January 10

The London Underground, the world's oldest underground railway, opens between London Paddington station and Farringdon station in 1863

The London Underground (often shortened to the Underground) is a rapid transit system in the United Kingdom, serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. It incorporates the oldest section of underground railway in the world, which opened in 1863 and now forms part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines; and the first line to operate electric trains, in 1890, now part of the Northern line.

Railway construction in the United Kingdom began in the early 19th century, and six railway terminals had been built just outside the centre of London by 1854: London Bridge, Euston, Paddington, King's Cross, Bishopsgate and Waterloo. At this point, only Fenchurch Street station was located in the actual City of London. Traffic congestion in the city and the surrounding areas had increased significantly in this period, partly due to the need for rail travellers to complete their journeys into the city centre by road. The idea of building an underground railway to link the City of London with the mainline terminals had first been proposed in the 1830s, but it was not until the 1850s that the idea was taken seriously as a solution to traffic congestion.

Birthdays

Tony Gardner

Tony Gardner is an English actor and doctor. He qualified as a doctor at Guy's Hospital in 1987, then as a General Practitioner in 1993. He combined medicine and comedy during the 1990s as half of the award-winning comedy duo Struck Off and Die with Phil Hammond.

He eventually left medicine to become an actor and is best known for playing Brian Johnson in CITV's My Parents are Aliens (episodes of which he also wrote) and Michael, the café owner in Jack Dee's BBC sitcom Lead Balloon. In 2009-10 he starred in three plays directed by Sir Peter Hall. In 2011 he played Professor Tony Shales in Channel 4 series Fresh Meat. He is currently appearing as Professor Tony Shales in Channel 4 series 2 of Fresh Meat. He is currently appearing as Dan Miller, Leader of the Opposition in the BBC political comedy The Thick of It.

Abbey Clancy

Abigail Marie "Abbey" Crouch (née Clancy) is a British lingerie and catwalk model and television presenter. She is the wife of footballer Peter Crouch.