On this day in UK history – 9th January

On this day in UK history:

9^th January 1969 - Concorde made its maiden test flight out of Bristol - England. The trial went smoothly but the plane had not yet broken the sound barrier. The first supersonic Concorde flight would have to wait until the early days of October of 1969.

On this day in UK history - 8th January

On this day in UK history:

8^th January 1942 – Stephen Hawking was born.

He is possibly the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Albert Einstein.

He wrote: “A Brief History of Time

This tome stayed on the British Sunday Times bestseller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.

At least 25,000,000 copies of this book was sold.

Many thousands read this book however it was maybe understood by only hundreds.

On this day in UK history – 7th January

On this day in UK history:

7^th January 1994 – After a wait of 800 years girls were invited to join the Cathedral Choir at Wells in Somerset.

On this day in UK history – 6th January

On this day in UK history:

6^th January 1540 - King Henry VIII of England married Anne of Cleves who became his fourth wife.

On this day in UK history - 5th January

On this day in UK history:

5^th January 1993 – the oil tanker “Braer” was wrecked in hurricane force winds off the Shetland Islands leading to large amounts of crude oil being discharged.

On this day in UK history – 4th January

On this day in UK history:

4^th January 1972 – Rose Heilbron became Britain’s first female judge at the Old Bailey.

One of many “firsts” in her career:

·         First female to win a scholarship to Gray’s Inn

·         First female to be appointed King’s Counsel in England

·         First female to lead in a murder case

·         First female Recorder

·         First female judge to sit at the Old Bailey

·         First female Treasurer of Gray’s Inn

On this day in UK history - 3rd January

On this day in UK history:

3^rd January 1892 - J. R. R. Tolkien - English Novelist was born. 

He wrote the following:

1936 Songs for the Philologists with E. V. Gordon et al.

1937 The Hobbit or There and Back Again.

1945 Leaf by Niggle (short story)

1945 The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun - published in Welsh Review

1949 Farmer Giles of Ham (medieval fable)

1953 The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (a play written in alliterative verse) - published with the accompanying essays Beorhtnoth's Death and Ofermod in Essays and Studies by members of the English Association volume 6.

The Lord of the Rings

1954 The Fellowship of the Ring: being the first volume of The Lord of the Rings.

1954 The Two Towers: being the second volume of The Lord of the Rings.

1955 The Return of the King: being the third volume of The Lord of the Rings.

1962 The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book

1964 Tree and Leaf (On Fairy-Stories and Leaf by Niggle in book form)

1966 Bilbo's Last Song (poem)

1966 The Tolkien Reader (The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son, On Fairy-Stories, leaf by Niggle, Farmer Giles of Ham and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil

1967 The Road Goes Ever On - with Donald Swann

1967 Smith of Wootton Major (short story)

He also had poetry and academic works published and there were even posthumous works of his published.