1797 - Spanish fleet sunk in Battle of Cape St Vincent. Nelson involved as captain.
1929 - The St Valentines Day Massacre: Al Capone's gang machine-gun 7 members of rival Bugsy Moran's gang, in Chicago.
1943 - Rommel's Africa Corps launch an attack on the allies at Kasserine Pass, Tunisia.
1984 British ice skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won the ice dance gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, gaining maximum points for artistic expression, dancing the 'Bolero'.
1989 The spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, condemned Salman Rushdie’s award-winning novel, The Satanic Verses, as an insult to Islam and issued a fatwa (edict) calling on Muslims to kill the author for committing blasphemy. Rushdie and his family went into hiding.
2003 Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, was put down after being diagnosed with a severe lung infection.
Died today:
270 - St Valentine (now there's a coincidence)
1779 - Capt James Cook, stabbed by Hawaii natives
1975 - P G Wodehouse, author
1996 - Bob Paisley, football manager
1564 - Birth of Galileo, astronomer 1942 - Fall of Singapore; 80,000 soldiers become POW's. 1944 - Battle for Monte Casino, Italy. 1961 - A plane crash in Belgium wipes out the entire US figure skating team. 1971 - £ s d given the elbow. 2003 - Protests against the Iraq war occurred in over 600 cities worldwide.
Estimates from 8,000,000 - 30,000,000 people took part, making this the largest
peace demonstration ever. 2005 - YouTube launched.
Not much happened.
Born today:
1935 -Sonny Bono, Cher's ex
1946 - Ian Lavender, stupid boy
1959 - John McEnroe, tennis player, but not seriously
1964 - Christopher Ecclestone, Doctor
1971 - Amanda Holden, actress
1979 - Valentino Rossi, erm...biker?
1776 - Edward Gibbon published History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
1867 - 1st ship passes thru Suez Canal.
1883 - 'Vacant - Engaged' bog door sign patented.
1936 - World's 1st superhero, The Phantom, appears in comics.
1962 - A ginormous storm kills 300 in Hapsburg, Germany.
1995 - Fanny Craddock's 1st cookery programme on TV.
2006 - A mudslide in the Philippines buries over1,000.
Born today:
1930 - Ruth Rendell, author
1934 - Barry Humphries, comedian
1941 - Julia McKenzie, actress
1944 - Karl Jenkins, composer
1945 - Brenda Flicker, actress
1981 - Paris Hilton, actress (?)
Died today:
1909 - Geronimo, Apache chief
1478 - Sentenced to be beheaded for treason, George Duke of Clarence, chose to be drowned in a butt of his favourite Malmsey wine, rather than face the axe.
1678 - John Bunyan's 'Pilgrims Progress' published.
1885 - Mark Twain's 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' published.
1969 - Lulu married BeeGee Maurice Gibb.
1979 - Snow fell in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the 1st & only recorded time.
2003 - 200 die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea.
2004 - 300 (incl 200 rescue workers) die nr Nayshader in Iran, when a freight train catches fire & explodes.
Born today:
1933 - Yoko Ono, John Lennon's wife
1933 - Sir Bobby Robson, football manager
1943 - Graeme Garden, Goody
1946 - Michael Buerk, newsreader
1950 - Cybill Shepherd, actress
1954 - John Travolta, actor
1975 - Gary Neville, footballer
1915 - The Battle of Gallipoli begins.
1945 - " " " Iwo Jima " .
1985 - 1st Eastenders broadcast.
1985 - A Boeing 727 crashes into Mt Oiz in Spain, killing 148.
1996 - The oil tanker Sea Empress hits rocks off Milford Haven, spilling 73,000 tonnes of crude oil. It takes 5 years and £60m to clean up.
2001 - Foot & Mouth breaks out in Essex.
Born today:
1939 - Gwen Taylor, actress
1940 - Smokey Robinson, singer
1960 - Leslie Ash, actress
1962 - Hana Mandlikova, tennis player
1472 - Orkney & Shetland ceded by Norway to Scotland. 1835 - Concepcion in Chile destroyed by an earthquake. 1947 - The State of Prussia ceases to be. 1982 - John de Lorean's luxury sports car company goes bust.
Born today: 1927 - Sidney Poitier, actor 1940 - Jimmy Greaves, footballer 1941 - Buffy Saint Marie, singer 1946 - Brenda Blethyn, actress 1951 - Gordon Brown, PM 1966 - Cindy Crawford, model
1916 - The Battle of Verdun begins. It lasted 10 months, with 700,000 casualties.
1952 - Winston Churchill's government abolishes identity cards "to set the people free".
1961 - 1st appearance (of 292) of The Beatles, at the Cavern Club.
1988 The grave of Boadicea, the warrior queen who fought the Romans in Britain nearly 2,000 years ago, was located by archaeologists under Platform 8 at King’s Cross railway station, London. British Rail said they had just refurbished the platform and anyone wanting to dig it up would have to come up with a strong case.
1995 - Steve Fossett becomes 1st person to fly solo in a balloon across the Pacific Ocean.
1997 - 3 men are released after 18 yrs in prison wrongly convicted of murdering schoolboy Karl Bridgewater.
Born today:
1924 - Robert Mugabe, dictator
1946 - Tyne Daly, actress
1946 - Alan Rickman, actor
1955 - Kelsey Grammar, aka Frazier, actor
1962 - Vanessa Feltz, TV presenter
1986 - Charlotte Church, angel (not)
Died today:
1991 - Dame Margot Fonteyn, ballet dancer
2002 - John Thaw, actor
1797 - Over 1,000 French troops attempted to invade Britain and landed at Fishguard, but were soon captured by the brave ladies of the town. No other foreign force has managed to invade mainland Britain since.
1879 - 1st Woolworth's store opens, in New York.
1980 - Robin Cousins wins gold for figure skating at Winter Olympics.
1997 - Dolly the sheep is cloned.
2006 - Britain's biggest robery: £53m nicked from Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
Born today:
1928 - Bruce Forsyth, nice to see him...
1949 - Niki Lauda, motor racer
1950 - Julie Walters, actress
1953 - Nigel Planer, young one
1974 - Chris Moyles, DJ
1975 - Drew Barrymore, actress
Died today:
1987 - Andy Warhol, artist
2002 - Chuck Jones, animator
1820 British police uncovered 'The Cato Street Conspiracy', planned by Arthur Thistlewood, to assassinate Cabinet ministers. Five of the eighteen conspirators were publicly hanged outside Newgate prison on May 1st 1820, six were transported to Australia for life, and the rest were either rewarded or released due to their status as spies, agent provocateurs, or men who had turned King's Evidence.
1836 - Battle of the Alamo, San Antonio, Texas.
1887 - The French Riviera is devastated by an earthquake, killing over 2,000.
2008 - The Spirit of the USAF crashes at Guam. The crew survive, but the plane is a write-off, making it the most expensive plane prang ever, as it cost $1.2 billion.
Born today:
1940 - Peter Fonda, easyrider
1944 - Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe cookie
1971 - Melinda Messenger, TV presenter
Died today:
1965 - Stan Laurel, a fine mess
1976 - L S Lowry, matchstickman
1995 - James Herriot, 'vet'
2000 - Sir Stanley Matthews, football wizard
Today is Mardi Gras. (Fat Tuesday).
Altho it has been celebrated since 1700, the 1st parades were in 1857 in New Orleans.
1962 - The Beatles played a gig in Birkenhead for £30, and were booed off stage. So they went to the Cavern Club...
1989 - Ayatollah Khomeini offers a $3m bounty for the death of Salman Rushdie.
Born today:
1940 - Denis Law, footballer
1946 - John Stapleton, TV presenter
1948 - Dennis Waterman, minder
1955 - Alain Prost, racing driver
1958 - Plastic Bertrand, singer
1964 - Bill Bailey, comedian
Died today:
1993 -Bobby Moore, footballer
2006 - Dennis Weaver, duallist
1836 - Samuel Colt patent his revolver.
1978 Ian Botham scored his first test match century, scoring 103 against New Zealand.
1982 The European Court of Human Rights ruled that corporal punishment in schools (if it was against the parents' wishes) was a violation of the Human Rights Convention.
1991 After serving 17 years in prison, it was announced that 'the Birmingham Six' would soon be released when it was decided that their convictions were unsafe. All were jailed in 1975 for an IRA attack on two pubs in Birmingham in November 1974 in which 21 people died.
1992 - 600 civilians are massacred by Armenian armed forces in Azerbaijan.
1994 - In the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, Dr. Baruch Goldstein shoots dead 29 Palastinian worshippers & injures 125 more, before being beaten to death by the survivors.
Born today:
1937 - Tom Courtenay, actor
1945 - Elkie Brooks, singer
1964 - Lee Evans, comedian
1973 - Julio Iglesias, singer
Died today:
1723 - Sir Christopher Wren, architect
1957 - Bugsy Moran, gangster
1983 - Tennessee Williams, playwright
26th
1815 - Napoleon escapes from Elba, beginning the 'Hundred Days'.
1972 - A burst dam floods the Buffalo Creek in West Virginia, USA, drowning 125.
1995 - Barings Bank collapses after Nick Leeson loses $1.4bn speculating on future contracts.
2001 - The Taliban destroy 2 ancient giant Buddha statues in Afghanistan.
Born today:
1928 - Fats Domino, musician
1947 - Sandie Shaw, singer
1953 - Michael Bolton, singer
1900 - The Labour Party was founded.
1907 - The building of the Old Bailey started, on the site of Newgate Prison.
1991 - End of the Gulf War.
2004 - Terrorists bomb a superferry in the Philippines, killing 116.
Born today:
1932 - Liz Taylor, actress
1951 - Steve Harley, musician
1957 - Timothy Spall, actor
1973 - Peter Andre, Jordan's fella
Died today:
2002- Spike Milligan, Irish comedian and writer, aged 83. After the death of his friend Harry Secombe from cancer on 11th April 2001, Milligan said, "I'm glad he died before me, because I didn't want him to sing at my funeral." On his headstone is inscribed "I'Duirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite", which is Irish for "I told you I was ill." He was the favourite comic of Prince Charles who wrote a letter congratulating Milligan on winning a Lifetime Achievement Award, whereupon the comic, on live TV, jokingly labelled him a "grovelling little bastard".
1900 - THe 4 month seige of Ladysmith in the Natal is lifted by the arrival of a British relief force.
1935 - Nylon is invented, by Wallace Carothers.
1947 - In Taiwan, 30,000 lose their lives in a civil disorder.
1966 - The Cavern Club, Liverpool, where the Beatles and other pop groups began, was forced into liquidation.
1975 - At 8.37 am in the London rush hour, a Northern Line underground train crashed through the buffers at Moorgate station and hit a solid dead-end wall, killing 41 people and seriously injuring 50. The rescue operation took three days to complete.
1983 - The final episode of MASH is broadcast on American TV.
2001 - A GNER train from York to London King's Cross crashed at Great Heck between Goole and Selby, North Yorkshire, on the East Coast main line. Gary Hart fell asleep at the wheel of his Land Rover and plunged 40ft down the railway embankment from the M62 into the path of an express train. The 4.45am Great North Eastern Intercity service from Newcastle to London King's Cross ploughed into the Land Rover at 125mph before colliding with a coal train travelling north. 10 people died and more than 70 were injured.
2004 - One million Taiwanese form a 300 mile-long human chain to commemorate the 1947 incident.
2005 - A suicide bombing at a police recruiting station in Al Hillah, Iraq, kills 127.
1562 - Over 1000 Huguenots are massacred by Catholics in Wassy, France.
1692 - The Salem witch trials begin.
1872 - The world's 1st national park is established - Yellowstone
1978 - Charlie Chaplin's coffin is stolen from a Swiss cemetery.
Born today:
1954 - Catherine Bach, pretty hazard
1954 - Ron Howard, aka Ritchie, Fonz's friend
Died today:
589 - David, patron saint of Wales.
1882 - Roderick Maclean tried to assassinate Queen Victoria at Windsor railway station.
1949 - 1st non-stop around-the-world flight - 94 hours - by Lucky Lady II.
1958 - 1st crossing of the Antartic; a 12-man British team travelled 2,500 miles in 99 days.
1969 - 1st test flight of the Concorde, lasted 27 minutes.
1988 - Launch of the SDLP.
2004 - Al Qaeda terrorists kill 170, and injure 500, on Ashura Day in Iraq.
Born today:
1942 - Lou Reed, singer
1947 - Harry Redknapp, footy manager
1949 - JPR Williams, rugby player
1958 - Ian Woosnam, singer
1962 - Jon Bon Jovi, musician
1965 - Lembit Opik, politician
Died today:
1930 - D H Lawrence, author
1939 - Howard Carter, archaeologist
1987 - Randolph Scott, actor
1991 - Serge Gainsborough, singer
1999 - Dusty Springfield, singer
1938 - Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.
1943 - 173 are killed in a crush whilst entering an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station.
1974 - A Turkish airliner crashes nr Paris killing all 345 on board, incl 200 Brits diverted from another flight.
1985 - The NUM calls off its year-long strike without a peace deal agreed.
2005 - Steve Fossett becomes the 1st person to fly solo non-stop without refueling around the world - 25,000 miles in 67 hrs.
Born today:
1946 - John Virgo, snooker player
1977 - Ronan Keating, singer
Died today:
1983 - Herge, creator of Tin-Tin
1987- Danny Kaye, actor/singer
1824 - The RNLI was formed, by Sir William Hillary.
1882 - 1st electric trams appear in London.
1890 - The Forth Railway Bridge opens; it took 6 years to build.
1894 - 1000 buildings are consumed in the Great Fire of Shanghai.
1899 - 12m flood waves drown 300 in Queensland, Australia.
1908 - A school fire in Collinwood, Ohio, kills 174.
1930 - Floods in S W France drown over 700.
1967 - 1st gas from the North Sea is piped ashore.
1969 - Ronald & Reggie Kray are convicted of murder.
1975 - Charlie Chaplin is knighted.
1977 - An earthquake centered around Budapest kills over 1,500.
1980 - Robert Mugabe (boo,hiss) becomes President of Zimbabwe.
Born today:
1923 - Sir Patrick Moore, astronomer
1948 - Shakin Stevens, singer
1951 - Kenny Dalglish, footballer turned manager
1951 - Chris Rea, singer
1968 - Patsy Kensit, actress
Died today:
1193 - Saladin, Richard the Lionheart's foe
1850 - The Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits was opened.
1936 - 1st test flight of the Spitfire.
1940 - The Soviets execute 22,000 Poles and secretly bury them in the Katyn forest.
1966 - A BOAC flight crashes on Mt Fuji, Japan, killing 124.
Born today:
1947 - Clodagh Rogers, singer
1948 - Elaine Paige, singer
1962 - Charlie & Craig Reid, Pretenders
1974 - Matt Lucas, Little Britisher
Died today:
1953 - Sergei Prokofiev, composer
1953 - Joseph Stalin, Russian leader
1963 - Patsy Cline, singer
1980 - Jay Silverheels, aka Tonto, actor
![On This Day In History (16) - Forums [Biker Match]](/images/backgrounds/strips/8mobileLQ.jpg)
![On This Day In History (16) - Forums [Biker Match]](/images/backgrounds/strips/8desktopLQ.jpg)
