This Day in History 23 - 29 December

• 23 December 1834 - Joseph Hansom of London receives patent for Hansom cab. The "cab" bit is short for cabriolet. They were popular until the 1920's, when the affordable motor car was coming into its own.

• 24 December 1922 - The London Coliseum came into being as a variety theatre. It was unusual for the time in that it didn't have a pit - not the orchestral type, but the type which housed the rowdy working classes.

• 25 December 1066 - William the Conqueror crowned King of England.

• 26 December 1198 - French bishop Odo van Sully condemns Zottenfeest. If anyone knows what this means, please let me know. I can't find a thing about it!

• 27 December 1871 - The world's first cat show - the National Cat Club Show - is staged at the Crystal Palace in London.

• 28 December 1895 - The world's first moving picture theatre opens in Paris, run by Antoine Lumière - father of Louis and Auguste, who invented the cinematograph. 30 people watched films on ordinary French life and some ran out at a film showing a train moving head on towards them.

• 29 December 1940 - The first devastating incendiary bomb raid hits London.

Brought to you by http://www.quirkytravel.com. Events/births etc for today in history (a whole week's worth) are generally London or Paris based, but only if I can find interesting ones to report!

This Day in History 9 - 15 December

* 9 December 1886 - Clarence Birdseye, king of frozen consumables born.

* 10 December 1868 - the world's first set of traffic lights are installed in Westminster near the House of Commons.

* 11 December 1894 - The world's first Motor Show held in Paris - with a total of 9 exhibitors. Or it may have been in Tunbridge Wells in the same year...

* 12 December 1988 - Train crash at Clapham Junction, just outside London, kills 35 people and injures another 100.

* 13 December 1913 - The Mona Lisa, having been stolen 2 years previously by an Italian employee of the Louvre, was returned.

* 14 December 1901 - The world's first open table tennis tournament is held at the London Royal Aquarium. The men’s event was won by R. Ayling and the women’s by Miss V Eames.

* 15 December 1906 - the formal opening of the Piccadily tube line on London's Underground. It ran from Finsbury Park to Hammersmith.


Brought to you by http://www.quirkytravel.com. Events/births etc for today in history (a whole week's worth) are generally London or Paris based, but only if I can find interesting ones to report!

This Day in History 2 - 8 December

Brought to you by www.quirkytravel.com. Events/ births etc for today in history (a whole week's worth) are generally London or Paris based, but only if I can find interesting ones to report!

• 2 December 1966 - The mini skirt is banned from the Houses of Parliament.


• 3 December 1930 - French Director Jean Luc Godard born.


• 4 December 1791 - The world's first Sunday newspaper, The Observer, is published.


• 5 December 1952 - The Great Smog (London) begins and lasts for 4 days - estimates of up to 12000 die as a result.


• 6 December 1963 - Christine Keeler is jailed for 9 months for perjury related to a trial involving a boyfriend Aloysius 'Lucky' Gordon


• 7 December 1783 - Theatre Royal opens in Covent Garden, London.


• 8 December 1967 - The Beatles "Magical Mystery Tour" album is released in the UK.
  

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The Origin Of The Christmas Cracker

Not surprisingly, it was aVictorian who invented the Christmas Cracker. Tom Smith to be precise. He was a baker from Clerkenwell London, who in 1840 discovered the individually wrapped bon bon (sugared almond in waxed paper) while on holiday in Paris.

He marketed these sweets around Christmas and found them to be very successful as love tokens from young men to their sweethearts.

Now - this is where it gets a bit confusing. It may be that, inspired by fortune cookies, he started to include little messages of love in the wrapping of the sweet, but it appears that fortune cookies were actually invented in California in the early part of the nineteenth century. Perhaps his inspiration was the moon cake, originating in China an awfully long time ago. On the top are imprinted the Chinese characters for "longevity" or "harmony". Or perhaps his idea came from Chinese fire crackers, and the motto part had nothing to do with China at all? If anyone could enlighten me on this, I would be extremely grateful. However it happened his new prettily wrapped sweets with words of love included were a great success - again over the Christmas period.

The final piece of marketing genius fell into place when he was kicking around the house, desperately trying to think of a new gimmick. A dormant spark from the fire crackled into life when he kicked it (or in an alternative story he was watching the sparks from a log in the fire) et voila - the idea for a sparking suprise came to him. After some time developing a system whereby the paper wouldn't ignite, he launched his "Bangs of Expectation" or "Cosaques" (named after the crack of a Cossack's whip) in 1860. They became known as crackers in the following decade.

By the 1880s, Tom Smith's company had produced over 100 cracker designs and by 1900 a staggering 13,000,000 of them had been sold. The brand still exists but has no connection with the original family - it's been bought over a couple of times in recent years.

Top 10 Best Kept Secrets in London

1. There are 8000 square feet of underground wine vaults belonging to Berry Brothers & Rudd (equivalent to 3 tennis courts) at St James's Street. You can lay your wine down here, or take part in tasting sessions or "fine dining events". There's even a tunnel that's supposed to lead to St James' Palace.
2. St Bartholomew the Great near Smithfield is one of the most beautiful churches in London. It's feature in Four Weddings and a Funeral and Shakespeare in Love and is one of the most atmospheric churches in the city.
3. The Rookery Hotel, Clerkenwell is actually a row of restored Georgian houses. Open fires, antique furniture and four poster beds.
4. Tottenham Court Road tube station isn't the most aesthetically pleasing, and usually quite chaotic. However, look a bit closer and you'll see millions of tiles in a mosaic designed by Scottish sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi.
5. For over 75 years a little known miniature railway (or Mail Rail) operated beneath the streets of London, conveying letters from one side of the city to the other. At its peak in the 50's the railway delivered 12,000,000 letters a day. It closed in 2003 as part of the Royal Mail's larger programme of withdrawing from the railways.
6. Aldwych ghost underground station is now used for filming and for exhibitions. Patriot Games, the All Saints film Honest, the BBC production of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and videos such as Prodigy's FireStarter have all been filmed here. It also featured in Tombraider the game.
7. The Post Office Tower (BT Tower/London Telecom Tower) was destroyed by a gigantic kitten in a 1971 Goodies episode "Kitten Kong".
8. You'll see a noose hanging outside the Prospect of Whitby pub in honour of patron Judge George Jeffreys, infamous for sending people to the gallows, in this riverside pub. And Dickens used to eat in the Pepys restaurant.
9. In the space beneath St Pancras station (the new Eurostar destination) could once hold 28 million pints of beer. It was built raised above the Regent's canal and the space between canal and station was used to generate a bit of extra income for the station.
10. The Chancery House vaults beneath Chancery Lane is a popular destination for rich overseas visitors. Here you can anything from £5 to £50,000. Originally used by the jewellers above to store their goods, they're now used as a sales area themselves, protected behind an enormous steel door.
    

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