born on this day in Cardiff,Roger Davis, county cricketer who played for Glamorgan for 13 years as an all-rounder, scoring over 7,000 runs and taking 241 wickets in first-class cricket. In 1968, at Swansea, he fell over the boundary rope, whilst catching the ball, during Gary Sober's record breaking six sixes in one over and became headline news in 1971 when he survived being hit on the head by a ball, which caused his heart and breathing to stop.
1951 Supreme Court rule "clear & present danger" of incitement to riot is not protected speech & can be a cause for arrest.
1965 The Who released their first single 'I Can't Explain'. With Jimmy Page on guitar and The Ivy League on backing vocals.
1971 George Harrison releases "My Sweet Lord" single in the UK.
1974 Pete Waterman, English record producer, born in Stoke Heath, Coventry.
1974 TV sitcom "Happy Days" begins an 11 year run on ABC, starring Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Marion Ross and Ton Bosley.
1977 The Eagles were at No.1 on the US album chart with Hotel California.
1981 "Hill Street Blues" premieres on NBC-TV.
2001 Wikipedia a free Wiki or content encyclopedia is launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger.
2009 Chesley Sullenberger lands US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in NYC. All passengers and crew members survive in what becomes known as the "Miracle on the Hudson".
2014 The death, aged 69, of actor Roger Lloyd-Pack, who played Trigger in Only Fools And Horses.
2018 The construction giant, Carillion, went into liquidation. The company employed 43,000 people including almost 20,000 in the UK. Carillion also used thousands of smaller companies to help provide its services.
2019 Theresa May's Brexit deal with the EU is rejected by UK parliament 432 votes to 202, largest parliamentary defeat in its democratic era.

 

[Muteswan]

16th January
1581 The English Parliament outlawed Roman Catholicism.
1707 The Act of Union was passed, merging the English and Scottish parliaments and paving the way for the new country of Great Britain.
1853 Andre Michelin, French industrialist, tyre manufacturer and publisher of the Michelin Guide, born in Paris (d. 1931).
1929 Born on this day in Brecon, Walley Barnes, former Welsh soccer international and manager. Barnes played his club football mainly for Arsenal and was part of their Championship-winning side in 1947-48 and FA Cup winning side in 1949-50.
1930 Frank Whittle submitted his first patent for a jet engine ( British Patent No. 347,206 - granted in 1932). He had his first engine running by April 1937.
1938 1st jazz concert held at Carnegie Hall (Benny Goodman).
1939 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) begins its bombing and sabotage campaign in England.
1950 Listen With Mother began on radio with the words "Hello children. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin". When the series ended in 1982 there was a national outcry.
1957 The Cavern Club opened in Liverpool.
1958 Born today in Pill, Newport, Tony Pulis.
1976 Peter Frampton released platinum live album "Frampton Comes Alive".
1979 BBC landmark nature series "Life on Earth" presented by David Attenborough first shown on BBC One.
1981 John Lennon's single "Woman" is posthumously released in the UK.
1981 Protestant gunmen shoot & wound Bernadette Devlin McAliskey (former Westminster MP)& husband.
1991 Operation 'Desert Storm' began against Iraq, for its invasion of Kuwait.
1992 Eric Clapton recorded his unplugged session for MTV.
2019 UK Prime Minister Theresa May wins vote of no confidence in her government 325 to 306.
2015 Nursey and Son, who had been manufacturing sheepskin coats for 169 years, including sheepskin coats for David Jason ('Del Boy') in TV's Only Fools and Horses, closed its doors for the last time.
2020 First Impeachment trial of US President Donald Trump begins in the Senate.

 

[Muteswan]

17th January
1773 Captain James Cook becomes 1st to cross Antarctic Circle (66° 33' S).
1863 David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister (Liberal: 1916-22), born in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Lancashire, England (d. 1945).
1896 The Daimler Motor Company (Coventry) was registered as the first British car manufacturer.
1899 Al Capone, American gangster (Chicago bootlegging), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1947).
1912 Captain Robert Scott's expedition arrives at the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.
1920 First day of prohibition of alcohol comes into effect in the US as a result of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.
1929 Popeye makes 1st appearance, in comic strip "Thimble Theater".
1931 James Earl Jones, American Tony, Emmy, Grammy, and Golden Globe winning actor (The Great White Hope; Star Wars - "voice of Darth Vader"; Field Of Dreams"), born in Arkabutla, Mississippi.
1940 Leighton Rees, Welsh darts player (BDO World Champion 1978), born in Ynysybwl, Glamorgan, Wales (d. 2003).
1941 On 17th January 1941, 58 people were killed in air raids on Swansea.
1942 Muhammad Ali [Cassius Clay], (world heavyweight champion 1964-7 74-8), born in Louisville, Kentucky (d. 2016)
1945 Auschwitz concentration camp begins evacuation.
1957 Keith Chegwin, English television presenter & actor, born in Walton, Liverpool (d. 2017).
1962 Jim Carrey, Canadian-American actor, born in Ontario Canada.
1964 Michelle Obama, 1st African-American US First Lady (2009-16), born in DeYoung, Illinois.
1968 The motor manufacturer British Leyland was formed; from the merger of British Motor Holdings Ltd. and Leyland Motor Corp. Ltd.
1977 Gary Gilmore is executed by firing squad in the Utah state prison, convicted of murder.
2017 Search for missing aircraft MH370 over the Indian Ocean is called off.
2019 Windsor Davies, British actor (It Ain't Half Hot Mum), dies at 88.

 

[Muteswan]

18th January
1779 Peter Mark Roget, British lexicographer (Roget's Thesaurus) and inventor (slide rule, pocket chessboard), born in London (d. 1869).
1788 First elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay to set up a penal colony.
1823 Reverend William Buckland, Professor of Geology at Oxford Univerity, began exploring the Paviland Caves on the Gower. He subsequently discovered one side of a human adult skeleton, stained with red ochre and accompanied by seashell necklaces in Goat's Hole Cave. It was initially assumed to be a female and therefore became known as the 'Red Lady of Paviland'. It was, in fact, a male and at an estimated 33,000 years old, is one of the oldest ceremonial burials of a modern human in Western Europe.
1882 A. A. Milne, English author of the Winnie-the-Pooh books, born in Hampstead Middlesex (d. 1956).
1884 Dr. William Price, a vegetarian nudist who believed in free love and herbal remedies, was arrested for cremating the body of his infant son, Iesu Grist (the Welsh for Jesus Christ), in front of onlookers on a Llantrisant hillside. Price was arrested and put on trial by those who believed that cremation was illegal in Britain. However, he successfully argued that there was no legislation that specifically outlawed it, which paved the way for the Cremation Act of 1902.
1886 Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.
1892 Oliver Hardy, American comic actor (Laurel & Hardy), born in Harlem, Georgia (d. 1957)
1919 Bentley Motors Limited is founded by Walter Owen Bentley in London, England.
1936 Rudyard Kipling, English author (Gunga Din,Jungle Book, Nobel 1907), dies at 70.
1944 The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time.
1951 Bob Latchford, English footballer, born in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
1974 Former members from Free, (Paul Rodgers & Simon Kirke), Mott The Hoople (Mick Ralphs), and King Crimson, (Boz Burrell), formed Bad Company.
1977 Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease.
1993 Martin Luther King Jr. holiday observed in all 50 states of the USA for 1st time.
2016 The Eagles guitarist Glenn Frey died at the age of 67 in New York City from complications arising from rheumatoid arthritis, colitis and pneumonia.
2017 Rachel Heyhoe Flint, English cricket batter and captain (22 Tests, 23 ODOs; captain winning England team in inaugural Women's World Cup 1973), businesswoman and philanthropist, dies at 77.

Born today in ... Mrs. Mute. Happy Birthday.

 

[Muteswan]

19th January
1736 James Watt, Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer and chemist (steam engine), born in Greenock, Scotland (d. 1819).
1813 Sir Henry Bessemer, who gave his name to a process for converting cast iron into steel, was born, in Charlton - Hertfordshire.
1848 Matthew Webb, English long distance swimmer who was first to swim unassisted across the English Channel, born in Dawley, England (d. 1883).
1903 1st regular transatlantic radio broadcast between US & England.
1903 New bicycle race "Tour de France" announced.
1915 World War I: 4 people in Norfolk are killed in the 1st German Zeppelin air raid attack on the United Kingdom.
1942 Michael Crawford [Michael Patrick Smith], British Broadway star (Phantom of the Opera), born in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
1943 Janis Joplin, American rocker and blues singer-songwriter, born in Port Arthur, Texas (d. 1970).
1946 Dolly Parton, American country singer (Dolly, 9 to 5), born in Sevierville, Tennessee.
1955 "Scrabble" debuts on board game market.
1963 The Beatles made their first national TV appearance in the UK on 'Thank Your Lucky Stars' performing 'Please Please Me'.
1967 The Monkees were at No.1 on the UK singles with 'I'm A Believer'.
1978 The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America would continue until 2003.
1980 Jenson Button, World Formula 1 Drivers Champion 2009, born in Frome, England.
1998 Carl Perkins, American singer and songwriter (Blue Suede Shoes), dies at 65.
2010 Bill McLaren, Scottish rugby commentator known as "the voice of rugby", dies at 86.
2013 Lance Armstrong admits to doping in all seven of his Tour de France victories.
2018 The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner announced that Tom Petty had died accidentally from mixed drug toxicity, a combination of fentanyl, oxycodone, acetylfentanyl and despropionyl fentanyl (all opioids); temazepam and alprazolam (both sedatives); and citalopram (an antidepressant).

 

[Muteswan]

20th January
1265 England's first Parliament met at Westminster Hall in London, convened by the Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort.
1785 Wrexham born Samuel Ellis bought New York's Oyster Island, which was later named Ellis Island after him.After his death in 1794, it seems that Ellis's family were not interested in keeping it and it passed into the possession of the government. Between 1892 and 1954 it became the the United State's busiest entry point for millions of immigrants.
1930 Buzz Aldrin, American astronaut & fighter pilot (Gem 12, Ap 11), born in Montclair, New Jersey.
1934 Tom Baker, English actor (fourth Doctor in Doctor Who), born in Liverpool, England.
1944 RAF drops 2,300 ton of bombs on Berlin.
1945 Christopher Martin-Jenkins, British cricket journalist and broadcaster (President MCC; BBC Radio), born in Peterborough, England (d. 2013).
1961 Democrat John F. Kennedy, the youngest elected President of the United States, is administered his oath of office at his inauguration.
1964 "Meet The Beatles" album released in US.
1965 The Byrds record "Mr Tambourine Man".
1967 The Monkees TV show was shown for the first time in the UK.
1969 Nicky Wire [Jones], Welsh rock bassist and lyricist (Manic Street Preachers), born in Llanbadoc, Monmouthshire, Wales.
1971 Gary Barlow, vocals, piano, songwriter, Take That, born today.
1980 President Jimmy Carter announces US boycott of Olympics in Moscow.
1981 The US diplomats and citizens held hostage at the US embassy in Tehran are released and begin their journey home after 444 days.
1982 Ozzy Osbourne supposedly bites the head off a bat on stage in Des Moines, Iowa.
1986 France and Britain finally decided to undertake the Channel Tunnel project, promising that trains would run under the Channel by 1993. When it eventually opened, on 6th May 1994, it left Eurotunnel with debts of £925m a year later.
1987 Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite taken hostage in Beirut, Lebanon by Islamic militia group.
1987 UK Police crackdown on soccer hooligans in biggest operation against violence around football stadiums.
1993 Audrey Hepburn, British actress, dies of colon cancer at 63.
1994 Matt Busby, Scottish soccer forward (Manchester City, Liverpool) and manager (Manchester United 1945-69, 70–71; Scotland 1958), dies from cancer at 84.
2008 "Breaking Bad", created by Vince Gilligan and starring Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul premieres on AMC.
2009 Barack Obama, inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America, becomes the United States' first African-American president. Joe Biden assumes the office of the Vice President of the United States.
2012 Etta James, most often remembered for her signature song, 'At Last', died from complications of leukemia at the age of 73.
2017 Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America and Mike Pence as the 48th Vice President.
2021 Joe Biden inaugurated as the oldest President of the United States. Kamala Harris becomes first female, black Asian-American Vice President.