4th January

[chenrezig]

871 The Battle of Reading took place, in the county of Berkshire. It followed an invasion of the then kingdom of Wessex by an army of Danes. The Saxon forces retreated, allowing the Danes to continue their advance into Wessex. Much of King Alfred's 28-year reign was taken up with this Danish conflict.

1642 Under the orders of King Charles I, armed soldiers entered Parliament. The English Civil War started shortly afterwards.

1813 Birth of Sir Isaac Pitman, English inventor of the first major shorthand system. Pitman founded a company called Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, which became a one of the world's leading educational publishers and training businesses. In 1837-38 he became a teetotaller and vegetarian, practices to which he attributed his health and his ability to work long hours.

1890 The Daily Graphic was launched; the first daily illustrated paper. It merged with the Daily Sketch in 1926. .

1932 Gandhi was arrested and his National Congress of India declared illegal by the British administration.The warrant for Gandhi's arrest merely said that he was being arrested 'for good and sufficient reasons.'

1938 Bertram Mills’ Circus became the first circus to be shown on television. This was also the first time that a paying audience for any event had been televised, and audience members were informed that they could request seats out of range of the cameras. Originally from Paddington, London, his circus became famous in Britain for its Christmas shows at Olympia in West London and his troupe were the last to perform with live animals on the Drury Lane Theatre stage.

1957 A dissatisfied plastic surgeon patient was sentenced in London to ten years’ imprisonment, after he had threatened his surgeon with a gun, complaining that his nose was too short.

1967 Donald Campbell, 46 year old son of Sir Malcolm Campbell, died in his attempt to break his own world water speed record on Coniston Water in the Lake District. This plaque is in the village of Coniston. His boat, Bluebird K7, somersaulted at high speed, and Campbell died instantly and is buried in Coniston graveyard. The wreckage of Campbell's craft was recovered by the Bluebird Project between October 2000, when the first sections were raised, and June 2001 when Campbell's body was recovered. It is intended to return a rebuilt Bluebird to Coniston before permanently housing her at the nearly Ruskin museum.

1972 Rose Heilbron became Britain’s first woman judge at the Old Bailey. Her career included many 'firsts' for a woman - she was the first woman to win a scholarship to Gray's Inn, the first woman to be appointed King's Counsel in England, the first to lead in a murder case, the first woman Recorder, the first woman judge to sit at the Old Bailey and the first woman Treasurer of Gray's Inn.

1982 Erica Rowe became the first sports 'streaker' when she ran across the Twickenham ground at the England v Australia rugby match waving her bra in the air. She was arrested, with policemen covering her 40" breasts with their woefully undersized helmets!

1998 Loyalist prisoners in the Maze Prison, Northern Ireland, voted to withdraw support for the Ulster Peace Process. They claimed that too many concessions had been made to Republicans.

2000 Catherine Hartley and Fiona Thornewill, the first British women to walk across Antarctica to the South Pole arrivedsafely, more than two months after starting their record-breaking journey.

2014 kRichard Parks, a former Welsh rugby player turned adventurer claimed a record for the fastest solo, unsupported and unassisted journey to the South Pole by a Briton. The 715 mile journey took 29 days, 19 hours and 24 minutes. In 2011, Parks achieved his world-record-breaking dream to reach seven summits and three poles in seven months in his 737 Challenge, aiming to raise £1m for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

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[wendy]