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The Times & The Sunday Times
The Times & The Sunday Times
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Anniversaries: Jan 21

The Times
The Times

Events

In 1790 Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposed the guillotine to the newly formed National Assembly of Paris as a “humane” method of execution; in 1793 Louis XVI of France was executed (by guillotine) for treason.

Births

Horace Wells, who initiated the use of nitrous oxide — “laughing gas” — as a dental anaesthetic, 1815; Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson, Confederate general in the American Civil War, 1824.

Deaths

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Henry Hallam, historian, 1859; Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov), Russian revolutionary, 1924; George Orwell (Eric Blair), novelist, 1950; Cecil B. de Mille, film producer, 1959.