IT HAPPENED TODAY

JANUARY 22

1561: Elizabethan statesman and writer Francis Bacon was born in London.

1720: The South Sea ‘bubble’ speculation fever began.

1788: Lord Byron (above), English poet, was born George Gordon in London. He succeeded to his title through an uncle.

1901: Queen Victoria died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, aged 81.

1905: Bloody Sunday occurred in St Petersburg when at least 500 people were slaughtered as thousands marched on the Winter Palace in protest at Tsar Nicholas II’s regime.

1924: James Ramsay MacDonald became Britain’s first Labour Prime Minister.

1927: The Football League game between Arsenal and Sheffield United was the first to be broadcast.

1944: The Allied Army landing began at Anzio, Italy.

1947: Fresh meat ration was reduced to 1s- (5p) weekly.

1992: US military material was seized in Germany as it was about to be loaded on to a cargo plane bound for Libya.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Comedian and TV personality Jo Brand (above) set off on a 150-mile (241km) coastto-coast walking challenge for Sport Relief with a trek across a windlashed Humber Bridge.

BIRTHDAYS: Piper Laurie, actress, 86; Linda Blair, actress, 59; Nigel Benn, former boxer, 54; Diane Lane (below), actress, 53; Olivia d’Abo, actress, 49; Stan Collymore, former footballer, 47; Jonathan Woodgate, former footballer, 38.