1549 - Parliament passed the first of four Acts of Uniformity, the first requiring the exclusive use of the Book of Common Prayer in all public services of the Anglican Church.
1643 – Abel Tasman becomes the first European to reach Tonga.
1799 - Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccination was introduced.
1807 - Streets in London were first illuminated by gaslight when Pall Mall was lit up.
1911 – The first Monte Carlo Rally takes place.
1954 – The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, the First Lady of the United States.
1976 - The first supersonic Concordes with commercial passengers simultaneously took off from London's Heathrow and the Paris Orly airports.
1981 – Production of the iconic DeLorean DMC-12 sports car begins in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLorean_DMC-12
2004 – NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies in the management of its flash memory and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.
1771 - The Falkland Islands were given to Britain, by the Spanish.
1840 - The first British colonists to New Zealand arrived at Port Nicholson on Auckland Island.
1879 - The Zulus massacred British troops at Isandlwana. Two British officers and eighty men of the 24th regiment fought off attacks of more than 4,000 Zulu warriors and eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded.
1902 - Marconi carried out his first radio transmission experiments, transmitting from the Lizard, Cornwall, across the water to St. Catherine's on the Isle of Wight.
1943 - In the first land victory over the Japanese in World War II, the Allies took New Guinea.
1968 – Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space.
1970 - The first regularly scheduled commercial flight of the Boeing 747 took place, starting in New York and landing in London about 6.5 hours later.
1984 – The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous "1984" television commercial.
1996 - A mass grave containing nearly 3,000 Muslim and Croat victims of Serb ethnic cleansing was discovered near the Bosnian town of Brcko.
1510 – Henry VIII of England, then 18 years old, appears incognito in the lists at Richmond, and is applauded for his jousting before he reveals his identity.
1556 - An earthquake in Shanxi Province, China, was thought to have killed some 830,000 people.
1571 - Queen Elizabeth I opened the Royal Exchange, London.
1713 - The signing of the Treaty of Utrecht redrew the map of Europe. The treaty signalled the end of the long and bloody War of Spanish Succession. As part of the agreement Gibraltar and Minorca become British.
1849 - English-born Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive a Doctor of Medicine degree, from the Geneva College in New York.
1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: the Battle of Rorke's Drift ends.
1978 - Sweden banned aerosol sprays because of damage to environment; it was the first country to do so.
1986 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
2003 – Final communication between Earth and Pioneer 10 -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_10
41 – Gaius Caesar (Caligula), known for his eccentricity and cruel despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. Claudius succeeds his nephew.
1916 - World War I: Britain introduced Conscription - the automatic call-up of all those eligible to join the Armed Services.
1935 - Beer in cans was first sold, in Virginia, by the Kreuger Brewing Company.
1964 - The first Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue was published.
1965 - Sir Winston Churchill died, aged 90. He had correctly predicted that he would die on the same date as his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, who had died exactly 70 years before.
1978 – Soviet satellite Cosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor onboard, burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.
1984 – The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.
1990 – Japan launches Hiten, the country's first lunar probe, the first robotic lunar probe since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976, and the first lunar probe launched by a country other than Soviet Union or the United States.
2003 – The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
2006 - Disney agrees to purchase Pixar for $7.4 billion.
41 – After a night of negotiation, Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate.
1533 – Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn.
1554 - Sir Thomas Wyatt gathered an army of 4000 men in Kent at the start of his rebellion against Queen Mary. His fellow conspirators were timid and inept and he eventually surrendered. He was executed and his body 'quartered' on 11th April.
1759 - Birth of Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet. His birthday is celebrated as Burns Night by Scottish people all over the world.
1919 - Founding of The League of Nations, it was forerunner to the United Nations.
1971 - Charles Manson and three women followers were convicted in Los Angeles of murder and conspiracy in the 1969 slayings of seven people, including actress Sharon Tate.
1972 - The world's first kidney and pancreatic tissue transplant was carried out in London.
1995 - The defense presented its opening statement in the O.J. Simpson trial in Los Angeles.
1999 – A 6.0 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000.
2004 - Opportunity rover (MER-B) lands on surface of Mars.
2006 - Three independent observing campaigns announce the discovery of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb through gravitational microlensing, the first cool rocky/icy extrasolar planet around a main-sequence star -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb
(25-01-2011 13:34 )skully Wrote: [ -> ]41 – After a night of negotiation, Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate.
That's quite a long time ago!!!
1788 – The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sails into Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) to establish Sydney, it was the first permanent European settlement on the continent. Commemorated as Australia Day
1841 - Hong Kong was proclaimed British sovereign territory.
1905 - The world's largest diamond, 3106 carats, was discovered at the Premier mine in Pretoria, South Africa. It weighed 114 pounds.
1908 - The 1st Glasgow Boy Scout group, the first Scout group ever, was registered.
1950 - India officially proclaimed itself a republic, as its constitution went into effect. Mohandas Gandhi struggled through decades of passive resistance before Britain finally accepted Indian independence.
1962 – Ranger program: Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later misses the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).
1965 – Hindi becomes the official language of India.
1988 - Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Phantom of the Opera opened at Broadway's Majestic Theater.
1994 - A protester fired two blank shots from a starting pistol at Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, as he prepared to speak at an Australia Day rally in Sydney.
2001 - A 7.7 earthquake in the state of Gujarat in India left more than 20,000 dead and severely damaged India's largest port, Kandla.
2004 – A whale explodes in the town of Tainan, Taiwan. A build-up of gas in the decomposing sperm whale is suspected of causing the explosion.
2005 - Condoleezza Rice is sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State, becoming the first African American woman to hold the post.
(26-01-2011 13:59 )skully Wrote: [ -> ]1908 - The 1st Glasgow Boy Scout group, the first Scout group ever, was registered.
1909 - the first Scoutmaster appeared in court, charged with.....
![[Image: 220px-First_SI_Swimsuit_Issue.jpg]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a0/First_SI_Swimsuit_Issue.jpg/220px-First_SI_Swimsuit_Issue.jpg)