Arsenal beaten by York City, and the start of TV…

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The Anniversaries …

Below are the Arsenal (and for historical context, occasionally one or two non-Arsenal) anniversaries for today taken from the files of over 6000 Arsenal anniversaries which appear on the Arsenal History Society website.   You will also find links to the month by month listing of anniversaries in the right hand column of this page.


The big series

“Henry Norris at the Arsenal” is now complete.  The index to all the articles can be found at Henry Norris at the Arsenal.   We are now  preparing a more concise edition for publication as a book.

Arsenal in the 1930s: the complete history.  The most detailed review and analysis of Arsenal in the 1930s ever published.  The full index is here.

Arsenal in the 1970s: the complete history.  Every game reviewed and analysed.  The full index is here.


The Anniversaries for Today

Today’s headline comes from 1985 and 1926

26 January 1889: St Luke’s 5 Arsenal 0 – a reminder that Royal Arsenal were strong but certainly not invincible in the early days.

26 January 1891: Royal Arsenal 0 Everton 5.  After three games in which Arsenal scored a total of 16 goals the club (which was playing its final season as amateurs) was brought down to earth by first division Everton.

26 January 1895: Crowd incidents in the Woolwich Arsenal v Burton game led to the ground being closed by the FA for two games.  The original sentence proposed was that the ground would be closed for the rest of the 1894/95 season. However, on appeal a “compromise” of 6 weeks suspension was agreed upon by the FA.   See also here.

26 January 1918:  Tottenham 0 Fulham 1 at Highbury (as Tottenham’s ground was closed for the duration).  Sir Henry Norris attended with his daughter who took her dog into the directors’ box. The dog then escaped and then ran on the pitch and play was stopped while it was rounded up.  However this story also turns up in another match so may not be true.

26 January 1925: WHU 1 Arsenal 0 (at Stamford Bridge).  The second replay of the FA Cup match that was the scene of the Arsenal drugs scandal.  Curiously the only source for the story is the man who dished out the drugs to the team: the Arsenal manager who claimed he didn’t know the man who offered him the pills!

26 January 1926: John Logie Baird demonstrated a mechanical television system in London – the first faltering steps towards TV.

26 January 1957: Ex player Freddie Cox DFC started his most famous FA Cup run as a manager of Bournemouth, beating Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur before narrowly losing to  Man U.

26 January 1969: James Ramsey died.  He went to Arsenal from Kilmarnock in 1924, and returned there in 1926, leaving Arsenal after 75 games.

26 January 1971: The journey to the Double was held up by a waterlogged pitch for the 4th round cup replay at Portsmouth.

26 January 1980: Arsenal beat Brighton And Hove Albion 2-0 in the cup with 43,202 in attendance.  After some poor performances Brady and Rix were back to their best and Arsenal could have reached double figures, except the Brighton keeper had the game of his life.

26 January 1985: York 1 Arsenal 0 (FA Cup).  Having taken two attempts to beat Hereford, Arsenal went down to York in front of a packed house of 10,840

26 January 2005: Jackie Henderson died in Poole, Dorset.  He played for Scotland and was a great favourite at Portsmouth, but couldn’t pull Arsenal through on his own.

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