What happened on THIS day in Coventry's history?

30th Dec 1847 Abraham Herbert, Esq., a Magistrate and Member of the Corporation of Coventry (and Mayor in 1838), was the first person buried in the church portion of the London Road Cemetery.

31st Dec 1900 Huge flood lasting two days in centre of Coventry after the Sherbourne overflowed. The worst hit was the Spon Street area where the inside of St. John's church was 5 feet under water. 31st Dec 1906 Opening night for the Old Hippodrome, which was replaced in 1937 by the 2,000 seater New Hippodrome built adjacent to it. Lady Herbert's Garden was extended into the ground formerly taken up by the older theatre. 31st Dec 1981 Bjorn Borg opens the Racquet Centre.

31st Dec 1968 Hertford Street was closed to traffic.

1st Jan 1836 The passing of the Municipal Corporations' Act, which reformed the way Coventry, and many other boroughs, were run. We no longer answered to the Mayor, Bailiffs, and Commonalty of the City (along with all the political corruption that had occurred), but to a centrally controlled City Council. 1st Jan 1936 Closing ceremony by Alderman C. Payne to clear Butcher Row and surrounding medieval streets.

2nd Jan 1569 Mary, Queen of Scots, leaves Coventry after 38 days of captivity here. 2nd Jan 1967 The Queens Hotel, Hertford Street, which was badly damaged in the blitz but remained open, finally closes.

3rd Jan 2009 The last of the Woolworth's stores closed in Coventry. The city centre branch had opened in 1954, one of the first to open in the newly rebuilt town centre.

4th Jan 1909 George Singer (cycle manufacturer) died in Coventry - also famous for his company's football team becoming Coventry City FC. 4th Jan 1917 21 year old Doris Johnson sadly killed by an explosion while carrying out her job of filling shells with TNT in a Coventry munition works aiding the war effort.

5th Jan 1918 On this day the weekly War Illustrated magazine published details of Private Arthur Hutt's heroic action, which won him the Victoria Cross. (See 4th Oct. 1917.)

6th Jan 1329 King Edward III granted Coventry the charter to build the City Wall on this day - although it was about 17 years later before the first stone was actually laid. 6th Jan 1478 Coventry received a letter from King Edward IV saying that a gentleman living in the city, named John French, was an alchemist attempting to turn base metals into gold, for 'oure profyte'. Edward ordered that nobody should interfere with his servant's work!

7th Jan 1836 After the 1835 the Municipal Corporations Act had been passed, this day in 1836 saw the Insignia of Office and Civic Regalia transferred by George Eld, Esq., the last Mayor under the old system, to Henry Cadwallader Adams, Esq., the first Mayor under the new system in Coventry.

8th Jan 1850 A most strange suicide occurred on this day. 50 year old John Bowen, of Spon Street, lay on his bed with his face placed into a bucket of water, and used a brick on the end of a piece of string over his back to hold his head down until drowned!

9th Jan 1865 On this day was born Arthur Joseph Bonnick, who in 1885 founded the Bonnick Cycle Company. In 1896 this firm was acquired by William Riley Junior, retaining Arthur as Works Manager, and became the Riley Cycle Co. - later Riley (Coventry) Limited.

10th Jan 1876 Stoke Board School opened in Briton Road with 96 pupils. It later became known as Stoke Council School, then Stoke Primary. I went there!

10th Jan 1965 The first Coventry double deck buses with the now commonplace door at the front and engine at the back entered service on the city streets. The Leyland vehicles had been ordered controversially in preference to locally built Daimler equivalents, and followed a lengthy dispute with crews over their increased length and 76 seats, 13 more than previous buses.

Thanks, mcsporran - here's one of them [courtesy Peter Hirst] Not yet one-man operated