January 18
Activity of the day
Today is . . .
- Winnie The Pooh Day
- Feast day of St Prisca
On this day . . .
- Captain Cook discovers the Sandwich Islands, now known as Hawaii (1778)
- The first English settlers arrive in Australia's Botany Bay to establish a penal colony (1788)
- The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time (1896)
- The first landing of an aircraft on a ship's deck is made by U.S. pilot Eugene Ely (1911)
- The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time (1944)
- The Hale-Bopp comet becomes visible from Earth (1997)
- The Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial jet, is unveiled (2005)
Births
- Peter Roget, creator of Roget's Thesaurus (1779)
- Thomas Watson, the American telephone pioneer and shipbuilder (1854)
- A. A. Milne, English author (1882)
- Oliver Hardy, American film comedian (1892)
- Cary Grant born Archibald Alexander Leach (1904)
- Danny Kaye, American film actor and comedian (1913)
- David Bellamy, English botanist (1933)
- Raymond Biggs, English author and illustrator (1935)
- Kevin Costner, American actor (1955)
- Josep Guardiola, Spanish footballer (1971)
Deaths
- Rudyard Kipling, British writer and poet (1936)
- Sydney Greenstreet, British film actor (1954)
- Cecil Beaton, English photographer and designer (1980)
- Bruce Chatwin, English novelist (1989)
- Tony Hart, British artist and TV presenter (2009