ON THIS DAY

JANUARY 4

1809: Louis Braille, inventor of the alphabetic system for the blind which bears his name, was born in Paris.

1813: Isaac Pitman, English publisher and inventor of shorthand, was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.

1936: Billboard magazine in New York published the first popular music chart.

JANUARY 5

1896: German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen gave the first demonstration of X-rays.

1919: The Nazi Party was founded by Anton Drexler in Munich.

1941: Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia in 1930, drowned in a mysterious accident over the Thames estuary.

1981: The hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper, who killed 13 women over four years, ended when lorry-driver Peter Sutcliffe was charged with murder.

JANUARY 6

1838: Samuel Morse first successfully tested the electrical telegraph.

1929: Mother Teresa arrived in Calcutta and started her legacy of work among the poorest people of India.

1977: Music publisher EMI ended its contract with the Sex Pistols because of their notorious behaviour in public. They would later sign with A&M (below), and then with Virgin Records. 1994: US ice skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed and injured on the right leg by associates of skating rival Tonya Harding.

2009: The last remaining Woolworths stores closed their doors for the final timeafter99yearstrading-oneofthe highest profile retail casualties of the UK recession.

JANUARY 7

1558: Calais, the last English possession on the mainland of France, was regained by the French.

1610: Galileo discovered four satellites of Jupiter.

1844: Saint Bernadette of Lourdes (Marie-Bernarde Soubirous) was born. She was an asthmatic French girl who claimed to see vision of the Virgin Mary ataspringnearherhome.

1927: The transatlantic telephone service between London and New York opened, charging #15 for three minutes.

JANUARY 8

1800: The first soup kitchens for the poor of London began.

1832: Bell’s New Weekly Messenger published the first cartoon to appear in an English newspaper.

1889: Dr Herman Hollerith of New York patented an electrically operated computer to process data. The company he formed evolved into the giant IBM.

1935: Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, the survivor of twin boys. 1940: Sugar, bacon and butter were rationed in Britain.

1997: Kevin Keegan quit as manager of Newcastle United after five years in the post.