On This Day

[Altobelli]

26 JANUARY

1841 Hong Kong was proclaimed British sovereign territory.

1871 The Rugby Football Union was formed, in London, by an initial 20 clubs.

1878 The death of Kirkpatrick McMillan, Scottish blacksmith. He is generally credited with inventing the pedal driven bicycle.

1922 The birth of Michael Bentine, British comedian, comic actor and founding member of the Goon Show radio show with Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe.

1926 John Logie Baird gave a special public demonstration of television to members of the Royal Institution in London. Baird's invention used mechanical rotating disks to scan moving images into electronic impulses.

1942 World War II: The first United States forces arrived in Europe, landing in Northern Ireland.

1950 India became a Republic within the British Commonwealth.

1952 At least 20 people were killed and hundreds injured in anti-British riots in Cairo.

1968 The National Provincial Bank and the Westminster Bank merged to form the National Westminster (NatWest).

1970 "Bridge over Troubled Water" 5th and final studio album by Simon & Garfunkel is released (Grammy Award Album of the Year, Best Engineered Non-Classical Album 1971)

1980 Mary Decker became 1st woman to run a mile in under 4½ minutes

1982 Conservative Prime Minister Mrs. Thatcher was elected in 1979 on the slogan 'Labour isn't working', yet the number of people out of work in Britain rose above three million for the first time since the 1930s.

1986 The Sunday Times and News of the World were printed at Wapping for the first time as the nation's presses moved away from Fleet Street.

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.

1998 President Bill Clinton says "I want to say one thing to the American people; I did not have ***ual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky"

2014 The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, was named Honorary Australian of the Year for displaying 'archetypal Aussie characteristics in abundance'.

2014 Police stopped a learner driver for speeding on the M62 in West Yorkshire. She was accompanied only by her pet parrot. 'Since parrots are not allowed to supervise learner drivers, her vehicle has been seized,' police tweeted.

2015 Australian PM Tony Abbott used the country's national day (Australia Day) to announce a knighthood for Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, for his "long life of service and dedication". WHAT A LOAD OF BOLLOX

Famous Birthday's

Douglas MacArthur
(1880 - 1964)

1891 Frank Costello, Italian-American gangster (The Prime Minister of the Underworld), born in Lauropoli, Calabria, Italy (d. 1973)

Nicolae Ceausescu
(1918 - 1989)



1922 Michael Bentine, England, author/comedian (d. 1996)

1925 Paul Newman, American actor (Hud, Hombre, Hustler), racing car driver and popcorn mogul (Newman's Own), born in Cleveland, Ohio (d. 2008)



Anita Baker
60th Birthday

Famous Weddings

1858 Inventor Cyrus McCormick (48) weds Nancy Fowler

1905 General officer John J. Pershing (44) weds Helen Frances

1925 Politician Seán MacBride (21) weds Catalina Bulfin in Dublin, Ireland

1940 Actor Ronald Raegan (28) weds Academy Award-winning actress Jane Wyman (23) at the Wee Kirk o' the Heather church in Glendale, California

1944 Actor Ralph Richardson (41) weds actress Meriel Forbes (30)

Famous Deaths

Charles "Lucky" Luciano
(1896 - 1962)



1973 Edward G Robinson [Goldenberg], Romanian actor (Double Indemnity, The Stranger, The Ten Commandments), dies at 79

Nelson Rockefeller
(1908 - 1979)



José Ferrer
(1912 - 1992)