1836 - Fall of the Alamo.
1964 - Cassius Clay becomes Muhammed Ali.
1987 - The ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving Zeebrugge with its bow doors open; 193 drown.
1988 - The SAS shoot dead 3 members of the IRA in Gibraltar.
1992 - Thousands of computers are infected by the Michelangelo virus. He was born on March 6, 1475.
Born today:
1934 - John Noakes, former Blue Peter presenter
1936 - Jean Boht, actress
1942 - Ben Murphy, actor
1944 - Kiri Te Kanawa, singer
1947 - Kiki Dee, singer
1966 - Alan Davies, comedian
Died today:
1836 - 180 defenders of the Alamo, incl Davy Crockett, Bill Travis, and Jim Bowie
1961 - George Formby, ukulele man
1876 - Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.
1945 - The bridge at Remagen is captured.
1975 - The body of Lesley Whittle, a 17-year-old heiress who had been kidnapped from her Shropshire home 52 days earlier, was found at the bottom of a drain shaft. She had been held for 52 days then strangled by Donald Nielson, known as The Black Panther.
2007 - The House of Commons votes to make the House of Lords 100% elected.
Born today;
1958 - Rik Mayall, comedian
Died today:
1999 - Stanley Kubrick, director
1924 - An accident at the Castle Gate coal mine in Utah kills 172 miners.
1965 - The 1st US soldiers are deployed in Vietnam.
1971 - Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali over 15 rounds at Madison Square Garden to become the world heavyweight boxing champion.
Born today:
1943 - Lynn Redgrave, actress
1945 - Micky Dolenz, Monkee
1954 - Cheryl Baker, Bucks Fizzer
1954 - David Wilkie, swimmer
1958 - Gary Numan, singer
Died today:
1999 - Joe DiMaggio, baseball player
2003 - Adam Faith, singer
2007 - John Inman,aka Mr Humphries, actor
2008 - Carol Barnes, news presenter
1834 - The French Foreign Legion is founded.
1916 - Pancho Villa leads 1,500 men to raid New Mexico.
1945 - US B-29 bombers attack Tokyo, killing 100,000.
1959 - Barbie makes her debut.
1801 - The 1st national census is held.
1876 - Alenander Graham Bell makes the 1st telephone call.
1906 - Europe's worst pit disaster occurs at the Courrieres Mine in France when 1,100 miners die.
1933 - An earthquake in Long Beach, California kills 120.
1956 - Test pilot Peter Twiss becomes the 1st man to fly at over 1,000mph.
1959 - Thousands of Tibetans are massacred by Chinese troops following an uprising in Lhasa.
1999 - The Spice Girls are the 1st group to top the charts with every one of their 1st four singles.
Born today:
1957 - Osama bin Laden, terrorist leader
1958 - Sharon Stone, actress
1964 - Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
Died today:
1988 - Andy Gibb, Bee Gee
1998 - Lloyd Bridges, actor
2003 - Barry Sheene, No. 7
2005 - Dave Allen, comedian
1845 - Henry Jones, a baker, invented self-raising flour.
1858 - The Indian Mutiny ended - the sepoys had been told that their cartridges had been coated in animal fat.
1864 - The Bradford reservoir burst, killing 250.
1888 - The Great Blizzard kills over 400 in eastern USA.
1988 - The pound note ceases to be legal tender.
2004 - Bombs on rush-hour trains in Madrid kill 192.
Born today:
1964 - Shane Ritchie, actor
Died today:
1969 - John Wyndham, author
1814 - Wellington captures Bordeaux in France.
1928 - The St Francis dam in California bursts, drowning 600.
1935 - The 30mph speed limit in built-up areas is introduced.
1941 - Hebridean Islanders hide shipwrecked whisky from C&E.
1993 - Explosions in Bombay kill over 300.
1994 - C of E ordain women as priests.
Born today:
1946 - Liza Minnelli, actress / singer
1948 - James Taylor, musician
Died today:
1998 - Judge Dread, musician
1999 - Yehudi Menuhin, violinist
1781 - Uranus discovered!
1884 - Start of the 10-month seige of Khartoum.
1927 - The lance ceases to be an official weapon in the army.
1970- Susan Wallace becomes the 1st 18yr old to vote.
1992 - An earthquake in eastern Turkey kills over 500.
1996 - Thomas Hamilton kills sixteen 5 to 6 year-old kids in a school in Dunblane, before shooting himself.
Born today:
1939 - Neil Sedaka, singer
1958 - Linda Robson, actress
Died today:
1842 - Henry Shapnel, soldier/inventor
1995 - Odette, WWII heroine
1889 - Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his 'Navigable Balloon'.
1926 - A train in Costa Rica falls into the Rio Virilla, killing 250.
1961 - The New English Bible is published.
1979 - A plane crashes onto a factory in Beijing, killing 200.
1991 - The 'Birmingham Six' have their convictions quashed after spending 16yrs in jail.
Born today:
1933 - Michael Caine, actor
1942 - Rita Tushingham, actress
1945 - Jasper Carrott, comedian
1947 - Pam Ayres, poet
Died today:
1883 - Karl Marx, philosopher
2007 - Gareth Hunt, actor
44BC - The Ides of March - Julius Ceaser, maybe the greatest Roman - was murdered by a number of senators including his friend Markus Brutus. His dying words were 'Et tu Brutus?', and was promptly sick (one too many, p'haps?).
1877 - 1st cricket match between Australia & England.
1906 - Rolls-Royce was founded by Henry Royce and C S Rolls.
Died today:
1937 - H P Lovecraft, author
1975 - Aristotle Onassis, shipping magnate
2003 - Dame Thora Hird, actress
1190 - The Crusaders massacre the Jews of York at Clifford's Tower.
1647 - Royalist Harlech Castle is the last Welsh castle to fall to the Roundheads in the ECW.
1812 - The seige of Badajoz in Spain begins.
1872 - The 1st FA Cup Final - Wanderers beat Royal Engineers 1-0 at The Oval.
1912 - Lawrence Oates goes outside, saying he 'may be some time.'
1963 - Mount Agung on Bali erupts killing 11,000.
1968 - US troops kill 400 Vietnamese villagers in My Lai.
1971 - Henry Cooper announces his retirement from boxing, after being beaten by Joe Bugner.
1978 - The supertanker Amoco Cadiz runs aground off Brittany, resulting in the 5th largest oil spill ever.
1988 - Kurdish Halabjah in Iraq is attacked with poison gas; thousands die.
Born today:
1926 - Jerry Lewis, comedian
1954 Jimmy Nail, actor
1989 - Peaches Geldof, Bob's lass
1649 - Oliver Cromwell declares England a Commonwealth.
1845 - The rubber band is patented (NB - Cassie).
1891 - The SS Utopia sinks off Gibraltar; 574 drown.
1951 - 1st appearance of Dennis the Menace.
1984 - The 130th Boat Race is postponed after the Cambridge boat hits a barge and sinks.
1988 - A Boeing 727 crashes into a Venezuelan mountain killing 143.
2000 - 800+ members of the Ugandan cult Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments commit mass suicide.
Born today:
1939 - Robin Knox-Johnston, yachtsman
1949 - Patrick Duffy, aka Bobby Ewing, actor
1951 - Kurt Russell, actor
1954 - Lesly Ann Down, actress
Died today:
493 - St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland
1995 - Ronnie Kray, gangster
1999 - Rod Hull, comedian
1314 - The last Grand Master of the Knights Templar is burnt at the stake.
1584 - Ivan the Terrible dies, probably poisoned. He killed thousands.
1925 - A tornado strikes Missouri, Illinois & Indiana. 700 perish.
1937 - A gas explosion destroys the New London School in Texas, killing 300, mostly children.
1953 - An earthquake hits western Turkey, killing 250.
1965 - Cosmonaut Alexsei Leonov becomes the 1st person to walk in space.
1967 - The oil-tanker Torrey Canyon runs aground off Cornwall, spilling its 100,000 gallons of crude oil into the sea.
1971 - A landslide at Chungar, Peru buries 200.
1990 - 12 paintings worth $300m are stolen from a museum in Boston (USA).
2003 - Saddam Hussain steals $1 billion from Iraq's Central Bank.
1834 - The Tolpuddle Martyrs are sentenced to 7yrs in Australia.
1932 - Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened.
1945 - Off the coast of Japan, a dive-bomber hits the USS Franklin, killing 800 of its crew.
1982 - The Argentines plant their flag on South Georgia, leading to the Falklands War.
Born today:
1928 - Patrick McGoohan, No.6
1936 - Ursula Andress, actress
1947 - Glenn Close, actress
1955 - Bruce Willis, actor
Died today:
1950 - Edgar Rice Burroughs, author
1979 - Richard Beckinsale, actor
2005 - John De Lorean, duff car maker
1857 - An earthquake in Tokyo kills over 100,000. 1918 - The 2nd Battle of the Somme begins. 1960 - In Sharpeville, South Africa, police open fire on black demonstrators, killing 70 & wounding 180. 1990 - A demo in London against the Poll Tax turned into a riot, with 400 arrested. 1991 - The government announced plans for a Property Tax to replace the Poll Tax. 1999 - Piccard & Jones become the 1st to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon.
Died today: 1985 - Sir Michael Redgrave, actor 1999 - Ernie Wise, comedian
1888 - The English Football League was founded.
1889 - The Woolwich Ferry began service.
Born today:
1929 - Roger Bannister, runner
1962 - Steve Redgrave, actor
1968 - Michael Atherton, cricketer
1603 - QE I dies, and the crowns of England & Scotland are united when James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England.
1877 - The Boat Race ended in a dead heat.
1951 - The Oxford boat sank.
1944 - The Great Escape - 76 prisoners break out of Stalag Luft III.
1989 - The tanker Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels of oil into Alaskan waters.
1992 - Punch magazine ceases publication after 150 years.
1998 - A tornado in Dantan, India kills 250.
Born today:
1947 - Alan Sugar, businessman
Died today:
1976 - 'Monty', field marshall
1306 - Robert the Bruce crowned King of Scotland.
1807 - The Slave Trade Act abolishes trading in the British Empire.
1807 - The Oystermouth Railway in Swansea becomes the 1st passenger railway in the world.
1947 - A coalmine explosion in Illinois, USA kills 111.
1949 - 'Hamlet' starring Laurence Olivier wins 5 Oscars. It is the 1st British film to win an Academy Award.
1949 - The Russians deport 92,000 from the Baltics to remote areas of the Soviet Union.
1957 - The EEC is established.
Born today:
1942 - Aretha Franklin, singer
1943 - Paul Michael Glaser, Starsky or Hutch?
1947 - Elton John, singer/songwriter
Died today:
1969 - Billy Cotton, bandleader
2002 - Kenneth Wolstenholme, football commentator
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