The Times On This Day: Facts and trivia for every day of the year

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Published by Times Books

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First edition 2018

© This compilation Times Newspapers Ltd 2018

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My thanks and acknowledgements go to Lily Cox and Robin Ashton at News Syndication and, in particular, at The Times, Ian Brunskill and, at HarperCollins, Gerry Breslin, Jethro Lennox, Karen Midgley, Kerry Ferguson, Sarah Woods and Evelyn Sword.

eBook Edition © October 2018

ISBN 9780008317416

Version: 2018-09-24

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

1 January

2 January

3 January

4 January

5 January

6 January

7 January

8 January

9 January

10 January

11 January

12 January

13 January

14 January

15 January

16 January

17 January

18 January

19 January

20 January

21 January

22 January

23 January

24 January

25 January

26 January

27 January

28 January

29 January

30 January

31 January

1 February

2 February

3 February

4 February

5 February

6 February

7 February

8 February

9 February

10 February

11 February

12 February

13 February

14 February

15 February

16 February

17 February

18 February

19 February

20 February

21 February

22 February

23 February

24 February

25 February

26 February

27 February

28 February

29 February

1 March

2 March

3 March

4 March

5 March

6 March

7 March

8 March

9 March

10 March

11 March

12 March

13 March

14 March

15 March

16 March

17 March

18 March

19 March

20 March

21 March

22 March

23 March

24 March

25 March

26 March

27 March

28 March

29 March

30 March

31 March

1 April

2 April

3 April

4 April

5 April

6 April

7 April

8 April

9 April

10 April

11 April

12 April

13 April

14 April

15 April

16 April

17 April

18 April

19 April

20 April

21 April

22 April

23 April

24 April

25 April

26 April

27 April

28 April

29 April

30 April

1 May

2 May

3 May

4 May

5 May

6 May

7 May

8 May

9 May

10 May

11 May

12 May

13 May

14 May

15 May

16 May

17 May

18 May

19 May

20 May

21 May

22 May

23 May

24 May

25 May

26 May

27 May

28 May

29 May

30 May

31 May

1 June

2 June

3 June

4 June

5 June

6 June

7 June

8 June

9 June

10 June

11 June

12 June

13 June

14 June

15 June

16 June

17 June

18 June

19 June

20 June

21 June

22 June

23 June

24 June

25 June

26 June

27 June

28 June

29 June

30 June

1 July

2 July

3 July

4 July

5 July

6 July

7 July

8 July

9 July

10 July

11 July

12 July

13 July

14 July

15 July

16 July

17 July

18 July

19 July

20 July

21 July

22 July

23 July

24 July

25 July

26 July

27 July

28 July

29 July

30 July

31 July

1 August

2 August

3 August

4 August

5 August

6 August

7 August

8 August

9 August

10 August

11 August

12 August

13 August

14 August

15 August

16 August

17 August

18 August

19 August

20 August

21 August

22 August

23 August

24 August

25 August

26 August

27 August

28 August

29 August

30 August

31 August

1 September

2 September

3 September

4 September

5 September

6 September

7 September

8 September

9 September

10 September

11 September

12 September

13 September

14 September

15 September

16 September

17 September

18 September

19 September

20 September

21 September

22 September

23 September

24 September

25 September

26 September

27 September

28 September

29 September

30 September

1 October

2 October

3 October

4 October

5 October

6 October

7 October

8 October

9 October

10 October

11 October

12 October

13 October

14 October

15 October

16 October

17 October

18 October

19 October

20 October

21 October

22 October

23 October

24 October

25 October

26 October

27 October

28 October

29 October

30 October

31 October

1 November

2 November

3 November

4 November

5 November

6 November

7 November

8 November

9 November

10 November

11 November

12 November

13 November

14 November

15 November

16 November

17 November

18 November

19 November

20 November

21 November

22 November

23 November

24 November

25 November

26 November

27 November

28 November

29 November

30 November

1 December

2 December

3 December

4 December

5 December

6 December

7 December

8 December

9 December

10 December

11 December

12 December

13 December

14 December

15 December

16 December

17 December

18 December

19 December

20 December

21 December

22 December

23 December

24 December

25 December

26 December

27 December

28 December

29 December

30 December

31 December

Date Index

About the Publisher

INTRODUCTION

In amongst the unchanging, comforting bric-a-brac of the Register section of each edition of The Times nestles the record of anniversaries of events which fall “On This Day”. The feature has the feel of having been there for ever, alongside the royal engagements and what the weather has in store. Yet in fact, in terms of the newspaper’s two centuries and more of history, it is a relatively recent innovation, with this selection compiled from those entries which have appeared during the last decade or so.

They are not meant to represent a complete history of the world. Rather, they are a random, often quirky, frequently diverting list of things you feel better for knowing. That said, the collective mind that put them together seems to have had some idiosyncratic interests, including notable firsts in astronomy, key moments in Britain’s withdrawal from empire, and opera premieres. The broad-minded reader of The Times naturally takes all these in his or her stride. What can the rest of us learn from this midden heap of the past?

Perhaps it is that the past is just that. Rooting about in it disinters things which were once prized but are now of little account. Events which made headlines – “40 skaters drowned in Regent’s Park” – are long forgotten. How quickly things change, one might think (maybe contemplating an entry whilst adding to one’s own midden heap), a thought soon followed by: “Did that happen 20 years ago already?”

And then there are the secret harmonies one fancies hearing in time’s dance music. Can it be just coincidence that Sir Winston Churchill died on the same day of the year (January 24th) as not only his father but also Sir John Vanbrugh, architect of the Churchills’ family seat at Blenheim? That Rolls-Royce should commission its proud emblem Spirit of Ecstasy exactly 60 years to the day before declaring bankruptcy? What unseen force sent King Louis XVI to the guillotine on the anniversary of its inventor having proposed it as a humane method of execution?

Another newspaper – now itself passed into history – once claimed of its contents that “All human life is here”. That may not be precisely true of this selection, but it is good to be reminded of the breadth and diversity of mankind’s achievements. Sometimes one can even be surprised by them: Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein when she was 21; Sid Vicious rose to fame with the Sex Pistols when a year younger; the first public flushing lavatory for women opened in London as early as 1852.

So, read on and find your own path through the past, be it by lucky dip, joining the dots, using the date index at the back of the book or through dates that mean something to you. Discover something that prompts you to learn more, or to think “I never knew that!”, a fact to share with a friend and make you muse upon all that has gone before us down the ages: a glorious gallimaufry of happenings.

And then turn the page and read the Obituaries.

James Owen

1 JANUARY

1785 The Daily Universal Register was founded. It was renamed The Times on January 1, 1788.

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1801 the Acts of Union between Great Britain and Ireland came into force.

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1901 the Commonwealth of Australia was established, allowing the nation to govern itself.

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1962 the Beatles were not signed by Decca Records because guitar groups were “on the way out”.

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1973 Britain entered the Common Market, later named the European Union.

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1999 the euro was introduced, giving 11 countries a shared currency — the first time since the Roman Empire that much of Europe had had one.

2 JANUARY

17 Roman poet Ovid died, a decade after mysteriously being banished to modern-day Romania by Emperor Augustus.

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1769 the Royal Academy met for the first time, with Sir Joshua Reynolds as president.

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1896 Leander Starr Jameson surrendered after his raid failed to provoke an uprising by British workers against the Boers in the Transvaal.

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1959 the Russians launched the rocket Luna 1 on the first close fly-by mission to the moon.

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1971 66 football fans were killed in a crush at Ibrox Park, Glasgow.

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1981 police arrested serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper.

3 JANUARY

1521 the Pope excommunicated Martin Luther, founder of Protestantism.

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1892 JRR Tolkein, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was born.

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1924 Howard Carter discovered the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt.

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1946 William Joyce (better known as Lord Haw-Haw), broadcaster of Nazi propaganda, hanged.

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1980 Joy Adamson, wildlife conservationist and author of Born Free, was murdered.

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1981 Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, the last survivor of Queen Victoria’s 37 grandchildren, died aged 97.

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1990 Panama’s leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to US forces after ten days under siege in the Vatican Embassy.

4 JANUARY

1642 King Charles I entered Parliament with soldiers in a bid to arrest five MPs, sparking the English Civil War.

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1643 Sir Isaac Newton, physicist and mathematician, was born.

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1877 Cornelius Vanderbilt, financier and transport magnate whose steamship service flourished with the 1849 Gold Rush, died.

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1948 after more than 100 years of British rule, Burma became an independent republic.

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1951 Chinese Communist and North Korean troops captured Seoul during the Korean War.

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1967 world speed record breaker Donald Campbell was killed in Bluebird on Coniston Water, Cumbria, during a record attempt.

5 JANUARY

1066 Edward the Confessor, King of England since 1042, died.

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1592 Shah Jahan, Mogul emperor of India, who ordered the building of the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his wife, was born.

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1855 King Camp Gillette, inventor of his eponymous safety razor, was born in Wisconsin.

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1941 Amy Johnson, record-breaking aviator, died after her aircraft crashed in the Thames estuary.

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1968 Alexander Dubcek became First Secretary of Czechoslovakia’s Communist Party, ushering in the Prague Spring.

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1971 international one-day cricket was born when England played Australia in Melbourne, the Test match having been abandoned due to rain.

6 JANUARY

1066 Harold Godwinson was crowned King of England in succession to Edward the Confessor, prompting the Normans to invade.

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1412 St Joan of Arc, French heroine, was born into a peasant family at Domrémy, (later called Domrémy-la-Pucelle) in the Vosges.

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1681 the first recorded boxing match in the UK was arranged by the Duke of Albemarle between his butler and his butcher.

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1838 in New Jersey, Samuel Morse gave the first public demonstration of his electric telegraph system.

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1852 Louis Braille, who invented a reading and writing system for blind people, died in Paris.

7 JANUARY

1714 a patent was granted to the English engineer Henry Mill for his typewriter design.

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1785 Blanchard and Jeffries made the first hot-air balloon crossing of the Channel.

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1789 the first nationwide election was held in America, with George Washington elected as president.

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1827 Sandford Fleming, Scottish engineer who divided the world into time zones, was born.

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1955 Marian Anderson was placed under contract by the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the first African-American to be so engaged.

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1999 the impeachment trial of President Clinton began in Washington.

8 JANUARY

1337 Giotto, painter and architect, died in Florence.

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1642 Galileo Galilei, mathematician and astronomer, died in Arcetri, Tuscany.

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1742 Philip Astley, founder of Astley’s Royal Amphitheatre, a forerunner of the modern circus, was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

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1824 Wilkie Collins, author of The Woman in White, was born.

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1897 Dennis Wheatley, historical novelist and thriller writer (The Devil Rides Out), was born.

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1935 Elvis Presley, singer, was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.

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1940 wartime rationing of butter, bacon and sugar began in the UK.

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1959 Charles de Gaulle was proclaimed president of the French Republic.

9 JANUARY

1799 income tax was introduced by prime minister William Pitt the Younger to raise funds for the Napoleonic Wars.

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1806 Horatio Nelson was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral.

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1816 Sir Humphry Davy’s safety lamp was first used in a mine.

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1873 Napoleon III, French Emperor, died in exile in England.

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1913 Richard Nixon, president of the United States 1969–74, was born in Yorba Linda, California.

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1960 work began on the Aswan High Dam in Egypt and would take ten years to complete.

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1972 the liner Queen Elizabeth was destroyed by fire in Hong Kong harbour.

10 JANUARY

1840 the Penny Post was introduced.

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1862 Samuel Colt, firearms manufacturer, died as one of America’s wealthiest men.

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1863 the Metropolitan Railway — ancestor of the London Underground — opened between Paddington and Farringdon Street.

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1870 the Standard Oil Company, which was to be vastly enriched by the advent of the motor car, founded by William and John D Rockefeller.

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1917 William Cody (Buffalo Bill), US army scout, and later showman who killed 4,280 buffalo in eight months to feed railroad workers, died.

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1946 the inaugural session of the UN general assembly opened in London.

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1985 Clive Sinclair launched the C5 electric car at £399.

11 JANUARY

1753 Sir Hans Sloane, whose collection was the foundation of the British Museum, died at Chelsea.

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1891 Georges Haussmann, architect who planned much of modern Paris, died.

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1922 insulin first used successfully in the treatment of diabetes.

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1928 Thomas Hardy, author of Tess of the d’Urbervilles, died at Dorchester, Dorset.

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1946 King Zog of Albania was dethroned.

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1969 Richmal Crompton, author of Just William, died.

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1973 the Open University awarded its first degrees.