1895 – The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This record was equalled, also at Braemar on 10th January 1982. Minus 27°C was also recorded at Altnaharra (Highland) on 30th December 1995.

1908 – Birth of Sir Vivien Fuchs, English geologist and leader of the Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition (1956-8).

1932 – The birth in Clay Cross, Derbyshire of Dennis Edward Skinner, former NUM leader and Labour Member of Parliament for Bolsover since 1970. He is known for never missing a Commons session, for his left-wing views and his acid tongue that has led to him being suspended from Parliament on at least ten occasions, usually for ‘unparliamentary language’ when attacking opponents.

1934 – The birth of the racing driver John Surtees. He remains the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels.

1956 – Two British spies, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, who had vanished in mysterious circumstances five years previously, re-appeared in the Soviet Union.

1963 – The death, by suicide, of the 30 year old, Boston born poet and novelist Sylvia Plath. She was married to fellow poet Ted Hughes. Hughes served as Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death.

1971 – Eighty-seven countries, including the UK, the United States and the USSR, sign the Seabed Treaty. It outlawed nuclear weapons on the ocean floor in international waters.

1975 – Margaret Thatcher won the Conservative Party Leadership and became the first woman leader of a British political party.

1976 – John Curry became the first Briton to win a gold medal for men’s figure skating.

1983 – Police launched a mass murder investigation in London after discovering human remains in drains. Civil servant Dennis Andrew Nilsen, 37, was later charged with 12 murders and sentenced to six life sentences.

1993 – Queen Elizabeth II and the Prince of Wales both volunteered to pay income tax and capital gains tax on their private income. The Queen also took over civil list payments to junior members of the royal family.

2017 – It was announced that Andrew Lloyd Webber had become the first composer to have four shows on Broadway at one time since Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1953. His shows were School of Rock – The Musical, The Phantom of the Opera, Cats and Sunset Boulevard.