On This Day

[Altobelli]

04 JANUARY

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 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.

1847 Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government

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.'

1958 Sir Edmund Hillary reaches the South Pole

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.

1990 307 dead and 700 injured after overloaded passenger train collides with empty freight train in Pakistan

2017 The last ABC cinema closed its doors. The Bournemouth cinema (which opened in June 1937) had only kept its name by a quirk of positioning in the town. It closed with a final screening of 'Back to the Future', which was chosen by its audience.

Famous Birthday's



Louis Braille
(1809 - 1852)



1930 Iain Cuthbertson, British actor (Guilty, Scandal, Rep, Danger UX (d. 2009)

Don Shula
88th Birthday

Rick Stein
71st Birthday

Mick Mills
69th Birthday

James Milner
32nd Birthday



Floyd Patterson
(1935 - 2006)

Famous Deaths

Albert Camus
(1913 - 1960)

Erwin Schrödinger
(1887 - 1961)



T. S. EliotT.
(1888 - 1965)

1986 Phil Lynott, Irish rock musician (Thin Lizzy), dies of an overdose at 36

2011 Gerry Rafferty, British musician and songwriter (b. 1947)

Famous Weddings

1827 Naturalist and entomologist Thomas Say (39) secretly weds natural science illustrator Lucy Way Sistare (26)

1926 Composer Irving Berlin (37) weds heiress Ellin Mackay in a simple civil ceremony

1997 Czech Republic's first president Vaclav Havel (60) weds Czech actress Dagmar Havlova (43) in Prague, Czech Republic

1997 "Smothers Brothers" actor-singer Dick Smothers (58) weds Denby Franklin (47) in Las Vegas

2012 Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry (66) weds PR executive Amanda Sheppard (29) in Turks and Caicos Island

Famous Divorces

2004 Britney Spears has her surprise marriage annulled less than 55 hours after tying the knot with childhood friend Jason Alexander at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas

2008 Australian pop diva Natalie Imbruglia (32) and "Silverchair" frontman Daniel Johns (28) announce their divorce stating "we have simply grown apart through not being able to spend enough time together"