2nd January 1769: the Royal Academy of Arts Opens

On this day in 1769 the Royal Academy of Arts opened on Pall Mall. It was founded through a personal act of George III the previous month on 10th December, with a mission to promote the creation, enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts through exhibitions, education and debate. Membership was restricted to forty artists (known as RAs), with thirty-four founder members, including Joshua Reynolds (the Academy's first president), George Dance the Younger, and Thomas Gainsborough. Two years later in 1771 the RA moved to Somerset House, before occupying the east wing of the National Gallery in 1837; in 1868, its centenary year, the RA relocated to its present day home at Burlington House on Piccadilly. Today there are up to one-hundred RAs, all of whom are practicing professional artists working in the UK. Of these hundred, there must always be at least fourteen sculptors, twelve architects, and eight printmakers; the rest are all painters.

On this day in 1642 Charles I entered the House of Commons with an armed guard of eighty men and attempted to arrest five Members of Parliament. Charles believed that the 'Five Members' - John Pym, John Hampden, Denzil Holles, Arthur Haselrig and William Strode - had committed treason by encouraging the Scots to invade England, but they were tipped off that the king was on his way and had already fled to the safety of the City of London by barge. Charles sat in the speaker's chair and called the names one by one; upon receiving no response he asked the speaker William Lenthall where the Five Members were, who responded, "May it please your majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as this House is pleased to direct me whose servant I am here" - the first time a speaker had declared his allegiance to the Commons over the king. Charles stormed from the chamber declaring "My birds have flown", to cries of "Privilege!" from the members. Within months the country was at civil war between parliament and the crown. To this day, at every State Opening of Parliament, the monarch sends their messenger Black Rod to the Commons to summon the MPs to the House of Lords; as Black Rod approaches the chamber the door is slammed in his face, symbolising the rights and independence of the Commons.

On this day in 1569 England's first National Lottery draw took place outside St Paul's Cathedral. Three years earlier Elizabeth I had authorised the sale of lottery tickets to raise funds to repair the country's harbours; there were 400,000 tickets available at a cost of ten shillings each - the equivalent of over £100 today, so the poorer classes would buy shares of a ticket between them. The top prize was £5000 (over £1m today), with a total of thirty-thousand prizes worth £55,000; those who didn't win a prize would receive half a crown, which was a quarter of their original bet. A seven-day amnesty was given to those charged with minor crimes so they could enter the cities to buy tickets, although in practice the amnesty was rarely granted. Take up of tickets was low however, and the closing date was continually pushed back until, having only sold around ten-percent of the 400,000 tickets, the draw finally took place on 11th January 1569 - with the value of the prizes reduced accordingly. The draw itself took four months, continuing day and night until 6th May. 

On this day in 1932 Des O'Connor was born in Stepney. A comedian, singer and presenter, he was active for over six decades. O'Connor had a close friendship with comedians Morecambe & Wise, who would frequently make fun of his singing on their show (“Des O’Connor’s a self-made man. Well, it’s nice of him to take the blame.").

On this day in 1917 an explosion occurred at a munitions factory in West Ham. Known as the Silvertown Explosion, around fifty tonnes of TNT detonated, killing seventy-three and damaging up to 70,000 properties - including the Savoy Hotel seven miles away, whose windows were blown out. The blast was heard as far away as Sandringham, one hundred miles from Silvertown. 

On this day in 1265 England's first 'representative parliament' was convened at Westminster Hall in the Palace of Westminster (now known as the Houses of Parliament). Simon de Montfort - the Earl of Leicester and brother-in-law to King Henry III - was the leading figure in the rebellions against Henry's rule: although de jure Henry was still the monarch, de Montfort was the de facto ruler of England. In 1258 a parliament - derived from the French word 'parler', meaning 'to speak' - was held at Oxford, where the Provisions of Oxford officially limited the king's power and obliged him to rule with the advice of a council of barons. In June 1264 de Montfort had summoned a parliament consisting of barons, senior clergymen, and knights representing the shires; the 1265 parliament however also included for the first time ordinary burgesses from England's towns, making it representative of most of the country. 'Simon de Montfort's Parliament' was summoned on 14th December 1264, began on 20th January 1265, and lasted until March; it consisted of twenty-three lay nobles, 120 bishops, two knights from each county, two citizens from each town, and four men from each of the Cinque Ports. Although the summoning of the parliament was a populist move by de Montfort to shore up his own political position, the inclusion of commoners is seen as having laid the foundations for what would become the House of Commons.

On this day in 1533 Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were married in a secret ceremony at Whitehall Palace. Henry was still legally married to his first wife Catherine of Aragon, with the annulment not being declared until later in the year on 23rd May; however, Anne had discovered she was pregnant (with the future Elizabeth I), and so to avoid any dispute as to their child's legitimacy the clandestine marriage was arranged. The ceremony is thought to have taken place before daybreak in the "highest chamber" of the Holbein Gate, which had been constructed by Henry the previous year in the location where the statue of Field Marshall Haig now stands on Whitehall. Only a chaplain, two members from Henry’s privy chamber and one of Anne Boleyn’s attendants were present; the chaplain - suspected to be Rowland Lee, the future Bishop of Lichfield - supposedly reminded Henry that without a licence from the Pope all present risked excommunication; Henry reassured Lee that he had the required permission, but it was in another part of the palace. The contemporary chronicler Edward Hall later wrote, "The King, after his return [to Dover from Calais in 1532], married privily the Lady Anne Boleyn on Saint Erkenwald’s Day [14th November], which marriage was kept so secret that very few knew of it”; however, this may have been Hall back-dating the marriage to account for Elizabeth being born on 7th September 1533, only seven months after the marriage at Whitehall Palace.

On this day in 1871 the Rugby Football Union was founded, when representatives from twenty-one clubs met at the Pall Mall Restaurant on Cockspur Street. Supposedly representatives from Wasps and Ealing were invited to attend, but both got drunk elsewhere and missed the meeting. 

On this day in 1606 Guy Fawkes was executed, alongside three other Catholic co-conspirators, for the attempted assassination of the Protestant King James I. Fawkes, along with twelve others, had planned to blow up the Palace of Westminster with gunpowder during the State Opening of Parliament on the 5th November 1605, but the plot was uncovered the night before. After his trial at Westminster Hall Fawkes was held in the Tower of London, before being tied to the back of a horse and dragged back to Old Palace Yard at Parliament. Here he was supposed to be hanged, drawn, and quartered: hanged from the neck until almost dead, cut down, emasculated, sliced open, his heart and entrails cut out and thrown on a fire before his still living eyes, beheaded, and his body chopped into four pieces. But Fawkes managed to escape this agonising fate: when the noose was placed around his neck he supposedly jumped from the scaffold, snapping his neck and killing himself instantly. His corpse was, however, still drawn and quartered afterwards.