26th January

[chenrezig]

1788 The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sailed into Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on the continent. 26th January is now commemorated as Australia Day.

1823 The death of Edward Jenner, the pioneer of smallpox vaccine. Sometimes referred to as the 'Father of Immunology'; it's been said that his work 'saved more lives than the work of any other man'.

1841 Hong Kong was proclaimed British sovereign territory.

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

1885 The British commander of Khartoum, General Charles Gordon, was killed during the attack on Khartoum by troops of the Mahdi following a 10 month siege.

1907 A riot broke out in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on the first night of J.M. Synge’s Playboy of the Western World, when the audience took offence at the ‘foul language’. The riots continued for a week, but the show went on, heavily guarded by police.

1907 The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III was officially introduced into British Military Service. Its name comes from the designer of the rifle's bolt system, James Paris Lee, and the factory in which it was designed, the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield.

1908 The 1st Glasgow Boy Scout group, the first Scout group ever, was registered.

1910 Police rescued the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, from a crowd of angry Suffragettes.

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.

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).

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.

[wendy]

[annie]