1st JANUARY
Lorenzo de Medici (The Magnificent) (b. 1449)
Ulrich Zwingli (b. 1484)
Bartolomé Murillo (b. 1618)
Edmund Burke (b. OS 1729)
Paul Revere (b. OS 1735)
Betsy Ross (b. 1752)
Maria Edgeworth (b. 1767)
Ouida (b. 1839)
Sir James Frazer (b. 1854)
EM Forster (b. 1879)
William Fox (b. 1879)
J Edgar Hoover (b. 1895)
Xavier Cugat (b. 1900)
Dana Andrews (b. 1909)
Barry Goldwater (b. 1909)
Basil Dearden (b. 1911)
Kim Philby (b. 1912)
Carole Landis (b. 1919)
Rocky Graziano (b. 1919)
JD Salinger (b. 1919)
Milt Jackson (b. 1923)
Idi Amin (b. 1924)
Tom Dowd (b. 1925)
Joe Orton (b. 1933)
B Kliban (b. 1935)
Fred Neil (b. 1937)
Erma Franklin (b. 1938)
Susannah McCorkle (b. 1945)
Mikey Dread (b. 1954)
Louis XII, King of France (d. 1515)
Joachim du Bellay (d. 1560)
William Wycherley (d. 1716)
James Stuart, the Old Pretender (d. 1766)
Johann Christian Bach (d. 1782)
Heinrich Hertz (d. 1894)
Sir Edwin Lutyens (d. 1944)
Hank Williams (d. 1953)
Maurice Chevalier (d. 1972)
Raoul Walsh (d. 1981)
Margot Grahame (d. 1982)
Alexis Korner (d. 1984)
Cesar Romero (d. 1994)
Ted Hawkins (d. 1995)
Fred West (d. 1995)
Townes Van Zandt (d. 1997)
Helen Wills Moody (d. 1998)
Helen Suzman (d. 2009)
1st January replaces 1st March as New Year's Day, Roman Republican Calendar, BC 153
Julian Calendar introduced, BC 45
Rio de Janeiro discovered and named, 1502
James V of Scotland marries Madeleine de Valois, Notre Dame Cathedral, 1537
Anne of Cleves 1st meets Henry VIII, 1540
1st January replaces 25th December as New Year's Day in most of Christendom, 1582
January 1st becomes New Year's Day, Scotland, 1599
Charles II crowned King of Scots, Scone, 1651
Samuel Pepys begins his diary, 1660
January 1st becomes New Year's Day, England & Ireland, 1752
1st travellers' cheques introduced, London Credit Exchange Company, 1772
George Washington unveils the Grand Union Flag, US, 1776
1st issue of The Daily Universal Register, 1785
The Daily Universal Register renamed The Times, 1788
Haydn 1st sets foot in UK, Dover, 1791
Asteroid Ceres discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi, Palermo, 1801
Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland comes into force, 1801
Haiti becomes independent, 1804
Importation of slaves into USA forbidden, 1808
Seren Gomer, 1st Welsh-language newspaper, published, Swansea, 1814
UK proclaims sovereignty over Falkland Islands, 1833
Van Dieman's Land renamed Tasmania, 1856
London divided into 10 postal districts, 1858
Lincoln signs Emancipation Proclamation, formally freeing Confederate slaves, 1863
1st British trademark registered, to Bass Pale Ale, 1876
Victoria formally proclaimed Empress of India, Delhi, 1877
1st postal orders issued, UK, 1881
Electric chair adopted for capital punishment, New York, 1889
Footbell nets used in goal for 1st time, Bolton, 1890
Manchester Ship Canal opened to traffic, 1894
Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island consolidated into New York NY, 1898
Commonwealth of Australia formed, 1901
Trans-Siberian railway opened, 1905
Old age pensions introduced for those over 70, UK, 1909
Labour exchanges come into operation, 1910
Post Office takes control of telephone service, UK, 1912
British Board of Film Censors given powers to operate, 1913
1st scheduled passenger airline service begins, St Petersburg-Florida, 1914
USSR established, 1923
Christiania renamed Oslo, 1925
BBC established for 10 years by Royal Charter, 1927
Alcatraz officially becomes a federal prison, 1934
Any Questions and The Brains Trust 1st broadcast, BBC, 1941
Test flights begin from Heath Row, 1946
Nationalisation of UK coal mines, 1947
British Railways created with nationalisation of railways, UK, 1948
Nationalisation of steel industry, UK, 1951
The Archers 1st broadcast nationally, BBC, 1951
Direct American aid programme to S Vietnamese government begins, 1955
Luncheon Vouchers introduced, UK, 1955
Sudan becomes independent, 1956
EEC inaugurated, 1958
Fidel Castro seizes power, Cuba, 1959
French Cameroon becomes an independent republic, 1960
The Beatles audition unsuccessfully for Dick Rowe at Decca, 1962
1st Top of the Pops broadcast, introduced by Jimmy Savile, 1964
Evel Knievel loses control of motorcycle during 141 ft jump, Las Vegas NE, 1968
Age of majority lowered from 21 to 18, UK, 1970
Cigarette advertising banned on television, US, 1971
UK, IR & Denmark join EEC, 1973
Coalition government formed, Northern Ireland, 1974
Fishing limit extended to 200 miles around coast, UK, 1977
1st digital recording in UK made by Decca, 1979
Russian troops enter Afghanistan, 1980
Cruise missiles become operational, Greenham Common, 1984
1st UK portable telephone services introduced, London & South East, 1985
David Dinkins sworn in as 1st black mayor of New York NY, 1990
Boutros-Ghali succeeds de Cuellar as secretary-general of United Nations, 1992
Austria, Sweden & Finland join EEC, 1995
Publicans banned from serving spirits in imperial measures, UK, 1995
Newts, toads and frogs available for sale, UK, 1995
World Trade Organisation comes into being, 1995
Kofi Annan assumes post of United Nations secretary-general, 1997
Euro becomes new single currency of 11 European countries, 1999
12 European nations adopt euro as euro notes become legal tender, 2002
Euthanesia legalised, Netherlands, 2002
Michael Bloomberg succeeds Rudolph Giuliani as mayor of New York NY, 2002

2nd JANUARY
James Wolfe (b. 1727)
Gilbert Murray (b. 1866)
Sir Michael Tippett (b. 1905)
Isaac Asimov (b. 1920)
Roger Miller (b. 1936)
Ovid (d. 0017)
Sir George Airy (d. 1892)
Eleanor Rathbone (d. 1946)
Dick Powell (d. 1963)
Joe Harriott (d. 1973)
Tex Ritter (d. 1974)
Erroll Garner (d. 1977)
Larry Williams (d. 1980)
Dick Emery (d. 1983)
Randy California (d. 1997)
Frank Muir (d. 1998)
George Carman (d. 2001)
Dame Sheila McKechnie (d. 2004)
Cyril Fletcher (d. 2005)
Spanish army recaptures Granada from Moors, 1492
Royal Academy opened, London, 1769
Georgia, the Peach or Empire State, becomes 4th State of the Union, 1788
UK joins alliance with Russia & Turkey, 1799
Louis Daguerre takes 1st photograph of moon, 1839
Great Western Railway Works opened, Swindon, 1843
1st traffic lights explode, near Parliament Square, Westminster, 1869
Victoria writes "We are not amused", 1900
1st electric omnibus goes into service, New York, 1900
1st municipal crematorium opened, Hull, 1901
Japan captures Port Arthur, Manchuria, 1905
Theatre Royal opened in present building, 1905
Japan proclaims Manchuria the puppet Republic of Manchukuo, 1932
Anarchist rising, Barcelona, 1933
Japanese forces capture Manila during World War II, 1942
King Zog deposed, Albania, 1946
1st cupro-nickel coins, replacing silver, issued, Royal Mint, 1947
Much Binding In The Marsh 1st broadcast, BBC, 1947
1st rocket to pass near Moon, Lunik I, launched, Kapustin-Yar, Tyuratam, USSR, 1959
Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate marry, US, 1968
Filming of Beatles' Let It Be film begins, Twickenham, 1969
66 die when football barrier collapses, Ibrox Park, Glasgow, 1971
Platinum hallmarks introduced, 1976
Solomon Islands granted internal self-government by UK, 1976
13-week national steel strike begins, 1980
Golliwogs banned from Enid Blyton's Noddy books, 1987
Sharon Pratt Dixon was sworn in as 1st black female mayor of Washington DC, 1991
112 emergency service telephone number introduced, UK, 1993

3rd JANUARY
Marcus Tullius Cicero (b. BC 106)
Johann Schneider (b. 1786)
Henry Handel Richardson (b. 1870)
Lord (Clement) Attlee (b. 1883)
Osip Mandelstam (b. OS 1891)
JRR Tolkien (b. 1892)
Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (b. 1893)
ZaSu Pitts (b. 1894)
Ray Milland (b. 1907)
Victor Borge (b. 1909)
John Sturges (b. 1910)
Maxene Andrews (b. 1918)
Bill Travers (b. 1922)
Sergio Leone (b. 1929)
Iain Cuthbertson (b. 1930)
John Thaw (b. 1942)
Catherine of Valois, Queen of Henry V (d. 1437)
Jeremiah Horrocks (d. 1641)
Josiah Wedgwood (d. 1795)
Pierre Larousse (d. 1875)
Edgar Cayce (d. 1945)
William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw) (d. 1946)
Edwin Muir (d. 1959)
Jack Ruby (d. 1967)
Conrad Hilton (d. 1979)
Joy Adamson (d. 1980)
Amos Milburn (d. 1980)
David Maysles (d. 1987)
Bill Gibb (d. 1988)
Dame Judith Anderson (d. 1992)
Heather Sears (d. 1994)
Juan Garcia Esquivel (d. 2002)
Will Eisner (d. 2005)
Martin Luther, founder of Protestantism, excommunicated, 1521
Battle of Princeton, 1777
1st Chinese arrive in Hawaii, 1852
Work on Brooklyn-New York bridge begins, 1870
Paper drinking straw patented by Marvin Stone, 1888
Wilde's An Ideal Husband 1st performed, Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 1895
Sydney St Seige led by Peter The Painter, London, 1911
Tear gas 1st used in warfare, by Germans against Russia, Poland, 1915
Atom 1st split, by Ernest Rutherford, 1919
Howard Carter discovers sarcophagus in Tutankhamun's tomb, 1924
Sir Edmund Hillary reaches South Pole, 1958
Federation of the West Indies formed, 1958
Alaska becomes 49th state of US, 1959
Millionth Morris Minor comes off production line, Oxford, 1961
The Psychedelic Shop opened, Haight St, San Francisco, 1966
Trumpton 1st shown, 1967
Jimi Hendrix Experience appear on Happening With Lulu, BBC1, 1969
Beatles record their last song, I Me Mine, together, 1970
Mothers club closes its doors for final time, Erdington, 1971
1st broadcast by Open University takes place, 1971
Stoke Newington Eight "Angry Brigade" trial begins, Old Bailey, 1972
IMF lends £2,300m to UK, 1977
Apple Computers incorporated, US, 1977
Margaret Thatcher becomes longest serving prime minister of century, 1988
Bush and Yeltsin sign nuclear missile-reduction treaty, Moscow, 1993
The last new daily Peanuts comic strip by Schulz runs in 2,600 newspapers, 2000
NASA's Mars rover Spirit lands inside Gusev Crater, 0000 hr EST, 2004

4th JANUARY
Johann Agricola (b. 1720)
Jakob Grimm (b. 1785)
Louis Braille (b. 1809)
Sir Isaac Pitman (b. 1813)
Tom Thumb (b. 1838)
Augustus John (b. 1878)
André Masson (b. 1896)
James Bond (b. 1900)
Mimi Baudains (b. 1904)
William Bendix (b. 1906)
Jane Wyman (b. 1914)
Slim Gaillard (b. 1916)
Rosalie Crutchley (b. 1920)
Jan Lenica (b. 1928)
Arthur Conley (b. 1946)
Charles, Duke of Orleans (d. 1465)
Moses Mendelssohn (d. 1786)
Pompeo Batoni (d. 1787)
Henri Bergson (d. 1941)
Albert Camus (d. 1960)
Erwin Schrodinger (d. 1961)
TS Eliot (d. 1965)
Donald Campbell (d. 1967)
Carlo Levi (d. 1975)
Phil Lynott (d. 1986)
Christopher Isherwood (d. 1986)
Carl Rogers (d. 1987)
Lord Merlyn-Rees (d. 2006)
Columbus returns to Spain from America in the Nina, 1493
1st chess newspaper column published, Bell's Life In London, 1835
Lifeboat crew lost in Temperence rescue attempt, Rhyl, 1847
1st appendicitis operation performed, Iowa, 1885
Utah, the Beehive State, becomes 45th state of the Union, 1896
Don Bradman makes his 1st Test century, 1929
National Congress declared illegal and Gandhi arrested, 1932
1st national popular music chart published, by Billboard, US, 1936
Burma becomes independent republic, 1948
Chinese communists capture Seoul, 1951
Trainee barbers strike, begun in 1938, ends, Copenhagen, 1961
Keith Moon accidentally kills his chauffeur with his Bentley, 1970
Leonard Bernstein hosts a party for Black Panthers, New York NY, 1970
1st one-day cricket match played, between Australia and England, Melbourne, 1971
Rose Heilbron becomes 1st woman to sit as judge at the Old Bailey, 1972
Erika Roe streaks at England-Australia rugby international, Twickenham, 1982
Kim Cotton becomes 1st commercial surrogate mother, UK, 1985
Salt II agreement reached, 1993
Austria, Finland and Sweden join the European Union, 1995
Mikhail Saakashvili elected president, Georgia, 2004
Nancy Pelosi becomes 1st woman Speaker of the US House of Representatives, 2007

5th JANUARY
Richard, Earl of Cornwall (b. OS 1209)
James Ussher (b. 1581)
King Camp Gillette (b. 1855)
Konstantin Stanislavsky (b. OS 1863)
Konrad Adenauer (b. 1876)
Nikolai Medtner (b. 1880)
Humbert Wolfe (b. 1886)
Paramahansa Yogananda (b. 1893)
Stella Gibbons (b. 1902)
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (b. 1920)
Friedrich Dürrenmatt (b. 1921)
Sam Phillips (b. 1923)
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (b. 1928)
Raisa Gorbachev (b. 1932)
Jo Ann Kelly (b. 1944)
Anthony Minghella (b. 1954)
Socrates (d. BC 399)
St Edward, the Confessor, King of England (d. 1066)
Giovanni Battista Moroni (d. 1578)
Catherine de Medici (d. 1589)
St John Neumann (d. 1860)
Sir Ernest Shackleton (d. 1922)
Calvin Coolidge (d. 1933)
Humbert Wolfe (d. 1940)
Amy Johnson (d. 1941)
Mistinguett (d. 1956)
Cyril Fagan (d. 1970)
Max Born (d. 1970)
Mal Evans (d. 1976)
Charlie Mingus (d. 1979)
Arthur Kennedy (d. 1990)
Brian Johnston (d. 1994)
Sonny Bono (d. 1998)
Lord (Roy) Jenkins of Hillhead (d. 2003)
Lou Rawls (d. 2006)
Willie Mitchell (d. 2010)
Treaty of Dardanelles concluded, 1809
Paris Opera House opened, 1875
Wilhelm Röntgen gives 1st demonstration of X-rays, 1896
Cause of Earth's magnetism discovered, Baltimore, 1900
Yugoslavia (Kingdom of Serbs, Croats & Slovenes) established, 1919
Anton Drexier founds National Socialist (Nazi) Party, Germany, 1919
Nellie Ross becomes 1st woman governor, US, 1925
1st state pensions awarded, 1928
Work on Golden Gate Bridge begins, San Francisco CA, 1933
FM radio 1st demonstrated, US, 1940
1st episode of Mrs Dale's Diary broadcast, BBC, 1948
1st automatic ticket barrier on London Underground installed, Stamford Brook, 1964
Pope Paul IV & Patriarch Athenagorus I meet, Jerusalem, 1964
1st US Sex Pistols gig, South East Music Hall shopping mall, Atlanta GA, 1978
Prince makes live debut, Capri Theater, Minneapolis MN, 1979
The Slits disband, 1982
13 die in high winds and power cuts, UK, 1991
Braer tanker spills 85,000 tonnes of oil when grounded, Quendale Bay, Shetland, 1993
David Hempleman-Adams becomes 1st solo explorer to walk both N & S Poles, 1996

6th JANUARY
Richard II, King of England (b. OS 1367)
St Joan of Arc (b. OS 1413)
John Smith (b. OS 1580)
Jakob Bernoulli (b. NS 1655)
Jacques Montgolfier (b. NS 1745)
Heinrich Schliemann (b. 1822)
Gustave Doré (b. 1833)
Max Bruch (b. 1838)
Alexander Scriabin (b. NS 1872)
Carl Sandburg (b. 1878)
Tom Mix (b. 1880)
Khalil Gibran (b. 1883)
Loretta Young (b. 1913)
Bob Copper (b. 1915)
John De Lorean (b. 1925)
Wilbert Harrison (b. 1929)
Capucine (b. 1933)
Doris Troy (b. 1937)
Syd Barrett (b. 1946)
Sandy Denny (b. 1947)
Fanny Burney (d. 1840)
Louis Braille (d. 1852)
Gregor Mendel (d. 1884)
Theodore Roosevelt (d. 1919)
Tina Modotti (d. 1942)
Victor Fleming (d. 1949)
AJ Cronin (d. 1981)
Michinomiya Hirohito (d. 1989)
Leslie Dawson (d. 1989)
Ian Charleson (d. 1990)
Dizzy Gillespie (d. 1993)
Rudolf Nureyev (d. 1993)
Don Martin (d. 2000)
Magnus Magnusson (d. 2007)
Ron Asheton (d. 2009)
Alfred defeated by Danes, Battle of Ashdown, 871
Harold crowned King of England, 1066
Henry VIII marries Anne of Cleves, 1540
Samuel Morse 1st publically demonstrates the electric telegraph, 1838
Schumann finds 5 unpublished symphonies by Schubert, 1839
Boers attack Ladysmith, 1900
New Mexico, the Sunshine State, becomes 47th state of the Union, 1912
Evacuation begins, Gallipoli, 1916
The Magic Flute becomes 1st opera broadcast in UK, 1923
4 die in flood when R Thames bursts its banks, London, 1928
Don Bradman scores record 452 not out, Sydney, 1930
New Sadlers Wells Theatre opened, London, 1931
Pacific Clipper completes 1st commercial round-the-world trip, New York NY, 1942
Battle of the Bulge ends, 1945
Mumbles Railway last day of operations, Swansea-Oystermouth, 1960
Sex Pistols sacked by EMI, 1977
Nancy Kerrigan assaulted by team of ice-skater Tonya Harding, Detroit MI, 1994
2 British Airways pilots experience UFO "near miss", Manchester, 1995
Prince Edwards announces engagement to Sophie Rhys-Jones, 1999

7th JANUARY
Thomas of Woodstock (b. 1355)
Millard Fillmore (b. 1800)
St Bernadette of Lourdes (b. 1844)
Charles Péguy (b. 1873)
Francis Poulenc (b. 1899)
Al Bowlly (b. 1899)
Charles Addams (b. 1912)
Elena Ceausescu (b. 1919)
Vincent Gardenia (b. 1922)
Gerald Durrell (b. 1925)
Jean Charles de Menezes (b. 1978)
Catherine of Aragon (d. 1536)
Nicholas Hilliard (d. 1619)
Allan Ramsay (d. 1758)
Sir Thomas Lawrence (d. 1830)
Fred Emney Sr (d. 1917)
Andrey Bely (d. 1934)
Nikola Tesla (d. 1943)
Cyril Davies (d. 1964)
John Berryman (d. 1972)
Alvar Lidell (d. 1981)
Trevor Howard (d. 1988)
Larry Grayson (d. 1995)
Harry Golombek (d. 1995)
Owen Bradley (d. 1998)
James Carr (d. 2001)
Ingrid Thulin (d. 2004)
Tony Banks, Lord Stratford (d. 2006)
Glasgow University founded, 1450
France recaptures Calais from England, 1558
Galileo discovers 4 moons of Jupiter, 1610
Harlem Globetrotters baseball team founded, 1707
Form of typewriter 1st patented, by Henry Mill, 1714
Blanchard & Jeffries cross Channel by balloon, Dover-Calais, 1785
1st US national election held, 1789
1st railway station opened, Baltimore MD, 1830
Daguerrotype photographic process announced, French Academy of Science, 1839
London General Omnibus Co. begins to operate, 1857
1st influenza epidemic begins, US, 1917
1st woman elected as foreman of a jury, UK, 1921
London-New York transatlantic telephone service opened, 1927
Tarzan 1st appears as a comic strip, 1929
Princess Juliana marries Prince Bernhard, The Hague, 1937
BBC Radio Forces programmes begin, 1940
Muddy Waters records (I'm your) Hoochie coochie man, Chicago IL, 1954
Gibson patents Flying-V guitar, US, 1958
The Avengers 1st broadcast, ITV, 1961
The Forsyte Saga series begins, BBC1, 1967
Grosvenor Hotel destroyed by fire, Glasgow, 1978
1st baby born on Antarctica, 1978
Vietnam overthrows Pol Pot, 1979
Leaning Tower of Pisa closed to public for 1st time in 700 years, 1990
Erling Kagge becomes 1st to walk solo to S Pole, 1993
Environmental tobacco smoke classifed as carcinogen by EPA, 1993
British Rail replaced by National Railways, UK, 1996
Impeachment trial of Clinton begins, US, 1999
The 17th Karmapa, 14, a Buddhist leader, defects from Tibet to India, 2000

8th JANUARY
Alfred Wallace (b. 1823)
Wilkie Collins (b. 1824)
Hans von Bulow (b. 1830)
Frank Nelson Doubleday (b. 1862)
Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence (b. 1864)
Storm Jameson (b. 1891)
Dennis Wheatley (b. 1897)
Carl Rogers (b. 1902)
Tampa Red (b. 1904)
William Hartnell (b. 1908)
Galina Ulanova (b. 1910)
José Ferrer (b. 1912)
Jani Christou (b. 1926)
Roy Kinnear (b. 1934)
Elvis Presley (b. 1935)
Graham Chapman (b. 1941)
Tim Hart (b. 1948)
Edgar, King of Scotland (d. 1107)
Giotto (d. 1337)
Galileo Galilei (d. 1642)
Sir John Dalyrimple (d. 1707)
Arcangelo Corelli (d. 1713)
John Baskerville (d. 1775)
Eli Whitney (d. 1825)
Paul Verlaine (d. 1896)
Lord (Robert) Baden-Powell (d. 1941)
Karl Ernst Krafft (d. 1945)
Kurt Schwitters (d. 1948)
Richard Tauber (d. 1948)
Jani Christou (d. 1970)
Kenneth Patchen (d. 1972)
John Gregson (d. 1975)
Chou En-lai (d. 1976)
Sara Carter (d. 1979)
Dr Feelgood (d. 1985)
Terry-Thomas (d. 1990)
Steve Clark (d. 1991)
Carlos Monzon (d. 1995)
François Mitterand (d. 1996)
Sir Michael Tippett (d. 1998)
Tony Banks (d. 2006)
Yvonne De Carlo (d. 2007)
Danish Vikings attack Lindisfarne, 794
Alexander I accedes to Scottish throne, 1106
1st Scottish newspaper, Mercurius Caledonius, 1st published, 1661
René Robert Cavelier La Salle reaches Niagara Falls, 1679
Shopping stalls set up during deep freeze, Thames, 1698
1st soup kitchens opened, London, 1800
1st woman's golf tournament begins, Musselburgh, Scotland, 1811
UK defeated in final battle with US, Battle of New Orleans, 1815
1st UK newspaper cartoon published, Bell's New Weekly Messenger, 1832
Severn Valley Railway Tunnel opened, 1886
Arsenal Football Club plays 1st game, Plumstead, 1887
Electrically-operated computer patented by Herman Hollerith, New York NY, 1889
End of Allied operations, Gallipoli, 1916
1st member of Women's Royal Naval Service recruited, 1918
Chequers Court 1st occupied by a prime minister (Lloyd George), 1921
Ibn Saud becomes King of Hejaz (renamed Saudi Arabia), 1926
Sugar, bacon, ham & butter rationing begins, 1940
1st country music chart published, US, 1944
Jackson Pollock creates 1st drip painting, US, 1947
de Gaulle proclaimed President of French 5th Republic, 1959
Eddie Cochran records Three Steps To Heaven, Los Angeles CA, 1960
Military action against North Vietnam & NLF suspended by US, 1973
49 die when oil tanker Betelgeuse explodes, Bantry Bay, Ireland, 1979
Worst weather conditions since 1963 occur in UK, 1982
Dow Jones 1st exceeds 2,000, US, 1987
47 die when new Boeing 737 crashes onto M1, nr Kegworth, Leicestershire, 1989
Pan American World Airways files for bankruptcy, US, 1991
Tonya Harding wins US Figure Skating Championship, Detroit MI, 1994
Selsey damaged by tornado, Essex, 1998

9th JANUARY
Thomas Warton the Younger (b. 1728)
George Granville Leveson-Gower, Duke of Sutherland (b. 1758)
Sir William Herschel (b. 1833)
Carrie Chapman Catt (b. 1859)
Joseph B Strauss (b. 1870)
Lascelles Abercrombie (b. 1881)
Karel Capek (b. 1890)
Dame Gracie Fields (b. 1898)
Sir Rudolf Bing (b. 1902)
George Balanchine (b. 1904)
Simone de Beauvoir (b. 1908)
Richard Nixon (b. 1913)
Gypsy Rose Lee (b. 1914)
Kenny Clarke (b. 1914)
Chan Canasta (b. 1920)
Max Roach (b. 1924)
Lee Van Cleef (b. 1925)
Caroline Herschel (d. 1848)
Napoleon III (d. 1873)
Katherine Mansfield (d. 1923)
Tommy Handley (d. 1949)
Pierre Luigi Nervi (d. 1979)
Bill Naughton (d. 1992)
Peter Cook (d. 1995)
Peter Tinniswood (d. 2003)
Dave Dee (d. 2009)
Diocese of Glasgow elevated to Archdiocese by Pope, 1692
Connecticut, the Constitution or Nutmeg State, becomes 5th State of the Union, 1788
Blanchard makes 1st American balloon ascent, New Jersey, 1793
William Pitt the Younger introduces income tax (2/- in £1), 1799
Nelson buried, St Paul's Cathedral, 1806
Sir Humphry Davy's safety lamp 1st used in a coal mine, UK, 1816
Mississippi secedes from the Union, 1861
Flirting in public outlawed, New York NY, 1902
Juan de la Cierva makes 1st succesful flight of autogyro, 1923
Rebuilt Reichstag building opened by Hitler, 1939
1st X rated film, Life Begins Tomorrow, opened, London, 1951
Anthony Eden resigns as Prime Minister, 1957
De Havilland Trident makes maiden flight, 1962
Surveyor 7 space probe makes soft landing on the moon, 1968
1st trial supersonic Concorde flight takes place, Bristol, 1969
Queen Elizabeth destroyed by fire, Hong Kong, 1972
280,000 take part in coal-miner's strike, UK, 1972
Swan and Edgar closed, Piccadilly, 1982
Post Office mail trains make final journeys, UK, 2004

10th JANUARY
Simon Marius (b. 1573)
Grigoriy Rasputin (b. OS 1869)
Grock (b. 1880)
Dame Barbara Hepworth (b. 1903)
Jerry Wexler (b. 1917)
Billy Liddell (b. 1922)
Johnnie Ray (b. 1927)
David Maysles (b. 1932)
ànton Rodgers (b. 1933)
Francis X King (b. 1934)
Sal Mineo (b. 1939)
Jim Croce (b. 1943)
Linda Lovelace (b. 1952)
William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. OS 1645)
Nicholas Culpeper (d. OS 1654)
Carolus Linnaeus (d. NS 1778)
Mary Russell Mitford (d. 1855)
Samuel Colt (d. 1862)
Buffalo Bill (d. 1917)
Thomas Hardy (d. 1928)
Frank Bridge (d. 1941)
Gabriela Mistral (d. 1945)
Sinclair Lewis (d. 1951)
Dashiell Hammett (d. 1961)
Coco Chanel (d. 1971)
Nubar Gulbenkian (d. 1972)
Howlin' Wolf (d. 1976)
Juliet Berto (d. 1990)
Michael Aldridge (d. 1994)
Kathleen Tynan (d. 1995)
Elspeth Huxley (d. 1997)
Carlo Ponti (d. 2007)
Sir Edmund Hillary (d. 2008)
Sir John Harvey-Jones (d. 2008)
Templars suppressed in Britain, 1308
UK declares war on King of Kandy, 1815
Wren's Royal Exchange burns down, London, 1838
Penny Post begins with 112,000 letters posted in London, 1840
Florida secedes from the Union, 1861
London Underground (Metropolitan Railway) opened, Paddington-Farringdon St, 1863
Le Prince granted 1st US patent for single-lens camera, 1888
Tomb of Cleopatra discovered, 1890
Dvo_ák begins New World Symphony, New York NY, 1893
Oil Age begins when riggers hit 1st gusher, Spindletop TX, 1901
Universal direct suffrage inaugurated, Australia, 1907
World War I ends with ratification of Treaty of Versailles, 1920
League of Nations inaugurated, 1920
Juan de la Cierva makes 1st succesful flight of autogyro, 1923
Metropolis 1st shown, Berlin, 1926
1st cartoon appearance of Tintin, 1929
Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford divorced, US, 1935
League of Nation dissolved, 1946
1st assembly of United Nations held, London, 1946
1st radar echo from the Moon achieved by US Army, Belmar NJ, 1946
1st performance by Amadeus Quartet, London, 1948
1st jet passenger flight made, 1951
Elvis Presley records Heartbreak Hotel, Nashville TN, 1956
Harold Macmillan appointed prime minister, 1957
That Was The Week That Was 1st broadcast, BBC, 1964
Not Only...But Also 1st broadcast, BBC, 1965
2000 die when Niragong erupts, Zaïre, 1977
Full diplomatic relations with Vatican restored after 116 years, US, 1984
Daniel Ortega inaugurated as President, Nicaragua, 1985
Sinclair C5 1st road-tested, UK, 1985
Rainforest logging banned, Thailand, 1989
Kissing while driving made illegal, Italy, 1993
Andrew and Camilla Parker Bowles announce they are to divorce, UK, 1995
AOL and Time Warner announce merger worth $165 billion, US, 2000
North Korea withdraws from global treaty barring it from making nuclear weapons, 2003

Last updated: February 01, 2010