On this week in history

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On this week in history (8th to 14th January inclusive) as follows;

  • 1811 – The first women’s golf tournament takes place in Scotland
  • 1864 – Charing Cross station is opened in London
  • 1889 – New Yorker Dr Herman Hoperith patents the first computer
  • 1920 – Alexander Fleming pioneers the use of penicillin at St Mary’s hospital in London
  • 1921 – Lloyd-George becomes the first British prime minister to take up residence at Chequers
  • 1946 – The League of Nations is dissolved and replaced by the United Nations
  • 1957 – Sir Anthony Eden resigns as British prime minister over his handling of the Suez crisis
  • 1957 – Elvis Presley records the hit ‘All Shook Up’ in a Hollywood studio
  • 1963 – Fire damages seven floors of the Empire State building in New York
  • 1972 – British miners strike for the first time since 1926
  • 1974 – The first surviving sextuplets are born to Mrs Sue Rosenkowitz of Cape Town South Africa
  • 1982 – Maark Thatcher, son of the British prime minister, is found after being lost in the Sahara Desert
  • 1985 – Clive Sinclair launches the C5, a battery operated tricycle
  • 1989 – President Ronald Reagan bids goodbye to the American people after two terms of office
  • 2010 – The first criminal trial without a jury for over 400 years opens in London

And some notable birthdays include;

  • 1815 – Sir John Alexander, Canada’s first prime minister
  • 1884 – Sophie Tucker, Russian-born singer and vaudeville star in America
  • 1893 – Hermann Goering, commander of the German Air Force during WWII
  • 1904 – Cecil Beaton, British stage designer and photographer
  • 1906 – Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate and second husband of Jackie Kennedy
  • 1913 – Richard Nixon, 37th President of the USA who resigned in disgrace following the Watergate scandal
  • 1926 – Michael Bond, creator of the much loved children’s character Paddington Bear
  • 1927 – Johnny Ray, American popular singer of the 1950’s
  • 1929 – Martin Luther King, American clergyman and civil rights leader
  • 1937 – Margaret O’Brien, American child actress who won an Academy Award at the age of seven
  • 1941 – Faye Dunaway, American film actress
  • 1945 – Rod Stewart, British rock star
  • 1947 – Joe Frazier, American world heavyweight champion
  • 1947 – David Bowie, British rock musician and actor
  • 1969 – Stephen Hendry, British seven-time world snooker champion