NOW & THEN
JANUARY 6
1066: Harold was crowned King of England in succession to Edward the Confessor.
1540: Henry VIII married wife number four, Anne of Cleves. The marriage was dissolved after six months.
1649: The “Rump” parliament voted to put King Charles I on trial for treason and other “high crimes”.
1681: The first recorded boxing match took place when the Earl of Albemarle organised a contest between his butler and his butcher; it was won by the latter.
1781: The Battle of Jersey was fought between Britain and France. It was a failed attempt by French invaders to remove the threat which the island posed to French and American shipping during the American War of Independence.
1838: Samuel Morse demonstrated his electric telegraph.
1916: The Allies began to evacuate Gallipoli.
1922: The first slalom ski race was organised by Sir Alfred Lunn at Murren, Switzerland.
1925: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini formed a cabinet comprised entirely of Fascists.
1928: The River Thames overflowed, drowning 14 people in basement homes. It filled the moat of the Tower of London and the basement of the Tate Gallery, where many paintings were damaged.
1929: Mother Teresa arrived in Calcutta to begin her work among India’s poor and diseased.
1930: Don Bradman scored 452 not out in a single innings, breaking all first class cricket records, in Sheffield Shield match, in Sydney. The scoring rate was 65 runs an hour and he hit 49 fours.
1945: The Battle of the Bulge ended.
1950: Britain recognised Communist regime in China.
1957: Five members of crew lost when fishery cruiser Vaila sank off Lewis.
1964: Pope Paul VI ended threeday tour of Holy Land – the first Pope to visit there since Christianity began.
1977: EMI records dropped punk band The Sex Pistols.
1988: Israeli soldiers broke up violent demonstrations in occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
1980: Indira Gandhi’s Congress Party won the general election in India.
1989: Soviet Union called downing of two Libyan aircraft by US “absolutely unfounded”.
1990: Polish Communist leaders voted to disband their party and form a new leftist party under a different name.
1991: Saddam Hussein told Iraqis to prepare for a long war against “tyranny represented by the US”.
1993: Bill Wyman announced that he would be leaving the Rolling Stones.
1995: The QE2 returned to New York after a Christmas cruise with up to 80 passengers reported to be threatening legal action over conditions on board following a refit.
2011: The pies at Ayrshire bakery Irvine’s of Beith were judged the best in the world at the World Scotch Pie Championships.
2013: Ten people died as the result of a a US drone attack in Waziristan, Pakistsan.