January 9th – On This Day
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. Test run services were carried out on the East Lancashire Railway, between Bury and Rawtenstall, for two successive weekends.
January 8th – On This Day
2004 - The liner RMS Queen Mary 2, was named by Queen Elizabeth II. At the time of her construction in 2003 she was the longest, widest and tallest passenger ship ever built, and at 151,400 gross tons, she was also the largest.
January 7th – On This Day
1990 – The iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa leaned “too far,” which resulted in its closure. The tower’s bells were removed to reduce the weight, and it was reopened to the public on December 15, 2001.
January 6th – On This Day
1977 - The music publisher EMI ended its contract with the notorious punk rock group, Sex Pistols, after reports the band had vomited and spat their way on to a flight from London’s Heathrow Airport bound for the Netherlands.
January 5th – On This Day
1993 - The oil tanker ‘Braer’ was wrecked in hurricane force winds off the Shetland Islands, discharging large amounts of crude oil.
January 4th – On This Day
1967 - Donald Campbell, 46 year old son of Sir Malcolm Campbell, died in his attempt to break his own world water speed record on Coniston Water in the Lake District.
January 3rd – On This Day
2014 - Along the whole of Wales’ coastline dozens of roads were closed and the rail network was also badly affected as storm surges brought flooding chaos around Wales’ coast.
January 2nd – On This Day
1982 - Erica Rowe became the first sports ‘streaker’ when she ran across the Twickenham ground at the England v Australia rugby match waving her bra in the air. She was arrested, with policemen covering her 40″ breasts with their woefully undersized helmets.
January 1st – On This Day
1999 - The Euro currency was introduced and adopted by 11 Member States - Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.