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Contact Arsenal History Society at Tony@schools.co.uk
You can read extended details of one of today’s stories on “Today of All Days”
- 100 Years in the First Division: the absolute complete story of Arsenal’s promotion in 1919.
- Henry Norris at the Arsenal: There is a full index to the series here.
- Arsenal in the 1930s: The most comprehensive series on the decade ever
- Arsenal in the 1970s: Every match and every intrigue reviewed in detail.
You can find the latest video each day on the home page of this site. You can also find videos for previous days by clicking the articles in the left column of this page under “Recent Posts” or by clicking on the mauve headline at the top of the screen on the right, which will take you to yesterday’s selected video – and so on back to the start of the series in August. There is more about who we are and other things we do, at the foot of the page. Below are the anniversaries for today in Arsenal’s history…
The Arsenal History Society is part of the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association – a body which gives positive support to the club, and has regular meetings with directors and senior officials of the club to represent the views of its members to the club. You can read more about AISA on its website.
The anniversaries
19 January 1878: Herbert Chapman born at Kiveton Park, Yorkshire. After success as a manager with Northampton and Huddersfield he transformed Arsenal – but it took five years for him to win the club’s first trophy that everyone craved. In 2019 Arsenal announced that they had worked to clear up and refresh Chapman’s grave.
19 January 1889: Arsenal doubled the highest number of people turning out to see them as 2000 watched the game against Clapton. Being a London Senior Cup semi-final it was due to be played on neutral territory, but it seems it was played at the Spotted Dog Ground which had become the home of Clapton in September 1888. See also here.
19 January 1898: Bill Harper born. Chapman broke the goalkeeper transfer fee for him, but when Harper dropped out of favour he became the first Arsenal man to play in the American soccer league – before later returning to Arsenal once more,
19 January 1908: The court case concerning Football Chat magazine purchased by Henry Norris and others concluded with the finding that the seller had greatly exaggerated the readership of the magazine, and thus the buyers had nothing more to pay. As a result of the issues the magazine soon closed and thus London did not get its own weekly football newspaper to rival Athletic News.
19 January 1915: German zeppelins bombed Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn, killing more than twenty people. With planes flying over London and dropping bombs there was a growing concern about the safety of crowds at football matches.
19 January 1917, The Silvertown munitions factory, which manufactured TNT on the north bank of the Thames, opposite Woolwich, blew up. 73 people died and over 400 were injured, and a further 400 were forced out of their homes.
19 January 1918: 7,000 saw Arsenal beat Chelsea 4-1 in the wartime league. Considering the powerhouse Chelsea had been in the early days of the Combination this was quite a downturn for them. Considering the previous result against Tottenham it was quite an upturn for Arsenal.
19 January 1921: Robert Turnbull joined Arsenal as an amateur: a full back who scored 20 goals in 35 games! He played initially for the Royal Engineers AFC – a club that appeared in four of the first eight FA Cup finals, becoming the first team that pioneered the passing game (known in the 19th century as the “combination” game).
19 January 1946: WBA 0 Arsenal 1. With the war over, the final season of the Football League South continued, and this was the 5th of six consecutive victories However after this run the club’s form dropped away and Arsenal finished the league in 11th. The poor form continued in the first post-war season, wherein Arsenal finished 13th.
19 January 1974: 38,589 were at Old Trafford for Man U v Arsenal; Kennedy got the goal on a cold day upon which most time was spent reflecting on the past glories and current failings of both “once great” clubs.
19 January 1980: Arsenal 2 Derby 0, the start of eight without defeat and 19 with only one defeat. Brady and Young scored. The crowd of 22,091 however showed that supporters were becoming disheartened by the style of play by singing “We are boring”. In response Brady kicked the ball onto the top of the north bank and it got stuck behind the Arsenal crest. See also here.
19 January 1990 – Colin Pates signed for Arsenal. A Chelsea star – having played nearly 300 league games for them, he never quite made it at Arsenal under George Graham, and later moved on to Brighton before going into teaching.
19 January 1991: League match 23 of the almost unbeaten season – and Arsenal under George Graham remained unbeaten thus far. This was the last match of the run before the one defeat of the season in the next game. This match ended Arsenal 1 Everton 0. Merson scored.
19 January 1997: Arsenal beat Everton 3-1 to go 3 points behind Man U and Liverpool with a game in hand. Bergkamp, Vieira, and Merson got the goals.
19 January 2000, Arsenal beat Leicester City away 5-6 on penalties after a goalless draw in the FA Cup.
19 January 2003: Arsenal beat West Ham at home 3-1.
19 January 2008: 19 January 2008 Arsenal were second in a three horse race. Arsenal and Man U each had 54 points, Chelsea 50 and Liverpool in fourth 39. Arsenal beat Fulham away 3-0 to strengthen their chances.
19 January 2011: Arsenal beat Leeds United away 3-1 in the FA Cup, in a sequence of nine wins and two draws in 11 games. However then, in a run of five games Arsenal went out of the League Cup, FA Cup and Champions League.
19 January 2019: Amidst a run in which Arsenal alternated wins and defeats, winning four and losing four, Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-0, Lacazette and Koscielny scoring.
