India Independence ( 1950 ) India Formally becomes a republic no longer under British rule. The new President, Dr Rajendra Prasad, takes the oath of office. Dr Prasad was a key campaigner in the nationalist movement of Mahatma Gandhi, along with India's interim Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

Auschwitz Poland
26th January ( 1945 ) : Soviet troops enter Auschwitz, Poland, freeing 7,000 starving camp survivors from the network of concentration camps revealing to the world the depth of the horrors perpetrated there.

Telegram
26th January ( 2006 ) : Western Union announces the end of Telegram Services from 31 January 2006 the last telegram is sent the next day. The Telegram service more than any other is superceded by the use of E-Mail with the dawning of the Internet age but still exists in some form or other around the world but not as the primary force of fast communication it was at it's beginnings when the Telephone still only had limited numbers. Today when it is used it is for such things as weddings, births, funerals and graduations and even as a secure form of communication ( due to perceptions of the Internet as an insecure medium.


The Phantom of the Opera 26th January ( 1988 ) Andrew Lloyd Webber's Musical The Phantom of the Opera ( Based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra 1909 by Gaston Leroux ) has its first performance on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre in New York and is now the longest running Broadway show in history.