20 January 1900 - Richard Doddridge Blackmore died.

R D Blackmore author of the enduring classic set on the wilds of Dartmoor Lorna Doone (1869). He was a prolific poet and author of a number of novels but none have come anywhere near the popularity of Lorna Doone.

21 January 1950 - George Orwell died.

Pen name of Eric Arthur Blair. He had moderate success in the 1930s with his grim realistic novels, but he really made a name for himself with his two post war classics Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) both brutal satires on modern themes.

He died of tuberculosis aged 46 within a year of the publication of his last novel.

Today is also a major political anniversary.

21 January 1924 - Lenin died. 100 years ago today.

Ruler of Russia from the Communist Revolution of 1917 until his death.

Born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov he adopted the name Lenin in 1901 after the river Lena in Siberia where he had been imprisoned in the 1890s. Apart from a brief return to Russia in 1905 he spent the period from 1900 to 1917 in exile in Europe. With the fall of the Tsar early in 1917 he was smuggled back into Russia by the Germans who hoped, correctly, that he would seize power and withdraw Russia from the war. In fact within days of taking over in November 1917 he authorised an armistice and in March 1918 signed a peace treaty with Germany giving up vast tracts of western Russia.

He held the unwieldy title of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, in effect President of the world's first Marxist state.

He presided over a bloody but ultimately victorious civil war, Allied intervention, war with Poland, famine and horrendous oppression. He was badly injured in an assassination attempt in 1918 and never fully recovered. He suffered a series of strokes in 1922 resulting in increasing paralysis of speech and movement. He died aged 53.

Today is also a major political anniversary.

21 January 1924 - Lenin died. 100 years ago today.

Ruler of Russia from the Communist Revolution of 1917 until his death.

Born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov he adopted the name Lenin in 1901 after the river Lena in Siberia where he had been imprisoned in the 1890s. Apart from a brief return to Russia in 1905 he spent the period from 1900 to 1917 in exile in Europe. With the fall of the Tsar early in 1917 he was smuggled back into Russia by the Germans who hoped, correctly, that he would seize power and withdraw Russia from the war. In fact within days of taking over in November 1917 he authorised an armistice and in March 1918 signed a peace treaty with Germany giving up vast tracts of western Russia.

He held the unwieldy title of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, in effect President of the world's first Marxist state.

He presided over a bloody but ultimately victorious civil war, Allied intervention, war with Poland, famine and horrendous oppression. He was badly injured in an assassination attempt in 1918 and never fully recovered. He suffered a series of strokes in 1922 resulting in increasing paralysis of speech and movement. He died aged 53.

"He suffered a series of strokes in 1922 resulting in increasing paralysis of speech & movement." Hmm, sounds familiar. 

The assassination attempt on Lenin which effectively disabled him was carried out by a woman Fanny Kaplan, a Socialist who thought Lenin a traitor. She was arrested immediately and executed four days later. 

No need for a trial in Lenin's Russia.

No need for a trial in Lenin's Russia.

Or Putin's Russia if it comes to that. Most of Russia has always been a backward, barbaric nation for most of its existence

22 January 1788 - George Byron, 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale, born.

Lord Byron the great Romantic poet. He succeeded to the title aged ten in 1798.

Known as much for his riotous private life as for his poetry. His best known works include Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812 & 1818), The Corsair (1814) and Don Juan (1819-24) unfinished at his death.

A significant anniversary in British political history.

22 January 1924 - (James) Ramsay MacDonald appointed the first Labour Prime Minister. 100 years ago today.

The General Election in December 1923 resulted in a hung parliament with the Conservative administration of Stanley Baldwin holding the most seats - 258 to the combined opposition of Labour (191) and the Liberals (158) totalling 349. With Parliament in recess for Christmas Baldwin was allowed to continue as Prime Minister in the knowledge that he would face a vote of no confidence once Parliament reassembled in January.

Sure enough the vote was held on 21 January and of course the combined opposition defeated the government. The next day Baldwin met King George to tender his and his government's resignation. As leader of the second largest party Labour's Ramsay MacDonald was invited to form a government. This he did with Liberal backing. 

But MacDonald knew full well that his survival depended entirely on Liberal support, thus he confessed that he was "in office but not in power". He had to tread a delicate path of delivering on his election promises while not lurching too far to the Left as to alienate his Liberal allies. In this he managed fairly well in the nine months allowed him before H H Asquith, leader of the Liberal Party, pulled the plug. In reality fears of a Socialist takeover under MacDonald were entirely unfounded, the first Labour government had more in common with Liberal ideology than true Socialism. 

I'm still working on it.

A significant anniversary in British political history.

22 January 1924 - (James) Ramsay MacDonald appointed the first Labour Prime Minister. 100 years ago today.

The General Election in December 1923 resulted in a hung parliament with the Conservative administration of Stanley Baldwin holding the most seats - 258 to the combined opposition of Labour (191) and the Liberals (158) totalling 349. With Parliament in recess for Christmas Baldwin was allowed to continue as Prime Minister in the knowledge that he would face a vote of no confidence once Parliament reassembled in January.

Sure enough the vote was held on 21 January and of course the combined opposition defeated the government. The next day Baldwin met King George to tender his and his government's resignation. As leader of the second largest party Labour's Ramsay MacDonald was invited to form a government. This he did with Liberal backing. 

But MacDonald knew full well that his survival depended entirely on Liberal support, thus he confessed that he was "in office but not in power". He had to tread a delicate path of delivering on his election promises while not lurching too far to the Left as to alienate his Liberal allies. In this he managed fairly well in the nine months allowed him before H H Asquith, leader of the Liberal Party, pulled the plug. In reality fears of a Socialist takeover under MacDonald were entirely unfounded, the first Labour government had more in common with Liberal ideology than true Socialism. 

Was he a Scotsman?

Yes, born illegitimate to a servant girl in Lossiemouth in 1866. His father was known, John MacDonald but they never married.

23 January 1989 - Salvador Dali, Marquess di Dali di Púbol, died.

Along with Picasso Dali is regarded as the greatest painter of the 20th century.

Known as a surrealist artist he also worked in sculpture, film and theatre, fashion, photography and architecture. Among his best known paintings are the melting clocks The Persistence of Memory (1931) and Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) (1936).

Created a Marquess in 1982.

Yes, born illegitimate to a servant girl in Lossiemouth in 1866. His father was known, John MacDonald but they never married.

Ramsay was my mother-in-law's maiden name. Ramsey is common here but not with the "a,"

Ramsay was his mother's name, Anne Ramsay. The USA is portrayed as the land of opportunity, yet here we see an illegitimate son of a servant girl becoming Prime Minister of GB. 

He is the only illegitimately born PM as far as I know; others, in recent times admittedly, have come from humble stock. I won't believe that all US Presidents were born in a shack way out west either. 

24 January 1920 - Amadeo Modigliani died.

Italian born but French resident artist and sculptor. His works are almost entirely portraits in curious linear elongated form. He was not a success during his lifetime, only gaining recognition after his early death aged 35.

His 21 year old, eight months pregnant lover committed suicide two days later by throwing herself out of a fifth floor window.