1814 - Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba.
1896 - In Athens, the 1st modern Olympic Games is opened.
1944 - The PAYE income tax system is introduced.
1990 - Married women became independent entities for tax purposes.
1993 - The Queen volunteers to pay Income Tax.
Born today:
1926 - Ian Paisley, NI politician
1929 - Andre Previn, conductor
1938 - Paul Daniels, magician
Died today:
1199 - King Richard the Lionheart
1971 - Igor Stravinsky, composer
1992 - Isaac Asimov, sci-fi writer
1998 - Tammy Wynette, country singer
1906 - Mt Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.
1936 - Butlins opened its 1st holiday camp, in Skeggie.
1943 - The Germans order 1,100 Jews to undress, march them thru the city of Terebovlia, and then shoot them.
1945 - The world's largest battleship, the Jap Yamato, is sunk 200 miles north of Okinawa.
1969 - The Internet's symbolic birth date.
Born today:
1770 - William Wordsworth, poet
1928 - James Garner, actor
1930 - Andrew Sachs, actor
1939 - Sir David Frost, TV host
1941 - Gorden Kaye, actor
1954 - Jackie Chan, actor
1964 - Russell Crowe, actor
Died today:
1793 - Dick Turpin, highwayman, hanged
1891 - P T Barnum, circus man
1947 - Henry Ford, car maker
1968 - Jim Clark, motor racing champion
1271 - The Templars fortress of Krak de Chevaliers falls to Baybars.
1820 - The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.
1838 - The day before his 32nd birthday, Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s 236 ft steamship Great Western sailed from Bristol on her maiden voyage to New York. The journey took 15 days, half the time of the fastest sailing ship. She became the first steamship to make regular Atlantic crossings.
1899 - Martha Plant becomes the 1st woman to be executed by electric chair.
1990 - Nick Faldo wins 2nd successive US Masters golf tournament.
Born today:
1944 - Hywell Bennett, actor
Died today;
1973 - Pablo Picasso, artist
1747 - The Scottish Jacobite Lord Lovat was beheaded on Tower Hill, London, for high treason. He was the last man to be executed in this way in Britain, in a form of execution which had been reserved for the nobility.
1838 - The National Gallery opened in London.
1865 - Robert E Lee surrenders to Ulysses S Grant ending the American Civil War.
1947 - Tornadoes kill 180 in Texas, Oklahoms & Kansas.
1983- Jenny Pitman becomes the 1st woman to train a Grand National winner (Corbiere).
2005 - Charles & Camilla get hitched.
Born today:
1926 - Hugh Hefner, Playboy
1663 - Bananas go on sale for the 1st time.
1858 - Birth of 'Big Ben' - the largest of 5 bells in the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster.
1912 - The Titanic sets sail on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. It never arrived.
1963 - The US submarine Thresher is lost at sea with all hands (130).
1991 - The ferry Moby Prince collides with an oil tanker in dense fog off Livorne, Italy killing 140.
1998 - The NI peace talks ends with the Good Friday Agreement.
Born today:
1929 - Max von Sydow, actor
1932 - Omar Sharif, actor
1955 - Lesley Garrett, soprano
Died today:
1919 - Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary (shot)
1966 - Evelyn Waugh, actor
2000 - Peter Jones, comedian
1855 - The 1st pillar boxes appear in London; 6 of them, painted green.
1905 - Einstein publishes his Theory of Relativity.
1951 - The Stone of Scone, nicked 107 days earlier from Westminster Abbey, turns up in Arbroath.
1959 - Footballer Billy Wright becomes the 1st in the world to play 100 matches for his country.
1965 - 50 tornadoes kill 256 peeps in Mid-west USA.
1979 - Idi Amin is deposed.
1981 - Start of the Brixton riots in south London.
1983 - The film 'Gandhi' wins 8 Oscars - a record for a British film.
Born today:
1946 - Bob Harris, DJ
1960 - Jeremy Clarkson, motormouth
1966 - Lisa Stansfield, singer
1987 - Joss Stone, singer
Died today:
1890 - Joe Merrick, Elephant Man
2001 - Harry Secombe, Goon
1861 - Start of the American Civil War.
1954 - Bill Haley records 'Rock Around The Clock' - the 1st record to sell a million in UK.
1961 - Yuri Gagarin 1st man in space.
1989 - 'Cats' becomes Britain's longest running musical.
1992 - Disneyland Paris opens.
Born today:
1939 - Alan Ayckbourn, playwright
1950 - David Cassidy, singer
1979 - Paul Nichols, actor
Died today:
1981 - Joe Louis, boxer
1989 - Gerald Flood, actor
1989 - Sugar Ray Robinson, boxer
1999 - Boxcar Willie, singer
1919 - British troops fire on 10,000 demonstrators at Amritsa in India, killing 380 and wounding 1,200.
1936 - Luton Town footballer Joe Payne scores a record 10 goals in a match against Bristol Rovers.
1970 - Apollo 13 tells Houston they have a problem.
1997 - Tiger Woods becomes the youngest player to win the US Masters.
Born today:
1937 - Edward Fox, actor
1951 - Peter Davidson, actor
1963 - Gary Kasparov, chess player
1471 - York defeats Lancaster at the Battle of Barnet. The 'Kingmaker' is killed.
1865 - Abraham Lincoln is assassignated.
1912 - The Titanic hits an iceberg.
1931 - The Highway code is published.
1944 - A freighter carrying munitions explodes in Bombay harbour.
Another 27 vessels are sunk or damaged and 740 die.
1950 - Dan Dare appears in the Eagle comic.
1986 - Giant (1kg) hailstones kill 92 in Bangladesh.
1996 - Nick Faldo wins the US Masters for the 3rd time.
Born today:
1941 - Julie Christie, actress
1961 - Robert Carlyle, actor
1977 - Sarah Michelle Geller, actress
1912 - The Titanic sinks. 1500 die, 700 survive.
1941 - The Luftwaffe bomb Belfast killing 1000.
1942 - Malta is awarded the George Cross
1964 - George Best makes his debut for Northern Ireland against Wales.
1989 - 95 football fans are crushed to death during a FA Cup match at Hillsborough between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.
1997 - A fire at a campsite of Muslims attending the Hajj pilgrimage kills 340.
Born today:
1959 - Emma Thompson, actress
1966 - Sam Fox, page 3 model
Died today:
1982 - Arthur Lowe, aka Capt Mainwaring, actor
1984 - Tommy Cooper, magician
1988 - Kenneth Williams, comedy actor
1990 - Greta Garbo, actress
1994 - John Curry, figure skater
1998 - Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator
73 - 1000 Jewish Zealots, beseiged on the rock fortress of Maseda for 2 years by 15,000 Romans, commit suicide rather than surrender when their defences are finally breeched.
1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie fights his last battle on Culloden Moor. He escapes but his cause is lost.
1945 - The German refugee ship Goya is sunk by a Russian sub killing 7,000.
1947 - Texas City catches fire following an explosion on a freighter in port; 600 die.
1951 - The sub Affray sinks in The Channel; 75 drown.
1953 - The Queen launches the Royal Yacht Britannia on Clydeside.
1964 - 12 Great Train Robbers are sentenced to 307 years.
2007 - A crazed gunman kills 32 in the Virginia Tech massacre.
Born today:
1933 - Joan Bakewell, the thinking mans crumpet
1943 - Ruth Madoc, Hi-Di-Hi actress
1947 - Gerry Rafferty, singer
1963 - Little Jimmy Osmond, singer
Died today:
1850 - Madame Tussaud, wax museum founder
1995 - Arthur English, actor
1998 - Fred Davis, snooker player
1949 - The 1st Badminton Horse Trials.
1961 - The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by US troops fails.
1964 - BBC2 is launched.
1968 - Enoch Powell makes his infamous 'Rivers of Blood' speech.
1972 - Apollo 16 lands on the Moon.
Born today:
570 - Muhammed, founder of Islam
1889 - Adolf Hitler, Nazi leader
1924 - Leslie Phillips, actor
1941 - Ryan O'Neal, actor
1945 - Michael Brandon, actor
1949 - Jessica Lange, actress
Died today;
1912 - Bram Stoker, author
1992 - Benny Hill, comedian
753BC - Romulus & Remus found Rome (trad).
1836 - Sam Houston defeats Santa Anna at the Battle of Jacinto.
1960 - Brasilia replaces Rio de Janeiro as Brazil's capital.
1964 - The BBC broadcast the 1st 'Playschool'.
1983 - Pound coins replace paper one pound notes.
1989 - 100,000 students protest in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.
Born today:
1926 - Elizabeth II, Queen
Died today:
1910 - Mark Twain, author
1918 - Manfred von Richthofen, aka 'The Red Baron'
1977 - Gummo Marx, comedy actor
1978 - Sandy Denny, singer
1838 - The Sirius is the 1st steamship to cross the Atlantic, taking 18 days.
1943 - £1,000 notes cease to be printed.
1969 - Robin Knox-Johnston completes the 1st non-stop solo voyage around the world. It took him 312 days.
1970 - 1st Earth Day celebrated.
1972 - Sylvia Cook & John Fairfax become 1st peeps to row the Pacific, taking 362 days.
1992 - An explosion in Guadalajara, Mexico leaves 200 dead and 500 injured.
2004 - 2 fuel trains collide in Ryongchon, N Korea; 150 die.
Born today:
1925 - George Cole, actor
1936 - Glen Campbell, singer
1937 - Jack Nicholson, actor
1950 - Peter Frampton, musician
1960 - Garry Rhodes, chef
Died today:
1933 - Henry Royce, car maker
2002 - Linda Lovelace, porn star
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