January 23rd
1570
James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, and regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland, was fatally shot by James Hamilton, a supporter of Mary Queen of Scots. It was the first recorded assassination by a firearm.
1900 Second Boer War: The defeat of the British at the
Battle of Spion Kop, 24 miles west-south-west of Ladysmith on a steep terraced hilltop. Many football grounds in the English Premier League and Football League, have one terrace or stand
'Spion Kop' or 'Kop' because of the steep nature of their terracing.
1961 Luxury Portuguese cruise liner
Santa Maria was hijacked by a terrorists leftist rebel group who had boarded in Venezuela and Curacao led by Henrique Galvão. The terrorists took control of the ship after killing 1 crew member and injuring others.
1963 At 7.30 pm in Beirut, the American
Eleanor Philby was waiting for her husband Kim, a Middle East correspondent for two London journals, to collect her. Instead, he was on his way to Moscow ‘the most damaging double agent in British history’.
1973 Nixon announces Vietnam peace deal. The US president,
Richard Nixon, has appeared on national television to announce "peace with honour" in Vietnam.
1985
PC George Hammond was viciously stabbed while on the beat in London, and it took 120 pints of blood to save his life. He never fully recovered, and two years later he committed suicide.
1986 The first ten musicians were inducted into
Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame including James Brown, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.
2001 A goal for Bournemouth against Cambridge United saw an 18-year-old
Jermain Defoe set what was then a post war scoring record. The striker, on loan from West Ham United, had scored in 10 consecutive Football League matches.
2002 The treatment of a 94-year old woman patient set off a bitter
political row between the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition.
And Finally.
1991
John Sebastian, owner and general manager of KLSK FM in Albuquerque, New Mexico, played Led Zeppelins 'Stairway To Heaven' for twenty-four solid hours to inaugurate a format change to Classic Rock. Police showed up with guns drawn: once after a listener reported that the DJ had apparently suffered a heart attack, and later because of suspicion that, this being eight days into the Gulf War, the radio station had been taken hostage by terrorists dispatched by Zeppelin freak Saddam Hussein.
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