ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY 25th January 1533 The Bishop of Lichfield secretly married King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn, the second of Henrys six wives. She had, ten days previously, discovered that she was pregnant. 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. 1627 The birth of the Honourable Robert Boyle, one of the pioneers of modern chemistry and physics. 1759 The birth of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet. His birthday is celebrated as ‘Burns Night’ by Scotsmen all over the world. Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them. His poem (and song) Auld Lang Syne is often sung on New Years Eve, or Hogmanay, as its known in Scotland. 1791 The British Parliament passed the Constitutional Act of 1791 and split the old Province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada. 1855 The death of the writer Dorothy Wordsworth, sister of the romantic poet William Wordsworth. 1858 Mendelssohns Wedding March was first played .... at the wedding of Queen Victorias daughter Princess Victoria and crown prince Frederick of Prussia. 1874 The birth of William Somerset Maugham, English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s. 1899 The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company began manufacture of the first radio sets, at Chelmsford. 1911 The Daily Herald was launched. It was the first newspaper to sell two million copies. 1919 The founding of The League of Nations, forerunner of the United Nations. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. 1972 The worlds first kidney and pancreatic tissue transplant was carried out in London 1981 ‘The Gang of Four’ (Roy Jenkins, Dr. David Owen, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers) split from the British Labour party to form the Social Democrats. 1989 Actor John Cleese won damages for libel at the High Court over an article in the Daily Mirror, which claimed he had become like Basil Fawlty in his comedy series Fawlty Towers 1990 The so called Burns Day Storm occurred on this day over north-western Europe, and was one of the strongest storms on record. It started on the birthday of poet Robert Burns, lasted for two days, caused widespread damage and was responsible for 97 deaths. 2003 During the Iraq invasion, a group of people left London for Baghdad, to serve as human shields and thus prevent the U.S. led coalition troops from bombing certain locations. 2013 Thorpe Park ordered experts to redesign its £20m new rollercoaster The Swarm, due to open on 15th March, after dummies lost limbs during dry run tests. 2014 Sixteen schoolgirls are to make history by ending a tradition of male-only choral singing at Canterbury Cathedral stretching back more than a thousand years. The girls choir will have their first public performance today, at evensong and will initially only be singing at services when boy choristers, boarders at St. Edmunds school, take their twice-termly breaks. Source: Beautiful Britain
Posted on: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 09:39:56 +0000
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