January 10
Activity of the day
Today is . . .
- Feast day of St Peter Orseolo, Doge of Venice
On this day . . .
- The Penny Post stamp is introduced by Sir Rowland Hill (1840)
- The first section of the London Underground, the world's oldest underground railway, opens (1863)
- Cleopatra's tomb is discovered (1890)
- The First World War officially ends (1920)
- Fritz Lang's film Metropolis is first shown, in Berlin (1926)
- Tintin and Snowy make their first appearance (1929)
- Mickey Rooney marries Ava Gardner (1942)
- The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly takes place in London (1946)
- 45rpm records or "singles" first go on sale (1949)
- Sir Clive Sinclair demonstrates the electric car (1985)
- Smoking is banned in public places in Italy (2005)
Births
- George Washington Carver, scientist, inventor of peanut butter (1864)
- Sal Mineo, American actor (1939)
- Rod Stewart, Scottish singer (1945)
- Donald Fagen, American musician (1948)
- George Foreman, American boxer (1949)
Deaths
- William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, American frontiersman (1917)
- Dashiel Hammett, American author of The Maltese Falcon (1961)
- Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, French fashion designer (1971)
- Howlin' Wolf, American musician (1976)
- Maila Nurmi, aka Vampira, Finnish-born American actress (2008)