Almanac History – On This Day: What happened on January 16?

 

There has been a pretty solid response to my and Roger Lowrey’s recent pieces What happened on January 9 Parts One and Two. There have even been suggestions of a regular column along those lines. So I’m going to take it on board until we’re back into the footy season and attempt to provide an ‘On This Day’ piece each time I’m on the Editor’s Desk. Other takers are most welcome to chime in if so moved. I’ll make only one comment: don’t expect consistency by way of content. The focus will be mostly on sport, entertainment, music and history but my selection of items will probably be influenced by what takes my particular fancy on any given day. So here we go with January 16.

 

Births:

1902 – Eric Liddell, rugby international for Scotland, Olympic gold medallist in Paris 1924, missionary to China. The subject of that most beautiful film Chariots of Fire. Famously defied the Prince of Wales by refusing to run in the 100m event on a Sunday in Paris. Instead, ran in the 400m on another day and won gold.

1935 – A J Foyt, won the Indy 500 four times at the famous ‘Brickyard’. (Have you noticed that we don’t seem to have all that many motor racing enthusiasts on the Almanac?)

1956 – Wayne ‘Diamond’ Daniel, Windies Test cricketer, also played for Middlesex and Western Australia. Best remembered for clobbering Mick Malone for a 6 on the fifth ball of the final over of a World Series Cricket match at about midnight at Waverley on 24 January 1978. Relive the moment below.

 

 

1964 – Trevor ‘Tank’ Barsby, aggressive and adventurous opening batsman for Queensland. Member of their first Shield-winning team in 1994/5 when he made a brutal century. A morning at the Gabba wasn’t really underway until ‘Tank’ launched into a lofted drive for four over cover off the opening bowler. Situation normal, let’s get on with it!

 

Deaths:

1942 – Carole Lombard, actress who began her career in 1920s silent movies and made the transition to ‘talkies’ with her looks and ‘light, breezy, sexy voice’. The highest paid actress in Hollywood at the end of the 30s. Tragically killed in a plane crash as she returned to Hollywood after touring the country to sell war bonds. Played opposite the likes of William Powell, Fred McMurray and Clark Gable.

 

 

 

1994 – Harry Nilsson, singer/songwriter. His best know songs were ‘Without You’ and ‘Everybody’s Talking’ which featured in the movie Midnight Cowboy. His album ‘Nilsson Schmilsson’ was huge! (Some sites record his death as being on January 15.)

 

Sport:

1883 – Quebec Rugby Football Union was founded. Has had a patchy history but still exists, although not under that name.

1933 – Bert Oldfield, Australia’s wicketkeeper/batsman in the infamous Bodyline series. During the Third Test in Adelaide on this day in 1933, Oldfield top-edged a Larwood bouncer into his own head, fracturing his skull and knocking him unconscious. He missed the Fourth Test but returned for the Fifth! In all, Bert played 54 Tests, averaging 22.65. He and Larwood became great friends.

 

 

1938 – Patty Berg, American golfer, won the LGPA Titleholders Championship tournament at Augusta CC by a massive 14 strokes. In all, she won 15 majors, still a record in ladies golf.

1997 – Anthony Stuart snared a hat-trick for Australia in an ODI against Pakistan at the MCG. In all, Stuart played 3 ODIs, taking eight wickets at an average of 13.62. Watch his five wicket haul below.

 

 

Entertainment:

1938 – The first ‘Superman’ comic strip appeared.

1938 – Benny Goodman played Carnegie Hall’s first ever jazz concert. (Did you know that, Col?)

1957 – The Cavern Club opened in Liverpool. It was best known later on as the ‘home’ of an emerging local band, The Beatles.

1962 – Filming commenced on Dr. No, the first of the James Bond movies. It starred Sean Connery and Ursula Andress (although Andress’ voice was overdubbed because of her heavy Swiss-German accent!). How did it all start? Watch below.

 

 

1976 – Peter Frampton, formerly of ‘Humble Pie’ and ‘The Herd’ released his mega smash hit, live album ‘Frampton Comes Alive’. It stayed on the Billboard Top 100 album chart for 97 weeks, including 10 at No. 1. Frampton was one of the first artists to use the so-called ‘talk box’ guitar effect. Here’s one of his hits.

 

 

 

 

1979 – Life on Earth, David Attenborough’s initial major natural history series made its first appearance on BBC1. And the rest, as they say, is history!

 

 

 

Let’s run with that for today. What thoughts, memories and/or stories do any of these bring back to you?

 

@blenheimboy2

 

Carole Lombard photo from Wiki Commons

 

 

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