View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
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.
1918 – The House of Lords gave its approval to the Representation of the People Bill, which gave woman over the age of 30 the right to vote, as recognition of the contribution made by women defence workers during the First World War. However, women were still not politically equal to men, who could vote from the age of 21. Full electoral equality wouldn’t occur until the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act of 1928.
1922 – Arthur Griffith, the founder of Sinn Fein and one of the architects of the 1921 peace treaty with Britain, was elected president of the newly established Irish Free State.
1928 – Lieutenant John Moncrieff (born at Lerwick in the Shetland Islands) and Captain George Hood (New Zealander) were pioneers of aviation who disappeared whilst attempting the first Trans-Tasman flight from Australia to New Zealand. Despite a number of alleged sightings in New Zealand and many land searches in the intervening years, no trace of the aviators or their aircraft was ever found.
1946 – The General Assembly of the United Nations met for the first time, at Westminster Central Hall.
1956 – Elvis Presley records Heartbreak Hotel during his first recording session for RCA Records. His usual band of Scotty Moore and Bill Black is augmented for the song by pianist Floyd Cramer.
1979 – ‘Crisis? What Crisis?’ Prime Minister James Callaghan flew back into strike-torn Britain denying allegations that the country was in chaos. Callaghan was the only Prime Minister to have held all three leading Cabinet positions – Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary, prior to becoming Prime Minister.
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. It retailed for £399 but only 17,000 were ever sold and Sinclair Vehicles was put into receivership on 12th October 1985. At the time Sinclair, said ‘it currently remains the best selling electric vehicle of all time,’ but, by November 2011 it had been surpassed by the electric Nissan Leaf that had sold over 20,000 units.
1985 – Eight people died and dozens were injured when an explosion destroyed a block of exclusive flats in south-west London. The blast was compared to a 50lb bomb going off and caused an estimated £250m worth of damage in addition to the loss of life.
2015 – The Falklands commemorated Margaret Thatcher by unveiling a statue of the late Prime Minister who led the 1982 war that kept the island British. (Note – 10th January is Margaret Thatcher Day on the Falklands.)
2016 – The death, from liver cancer, of the English singer, songwriter David Bowie, aged 69.
2018 – Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ net worth reached $106 billion. With only Bill Gates passing the $100 billion milestone in 1999, this made Bezos the second man on Earth worth over $1 billion.
Did you know that on this day in 1863, the London Underground was opened? It’s the world’s oldest underground railway system.
A group of Hyenas is called a Cackle or Clan.
The Capital of Saint Lucia is Castries
Shrek was originally a children’s book – and it came out in 1990.
You should go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
Biggest film of 1987: 3 Men and a Baby (Comedy).
Sushi was originally a preservation method for the fish. Only later did people begin to eat the rice.
Domestic cats kill between 1.4 and 3.7 billion birds and between 6.9 and 20.7 billion mammals each year in the United States.
My dog is always following me into the bathroom or poking his head in. He must think watching each other go to the bathroom is a bonding thing.
Any stone in your boot always migrates against the pressure gradient to exactly the point of most pressure.
Until 1954, STOP signs featured black writing on a yellow background, but the invention of a red finish that resisted fading allowed for the standardization of the idea that “red means stop” across both traffic lights and signs.
I still have no idea where Cotton Eye Joe came from or where he is going.
Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
You could pretty much learn all there is to know about America by watching the entire run of The Simpsons.
“Three Men and a Baby” was actually a remake of a 1985 French film, 3 hommes et un couffin (Three Men and a Cradle).
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2018 – Xi’an, China, introduced a pedestrian lane for people who walk while looking at their phones.
1993 – The Holbeck Hall Hotel in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, fell into the sea following a landslide, making news around the world.
1805 – The first Trooping of the Colour took place on Horse Guards Parade. It was Edward VII who moved Trooping the Colour to its June date, because of the vagaries of British weather.