29th January

[chenrezig]

1801 The birth of the illegitimate daughter of Lord Nelson and Emma Hamilton. She was christened Horatia Nelson Thompson. One of Nelson's last wishes was that Horatia should take the name Nelson. He left her £200 a year in his will, adding : "I desire she will use in future the name of Nelson only."

1817 Birth of John Callcott Horsley. He designed the first commercial Christmas cards in 1843.

1820 King George III died, aged 81. At the time he was the longest reigning monarch and served for more than 59 years.

1845  "The Raven" is published in the New York Evening Mirror, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe

1856 Queen Victoria instituted Britain’s highest military decoration, the Victoria Cross (VC). The medal is awarded to British and Commonwealth armed forces for outstanding bravery ‘on the field of battle’.

1888 The death of Edward Lear, English artist, illustrator, author and poet, renowned today primarily for his limericks and his literary nonsense poems such as The Owl and the Pussycat.

1916 British military tanks had their first trials, in Hertfordshire.

1928 The death of Field Marshal Douglas Haig, British senior officer during World War I. He was commander during the Battle of the Somme, the battle with one of the highest casualties in British military history. In the 1960s he became an object of criticism for his leadership during the First World War and has been dubbed "Butcher Haig", for the two million British casualties under his command.

1930 Barton Airport, Manchester's first international airport, was opened.

1942 The first broadcast of Desert Island Discs on BBC radio, devised and presented by Roy Plomley. It is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio.

1943 The birth of Tony Blackburn, English disc jockey. He broadcast on the "pirate" stations Radio Caroline and Radio London in the 1960s and was the first disc jockey to broadcast on BBC Radio 1, in 1967.

1963 A French veto stopped Britain joining the European Common Market.

1966 A bill was published by the government, permitting random breath tests.

1985 Oxford University snubbed Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by refusing her an honorary degree. Academics led a campaign against honouring Mrs. Thatcher in protest against the government's cuts in funding for education.

1989 The artificial leg that had belonged to Sir Douglas Bader was catalogued for sale. His widow was selling memorabilia to raise money to buy her own house, instead of renting.

1996  La Fenice, Venice's opera house, is destroyed by fire.

2002  In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an Axis of evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

2003 Solicitor Sally Clark was cleared by the Court of Appeal of murdering her two sons after serving more than three years of a life sentence. Sadly, she never fully recovered from the effects of the appalling miscarriage of justice and was found dead at her home on 16th March 2007.

Births
1862 – Frederick Delius, English composer (d. 1934)
1880 – W. C. Fields, American actor (d. 1946)
1930 – John Junkin, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2006)
1934 – Noel Harrison, English singer, actor, and skier (d. 2013)
1943 – Tony Blackburn, English radio host
1954 – Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host, actress, and producer, founded the OWN Network and Harpo Productions

Deaths
1964 – Alan Ladd, American actor (b. 1913)
1980 – Jimmy Durante, American actor, singer, and pianist (b. 1893)
1986 – Leif Erickson, American actor (b. 1911)
2013 – Bernard Horsfall, English actor (b. 1930)
2013 – David Taylor, English veterinarian and television host (b. 1934)

[annie]

tha22222

[Misspears]

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