23rd January

[chenrezig]

1510 Henry VIII, then just 18 years old, appeared incognito in a jousting tournament at Richmond, and was applauded for his jousting before he revealed his true identity.

1571 Queen Elizabeth I opened the Royal Exchange, London, as a bankers’ meeting house. It was founded by the financier Sir Thomas Gresham .

1806 Death of William Pitt ‘The Younger’ at the age of 46. He was Britain's youngest Prime Minister and served twice, from 19th December 1783 to 14th March 1801 and again from 10th May 1804 until his death 'on this day'.

1875 Charles Kingsley, the English clergyman who wrote The Water Babies, died.

1900 Second Boer War: The defeat of the British at the Battle of Spion Kop, 24 miles west-south-west of Ladysmith on a steep terraced hilltop. Many football grounds in the English Premier League and Football League, have one terrace or stand 'Spion Kop' or 'Kop' because of the steep nature of their terracing.

1931 The official opening of Whipsnade Zoo near Dunstable.

1963 At 7.30 pm in Beirut, the American Eleanor Philby was waiting for her husband Kim, a Middle East correspondent for two London journals, to collect her. Instead, he was on his way to Moscow - ‘the most damaging double agent in British history’.

1989 Legislation came into force which permitted garages to display fuel prices by litre only, not by the gallon.

[annie]

than999

[Rosalind]

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