In January 1823, Reverend William Buckland discovered  in Goat's Hole, one of the Paviland Caves on the Gower, one side of a human adult skeleton, stained with red ochre and accompanied by seashell necklaces which he incorrectly assumed was a female and became known as the"Red Lady of Paviland".

Buckland who was Professor of Geology at Oxford Univerity and a devout Christian also underestimated the dating of the find as he believed that no human remains could be dated earlier than the Bible's Great Flood.  However, further examinations have shown that the "Red Lady" was, in fact, a male and at 24,000, the oldest known ceremonial burial in Western Europe.  

Born on this day 1937 in Tiger Bay, Cardiff

Shirley Bassey - world famous superstar.

Dame Shirley found fame in the mid-1950s and has since become one of the world's most popular female vocalists.  She is perhaps best known for recording the theme songs to the James Bond films "Goldfinger"  "Diamonds Are Forever" and "Moonraker"

Shirley Bassey was raised in the working class neighbourhood of Splott. Her mother was from Yorkshire and her father was a Nigerian seaman who left the family when Shirley was a baby.  Bassey initially worked in an Enamelware factory, before making her professional debut at 16  and her first major hit was "The Banana Boat Song," after which she has had countless hits and has become a highly respected figure in the music industry.   

Born on this day 1823 in Llanbadoc, near Usk.

Alfred Russel Wallace, who was one of the greatest natural history explorers of the 19th century and a leading thinker on evolution, whose unconventional ideas caused much discomfort to the scientific community at the time.

Wallace was also a biologist and social activist, but he is best known for independently coming up with the theory of evolution by natural selection and co-publishing a paper on the subject with Charles Darwin in 1858.  Despite this, his fame faded quickly after his death,  however recently with the publication of several his biographies and anthologies, he is becoming a much more well known and respected figure.  

Born on this day 1846 in Maesteg

Henry Bracy -  one of the most popular comic tenors of the Victorian era.

Bracy, the son of an ironworks manager began his career in Plymouth, before spending four years performing at London's Gaiety Theatre in the early 1870s. He and his wife then toured Australia, returning to Britain in 1880, where Bracy further built his reputation in comic opera and operetta.  In 1888, they returned to Australia, where until his death in 1917, he became a performer, stage manager, stage director and casting agent in Sydney.  

On 8th January 2006, four members of Rhyl Cycling Club, including a 14-year-old boy were killed in a road accident near Abergele, when the driver of a car lost control on the icy road that had not been gritted. Subsequently, the driver was fined for having defective tyres.