Happy Anniversary: From top hat frights to public flirts
Support truly
independent journalism
Our mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.
Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.
Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.
![Louise Thomas](https://static.independent.co.uk/static-assets/support-us/louise-thomas.png)
Louise Thomas
Editor
WE BEGIN the new year of dates with a celebration of some of the odder happenings of this week in history, a period traditionally full of innovation and bounce, writes William Hartston.
3 January
1888: Paper drinking straws are patented in the United States.
1915: Tear gas is first used in warfare, by the Germans fighting the Russians in Poland.
1961: The one millionth Morris Minor comes off the production line in Oxford.
4 January
1835: The first chess column in any newspaper appears in Bell's Life in London.
1885: In Iowa, Dr William West Grant performs the first appendectomy. The patient, a 22-year-old farm girl, made a complete recovery and lived until 1919.
1910: Britain's first juvenile courts open for business in London.
1936: The first nationally based popular music chart is published by Billboard in the United States.
1961: The longest strike in history ends when apprentice barbers return to work in Copenhagen. They had been out since 1938.
1982: Erika Roe achieves instant fame, streaking at the England-Australia rugby international at Twickenham.
5 January
1797: John Hetherington appears before the Lord Mayor of London accused of wearing a top hat 'calculated to frighten timid people'. It was the first time such apparrel had been seen in public. He was bound over to keep the peace in consideration of a sum of pounds 50.
1964: The first automatic ticket barrier on the London underground comes into operation at Stamford Brook station.
1971: A washed-out Test match ushers in the age of instant cricket with the first one-day international, between Australia and England at Melbourne.
1976: President Giscard d'Estaing proclaims French the only permissible language for use in advertisements.
6 January
1926: The German airline Lufthansa is founded.
1991: John Major says the poll tax will not be abolished.
7 January
1610: Galileo discovers four moons of Jupiter, naming them Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede, after three women and a youth loved by Zeus.
1785: First balloon crossing of the English Channel.
1857: The London Central Omnibus Company starts regular services.
1904: The universal distress signal CQD comes into operation - CQ for 'seek you' and D for distress. It does not catch on and is replaced by SOS two years later.
1927: Abraham Sapperstein of Chicago founds the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.
1990: The Leaning Tower of Pisa is declared unsafe and closed to the public for the first time in more than 700 years.
8 January
1800: The first soup kitchens for the poor start serving in London.
1902: The New York State legislature outlaws flirting in public.
1921: David Lloyd George becomes the first Prime Minister to take up residence at Chequers.
9 January
1811: The first women's golf tournament is held at Musselburgh in Scotland.
1951: The French film La Vie Commence Demain becomes the first to be given a British 'X' certificate.
1988: Edgar Dakin of Yorkshire patents the 'Dakin Plastic Tombstone'.
(Photograph omitted)
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments