From French executions to Irish independence: this date throughout history

Robert Hume showcases some of the momentous events that just happen to coincide on 21 January

Peggy Lee died on this day in 2002. The singer and actress became famous for her smoky voice and navigated from jazz, blues and swing to Latin, pop, soul and soft rock.

January 21, 1793: King Louis XVI of France was executed by guillotine in Paris. The 38-year-old king had promised reform, but he never delivered it and conspired with foreign countries to quash the revolution.

His last hours were spent with his confessor, Father Henry Edgeworth, an Irish priest from Co Longford, who attended him on the scaffold at the Place de la Révolution.

Edgeworth heard the King declare: "I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge…” 

According to one account, it took two attempts to slice off his head because Louis was so fat.

When the head was shown to the crowd, a huge cry went up: "Vive la Nation! Vive la République!"

Witnesses recalled some people rushing towards the scaffold and dipping handkerchiefs in the blood to keep as souvenirs.

January 21, 1869: Rasputin, the mad monk, was born. 

The man who reputedly licked spoons before serving other people with them and went around with pieces of food stuck in his beard was accepted into the court of Tsar Nicholas II in 1906.

Officially appointed as the palace’s lamplighter, this ‘man of God’ was believed capable of healing Nicholas’ son, Alexei, who suffered from haemophilia. 

Contemporaries claimed he stopped the bleeding through prayer, hypnosis and spit.

The high point of Rasputin's power came in 1915 when Nicholas II left St Petersburg to oversee Russian armies fighting in World War I.

Resenting his grip over the royal family, Rasputin’s enemies spread rumours that, as a young man, he had been a member of the Khlysty, a religious sect that practised self-flagellation and held orgies.

When Russian defeats mounted during the war, Rasputin became the scapegoat. On December 30, 1916, he was shot dead by a group of noblemen.

January 21, 1905: French fashion designer Christian Dior was born.

Since the brand was launched in 1947, Dior designs have been worn by royalty — notably Princess Grace of Monaco, Princess Margaret, and Princess Diana — and Hollywood big names — from Marlene Dietrich, Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor of yesteryear to current stars Natalie Portman, Emma Watson and Charlize Theron.

The son of a fertilizer manufacturer, Dior became the most successful fashion designer in the world. At the time of his mysterious death in 1957, his fashion house was earning more than €16m annually. 

Initially, women protested due to the number of fabrics used in a single dress or suit. 

'Coco' Chanel remarked: "Look how ridiculous these women are, wearing clothes by a man who doesn't know women, never had one and dreams of being one."

January 21, 1919: Sinn Féin declared Ireland independent of Great Britain. 

Twenty-seven Sinn Féin MPs assembled in Dublin's Mansion House and proclaimed themselves the parliament of Ireland, the first Dáil Éireann. They appealed to all free nations to recognise it.

The following day, the Cork Examiner declared: “The Irish historian of the future will, no doubt, regard the 21st January 1919, as a date that marked a turning point in the political history of this country… the establishment in Ireland of a Constituent Assembly as an alternative method of dealing with the country’s affairs…” 

The event demonstrated to the world “that Ireland no longer places any confidence in the pledges of the British Government”.

January 21, 1921: Hercule Poirot first appeared a century ago today. 

The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published in Britain and Ireland. 

Agatha Christie's famous detective — “the greatest mind in Europe” — whose little grey cells draw the admiration of police forces worldwide, has appeared in 33 novels, two plays and 51 short stories.

More than 40 actors have played the impeccably dressed, diminutive Belgian sleuth, including comedian Hugh Laurie, 6ft tall Peter Ustinov, Japanese star Mansai Nomura and Austin Trevor, who claimed he got the part because he could do a “great French accent”. 

Charles Laughton was the first to portray Poirot in Alibi (1928), a stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

In 1974, Albert Finney played Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express, where he wears body padding and a false nose. Agatha Christie complained that he didn’t have a moustache: her Poirot should have “the finest moustache in England”.

January 21, 2002: Singer and actress Peggy Lee died, aged 81. 

The blonde bombshell from North Dakota — born Norma Deloris Egstrom to a Swedish-American father and a Norwegian-American mother — became famous for her smoky voice. She navigated from jazz, blues and swing to Latin, pop, soul and soft rock. 

Who (of a certain age!) can fail to recognise her version of 'Fever' or 'Johnny Guitar', for which she also wrote the lyrics?

From humble beginnings on local radio, which paid her in food from a nearby restaurant, she ended up singing with Benny Godman’s band and appearing on Bing Crosby’s radio shows.

As an actress, she starred in a remake of The Jazz Singer (1952) and provided the voices for the dog Peg and two Siamese cats in Disney’s Lady and the Tramp (1955).

Frank Sinatra commented: “Her wonderful talent should be studied by all vocalists”, while Duke Ellington decreed: “If I’m the duke, man, Peggy Lee is the queen.”