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15 January 1892: the rules of basketball are published
Features Canadian PE instructor Dr James Naismith, working at a YMCA training school, published the 13 rules of basketball on this day in 1892.
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15 January 1759: British Museum opens
Features On this day in 1759, the British Museum opened in Bloomsbury after Sir Hans Sloane left his of collection of books, manuscripts and specimens to the nation.
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14 January 2002: Britain’s foot-and-mouth disease epidemic ends
Features The government finally declared Britain’s foot-and-mouth disease crisis over on this day in 2002, almost a year after the first case had been identified.
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14 January 2005: Huygens probe lands on Saturn’s moon, Titan
Features On this day in 2005, the ESA’s Huygens probe landed on the frozen surface of Titan, one of Saturn’s moons.
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13 January 1942: Henry Ford patents his plastic car
Features On this day in 1948, Henry Ford was granted a patent for his method of making cars with plastic bodywork.
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13 January 1908: Henri Farman wins the Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize
Features On this day in 1908, Anglo-French flyer Henri Farman scooped the 50,000 franc Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize after the Wright Brothers refused to compete.
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9 January 1799: income tax introduced to Britain
Features In the 1790s, with Britain at war with Napoleon, the country urgently needed cash. And so on this day in 1799, a 10% levy was raised on all income over £60.
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8 January 1835: US national debt hits $0
Features By selling land, collecting taxes and cutting public spending, the US national debt was brought down to $0 for the first and only time in the country’s history on this day in 1835.
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8 January 1940: food rationing is introduced in Britain
Features On this day in 1940, the Ministry of Food introduced rationing in the UK to ensure there was enough food to go round during the war.
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