Once Upon A Time – January 11 – 1838 – First Public Demonstration Of Telegraph Messages Sent Using Dots And Dashes

1599 – Jacob van Neck’s fleet leaves Bantam, Java in modern day Indonesia with 1 million pounds of pepper and cloves and a further half a ship full of nutmeg, mace and cinnamon

1838 – First public demonstration of telegraph messages sent using dots and dashes at Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail

1879 – Anglo-Zulu War begins as British Lt-General Chelmsford invades Zululand in South Africa

1922 – Insulin first used on humans to treat diabetes, when Frederick Banting injects fellow Canadian Leonard Thompson, aged 14

1964 – First government report by US Surgeon General Luther Terry warning that smoking may be hazardous

More Historical Events

In Film & Tv

1927 – Louis B. Mayer head of film studio MGM announces creation of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

In Music

1963 – Beatles release single “Please Please Me” / “Ask Me Why”; peaks at #2 in UK, and #3 in US

In Sport

1960 – LaMar Clark sets pro boxing record of 44 consecutive knockouts

MORE FACTS

1569 – 1st recorded lottery in England is drawn in St Paul’s Cathedral

1949 – Snowfall 1st recorded in Los Angeles

Famous Weddings

1892 – Painter Paul Gauguin marries Teha’amana, a 13-year-old Tahitian girl

1911 – American actress Hattie McDaniel (16) weds pianist Howard Hickman (30) in Denver, Colorado

1924 – German-Swiss poet and novelist Hermann Hesse (36) weds Swiss soprano and painter Ruth Wenger (26); divorce in 1927