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Rugby School was founded in 1567 as a provision in the will of a certain Lawrence Sheriff who had made his fortune supplying groceries to Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Since Lawrence Sheriff lived in Rugby, the school was intended to be a free grammar school for the boys of that town. Gradually, however, the nature of the school shifted to become fee-paying, and so a new school - Lawrence Sheriff Grammar School - was founded to continue Lawrence Sheriff's original intentions.

The school's most famous headmaster was Dr. Thomas Arnold. Appointed in 1828 he executed many reforms to the school curriculum and administration and was immortalised in Thomas Hughes' book Tom Brown's School Days.

The game of Rugby owes its name to the school. The legend of William Webb Ellis and the origin of the game is commemorated by a plaque which states;

The story has been known to be a myth since it was first investigated by the Old Rugbeian Society in 1895Events January events January 5 Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. February events February 14 First showing of Oscar Wilde's last play The Importance of Being Earnes. There were no standard rules for football during Webb Ellis's time at Rugby (1816-1825) and most varieties involved carrying the ball. The games played at Rugby were organized by the students and not the masters, the rules of the game played at Rugby and elsewhere were a matter of custom and were not written down. They were frequently changed and modified with each new intake of students. The sole source of the story is credited to one Matthew BloxamMatthew Holbeche Bloxam ( 12 May 1805 24 April 1888) a native of Rugby in England was the original source of the legend of William Webb Ellis inventing the game of Rugby football. Biography Bloxam's father was an assistant master at Rugby School. He was e (a former student, but not a contemporary of Webb Ellis) in October of 1876 (four years after the death of Webb Ellis) in a letter to the school newspaper (The Meteor) whereby he quotes some unknown friend relating the story to him. He elaborated on the story some 3 years later in another letter to The Meteor, but shed no further light on its source.

Rugby School has both day- and boarding-pupils - the latter in the majority. Originally it was for boys only, but girls have been admitted to the sixth form since 1975Events January January 1 Watergate scandal: John N. Mitchell, H. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up and are sentenced to 30 months to 8 years in jail on February 21 January 5 The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, i. It went fully co-educational in 19951995 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). It has a Golden number of 1, and was the first year of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People (1995- 2005): http://www. org/culture/indigenous . Events January events Ja.