1960 – The last journey of the Mumbles Railway, the oldest in the world. It was set up in 1804 as a goods railway running from Swansea to Mumbles Head, Wales, and began carrying passengers in 1807. The railway still holds the record for the highest number of forms of traction of any railway in the world – horse-drawn, sail power, steam power, electric power, petrol and diesel.

1971 – One-day cricket was born when 46,000 turned up to watch England play Australia at Melbourne. The test match had been rained off for several days previously. Australia won by 5 wickets (with 42 balls remaining)

1976 – Ten Protestants were brutally gunned down in Northern Ireland, in what was believed to be a revenge killing after the murder of five Catholics.

1981 – Peter Sutcliffe, a 35-year-old lorry driver from Bradford, suspected of carrying out 13 murders across West Yorkshire over a period of five years, was formally charged in court.

1993 – The oil tanker ‘Braer’ was wrecked in hurricane force winds off the Shetland Islands, discharging large amounts of crude oil.

1998 – Singer-songwriter, producer, and politician Sonny Bono is killed in a skiing accident at a resort near Lake Tahoe, aged 62. On the same day, vandals decapitate Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid statue.

2001 – A report funded by The Department of Health found that the convicted serial killer, former GP Harold Shipman, may have killed in excess of 300 of his patients. The official inquiry concluded that up to 15 patients who died between 1971 and 1974 at the former Pontefract general infirmary West Yorkshire could have been killed by Shipman, based on the investigation into 137 deaths at Pontefract that occurred while Shipman was a junior doctor there.

2013 – The death in Wirksworth – Derbyshire, of Britain’s oldest man, Reg Dean aged 110 years and 63 days. He was a former church minister and lived through two world wars and 24 British prime ministers.

2021 – Scots were ordered to stay at home and work from home where possible amid a fresh Covid-19 lockdown which saw schools closed to most pupils until 1st February. Similarly a new lockdown in England saw schools and colleges closed to most pupils, with a switch to remote learning until after the February half-term holiday. Mark Drakeford, Wales’ first minister, said that Wales was likely to remain in lockdown for the rest of January as there was “not much headroom for change”.