Return to Calendar Main Page.

January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

1

• Every year - April Fool's Day when you might want to carry out some Great April Fool's Jokes and Tricks.

• Every year - The Ann Arbor Hash Bash, Michigan, USA (except if April Fool's Day falls on a week day, in which case this event defaults to the first Saturday of the month).

• 1949 - The 26 counties of the Irish Free State become the Republic of Ireland.

• 1957 - BBC series Panorama fools the nation with its legendary Growing Spaghetti joke.

• 1961 - George Harrison rejoins his band, The Beatles in Hamburg after previously being deported for working in nightclubs while still under age.

• 1996 - Delirious? the band and their record label, Furious? Records, were born.

• 1999 - 'Inukshuk', Nunavut is established as a part of land claim settlements.

• 2002 - The Netherlands legalises euthanasia, becoming the first nation in the world to do so.

2

• 1805 - Writer Hans Christian Andersen, famous for his fairy tales, is born in Odense, Denmark.

• 1874 - Two Native Americans find 'white man's flesh' outside an Agency building, thus starting the search for Alfred Packer - the Colorado Cannibal.

• 1902 - 'Electric Theatre', the first full-time cinema in the USA, opens in Los Angeles, California.

• 1908 - The HMS Tiger takes part in an ill-fated home fleet exercise 20 miles south of the Isle of Wight..

• 1916 - The Isle of Wight's seaplanes destroy a Zeppelin.

• 1928 - Serge Gainsbourg, French Singer and Songwriter, is born in Paris, France.

• 1930 - The first crossword appears in the weekly edition of The Times.

• 1939 - Marvin Gaye, the Prince of soul, is born in Washington DC to the Rev Marvin and Alberta Gay.

• 1961 - The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.

• 1970 - Phil Spector finishes work on the Beatles' album Let It Be. 34 years later, Paul McCartney removes Spector's contributions from the recordings and releases Let it Be... Naked.

• 1982 - Argentina invades The Falkland Islands.

• 1985 - The first male voice of the Speaking Clock is heard.

• 2006 - More than 60 tornadoes cause havoc in the USA. Hardest hit is Tennessee with 29 people killed.

3

• 1883 - The trial begins of Alfred Packer - the 'Colorado Cannibal' - for the murder of Israel Swan.

• 1895 - The trial of a libel case instigated by the playwright Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.

• 1912 - Calbraith Perry Rogers is the first casualty from a bird strike, when he flews his Wright Flyer into a flock of seagulls during an air show in Long Beach and crashes into the sea.

• 1924 - Legendary actress and singer Doris Day is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.

• 1924 - Legendary actor Marlon Brando is born, as noted in the song 'We Didn't Start the Fire'.

• 1930 - Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl is born.

• 1994 - The American TV show Highlander first airs in the UK.

• 2007 - A French TGV on the LGV Est high-speed line sets an official world speed record for conventional trains.

4

• Every year - It's the Feast day of Saint Isidore, the Patron Saint of the Internet.

• 1731 - The Countess of Cesena is found, her body reduced to ashes. Was this down to Spontaneous Human Combustion?

• 1721 - Sir Robert Walpole becomes the first prime minister of the UK, during the reign of King George I.

• 1841 - US President William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia.

• 1923 - Baseball legend Babe Ruth hits the first home run in the history of the newly-opened Yankee Stadium.

• 1968 - The American black civil rights leader, Dr Martin Luther King, is assassinated.

• 1972 - President Nixon authorises massive bombing of the North Vietnamese troops invading South Vietnam, saying, in private, 'The B a s t a r d s have never been bombed like they're going to be bombed this time'.

• 1995 - Kenny Everett, anarchic DJ and pioneer of 'pirate radio', dies.

• In a raid on a ranch owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS Church) in Texas, USA, 401 children and 133 woman are taken into custody.

5

• 1799 - Income tax payments start, for anyone on a decent salary. Not exactly a Great Day in History.

• 1815 - People around the world learn the name 'Tambora' - the greatest volcanic eruption in recorded history.

• 1841 - William Henry Harrison, 9th US President, dies of a pneumonia he contracted during his inaugural speech 32 days earlier.

• 1904 - The first international rugby league match is played between England and an Other Nationalities team (Welsh and Scottish players) in Central Park, Wigan, England.

• 1951 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are sentenced to jail for conspiring to steal secrets about the atomic bomb - a historical moment documented in the song 'We Didn't Start the Fire'.

• 2008 - US actor Charlton Heston, star of the film Ben-Hur and president of the National Rifle Association, dies (born 1923).

6

• 1652 - The Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a re-supply camp at the Cape of Good Hope. It eventually becomes Cape Town, South Africa.

• 1937 - The Luigi Accame ploughs into Rocken End, off the Isle of Wight.

• 1960 - Sputnik 3 ceases sending back data, as noted in the song 'We Didn't Start the Fire'.

• 1971 - Operation Lam Son 719 ends, one stage of the US campaign in Vietnam.

• 1994 - Juvénal Habyarimana, President of Rwanda, and Cyprien Ntaryamira, Hutu President of neighbouring Burundi die in an air crash when their plane is hit by two missiles.

• 2004 - Niki Sullivan, US guitarist with Buddy Holly and The Crickets, dies (born 1937).

7

• 1827 - English chemist John Walker sells the first friction match.

• 1853 - Queen Victoria's son Leopold, Duke of Albany, is born.

• 1858 - In Lourdes, a young girl called Bernadette experiences what is later called 'The Miracle of the Candle'.

• 1949 - The musical South Pacific premieres on Broadway.

• 1961 - An injured Soviet air force pilot is hospitalised, kick-starting unsubstantiated rumours regarding the first manned space flight.

• 1967 - A Peace Parade in Fifth Avenue, New York, protests against the war in Vietnam.

• 1968 - Racing driver Jim Clarke is killed in a crash at Hockenheim.

• 1983 - Astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk.

• 1999 - The World Trade Organisation rules in favour of the USA in a long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas.

8

• 1749 - Charles Wesley - Preacher and Hymn-writer - marries Sarah Gwynne.

• 1818 - August Wilhelm von Hofmann, the German chemist whose work led to the establishment of the coal tar and dye-stuff industries, is born.

• 1820 - The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.

• 1953 - Twelve passengers die and many are injured when a London Underground Central line train, heading eastbound to Epping, ploughs into a stationary train waiting in the tunnel between Stratford and Leyton.

• 1974 - Baseball legend Hank Aaron scores a historic home run at Atlanta Stadium.

• 1994 - Kurt Cobain, now-legendary frontman of melodic grunge outfit Nirvana, commits suicide.

• 2008 - Construction of the world's first building to integrate wind turbines is completed in Bahrain.

9

• 1483 - King Edward IV dies.

• 1626 - Sir Francis Bacon dies from pneumonia.

• 1744 - Grace Pett, wife of a fishmonger in Ipswich, ignites in an incident believed to prove the existence of Spontaneous Human Combustion.

• 1794 - Theobald Boehm, the German inventor of the modern flute, is born (d. 1881).

• 1806 - British Engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel is born in Portsmouth.

• 1879 - Milton S Hershey writes a revealing page in his autobiographical book...

• 1969 - Harvard students protest against the war in Vietnam.

• 2002 - In London, the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, takes place at Westminster Abbey.

• 2005 - HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, marries Camilla Parker Bowles at the Guildhall, Windsor's Town Hall.

10

• 1815 - A number of colossal explosions occur during the greatest volcanic eruption in recorded history - Tambora.

• 1912 - The Titanic sets sail from Southampton.

• 1964 - American Railroad workers unions call a country-wide strike. Just one of the problems encountered by Lyndon Baines Johnson - 36th President of the United States.

• 1970 - Four lads that shook the world - The Beatles split up.

• 1973 - Roberto Carlos, the Brazilian footballer, is born.

• 2000 - Actor Peter Jones dies, best known to h2g2 researchers as the voice of 'the Book' in the radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

11

• 1471 - Henry VI surrenders to Edward IV, bringing the Second War of the Roses to an end.

• 1775 - Germany's last execution for witchcraft takes place.

• 1912 - The Titanic departs from Queenstown, Ireland, as its last photograph is taken before heading out across the Atlantic.

• 1968 - General Westmoreland is denied his request for more troops in the war in Vietnam.

• 1970 - Apollo 13 is launched.

• 1994 - Oasis - the band at the heart of 1990s 'Brit-pop' - release their debut single.

• 2000 - Historian David Irving is denounced as a Holocaust denier by Justice Gray.

• 2001 - Harry Secombe, the Welsh actor and comedian of Goon Show fame, dies (born 1921).

• 2007 - Following a fall in his home in Manhattan, American author Kurt Vonnegut dies aged 84.

12

• 1861 - The American Civil War begins when Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter, Charleston harbour, South Carolina.

• 1874 - English footballer and cricketer William 'Fatty' Foulke is born in Darley, Shropshire.

• 1918 - The SS Luis is torpedoed off the coast of the Isle of Wight.

• 1927 - The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland officially came into being.

• 1961 - The Soviets launch the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin, in Vostok 1.

• 1989 - Sugar Ray Robinson dies.

• 2002 - A female Palestinian suicide bomber kills seven people and injures 104 (among them nine Arabs) at the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem.

13

• Every year - If you suffer from Triskaidekaphobia, today will not be your favourite day of the month.

• Every year - Songkran, the Water Festival, starts, signifying the end of the Thai year.

• 1640 - King Charles I summons the Short Parliament, which sat from this day until 5 May, 1640.

• 1742 - George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah has its world premiere in Dublin, Ireland.

• 1883 - Alfred Packer - the Colorado Cannibal - is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.

• 1954 - Baseball legend Hank Aaron makes his first major league debut.

• 1959 - Dutch orchestral conductor Eduard van Beinum dies after having a heart attack.

• 1966 - Iraqi politician Abdul Salam Arif dies in a mysterious helicopter crash at the banks of the Shatt al-Arab river in South Iraq.

• 1970 - 'Houston, we have a problem...' Apollo 13 gets into difficulty.

• 2004 - UK television presenter Caron Keating dies (born 1962).

14

• Every year - Songkran - the Water Festival - ends. In Thailand it's considered to be the day between the old year and the new year.

• 1471 - The battle of Barnet is fought as part of the Second War of the Roses.

• 1699 - Khalsa, the brotherhood of the Sikh religion, is born in northern India, in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar.

• 1759 - Death of the great German baroque composer, George Frederic Handel.

• 1857 - Queen Victoria's daughter Beatrice is born.

• 1865 - American President Abraham Lincoln is shot.

• 1912 - The Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink.

• 1912 - Father of modern journalism William T Stead dies, having been on board the Titanic.

• 1936 - Racing driver Jim Clarke is born.

• 1941 - Baseball legend Pete Rose is born.

• 1961 - Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death for crimes against the Jewish people.

• 1976 - Morocco and Mauritania partition the Western Sahara.

• 2005 - The US Oregon Supreme Court nullifies marriage licences issued to gay couples a year earlier by Multnomah County.

15

• Every year - Tax Freedom Day, the traditional deadline for which federal income taxes must be paid to Washington DC.

• Every year - Songkran, the Water Festival, ends, signifying Thailand's New Year's Day.

• 1452 - Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci is born (d. 1519).

• 1814 - Medora Leigh - thought to have been the incestuous lovechild of Lord Byron and Augusta - is born.

• 1865 - Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous day.

• 1912 - In the early hours of the morning, the last section of the Titanic sinks beneath the surface of the water.

• 1947 - Baseball legend Jackie Robinson breaks down the race barrier in major league baseball.

• 1961 - B-26 planes bomb Cuban airfields by order of John Fitzgerald Kennedy - 35th President of the United States.

• 1972 - Hanoi and Haiphong Harbour are bombed by the United States during the Vietnam war.

• 1989 - 96 football fans are crushed to death in the Hillsborough Tragedy.

• 2000 - Baseball legend Cal Ripken Jnr makes his 3,000th career hit.

• 2001 - Joey Ramone, musician and singer with US punk rock band The Ramones, dies (born 1951).

16

• Every year - Feast day of Saint Drogo, the Patron Saint of the really ugly.

• 1867 - Wilbur Wright is born. With his younger brother, Wright becomes one half of the most famous aviation duo in history.

• 1889 - The most famous comedy tramp of the movies, Charlie Chaplin, is born in London.

• 1918 - Spike Milligan, Irish comedian, is born (d. 2002).

• 1924 - The Presbytery of Phoenix of the Presbyterain Church meets in session - a stage in the Americanisation of the Pima Nation.

• 1935 - The public first hear the new 'swing' sound of Glenn Miller.

• 1939 - Most revered British female vocalist of the 1960s Dusty Springfield is born in London.

• 1972 - Apollo 16 is launched.

• 2003 - The Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens, admitting ten new member states to the European Union.

17

• 1492 - Christopher Columbus signs a deal with Spain to finance his travels.

• 1875 - The English Football League is formed - good news for Blackburn Rovers FC.

• 1924 - Carl Hayden receives a letter regarding a meeting in Tucson, just one stage in the Americanisation of the Pima Nation.

• 1940 - Singer/songwriter Billy Fury is born in Liverpool, UK.

• 1957 - Nick Hornby, the English author, is born.

• 1961 - John F Kennedy - 35th President of the United States - authorises the Bay of Pigs invasion, and incident noted in the song 'We Didn't Start the Fire'.

• 1963 - Baseball legend Mickey Mantle hits the record-breaking 'tape measure' home run.

• 1970 - After a tense few days, Apollo 13 re-enters Earth's atmosphere and splashes down with its crew intact.

• 1998 - Linda McCartney, wife of Paul McCartney, Wings musician and animal rights campaigner, dies (born 1941).

18

• 1915 - During World War I, the French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of enemy lines.

• 1955 - Albert Einstein, who developed the theory of relativity, dies in hospital aged 76.

• 1956 - Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.

• 1994 - Former President of the United States Richard Nixon suffers a stroke.

• 2002 - Ethnologist Thor Heyerdahl dies.

19

• 1775 - The colonists sing Yankee Doodle as they drive the British back to Boston.

• 1824 - Lord Byron dies.

• 1865 - Abraham Lincoln's funeral takes place.

• 1934 - Child actor Shirley Temple debuts in US TV series Stand Up and Cheer.

• 1935 - Musician, Comedian and Actor Dudley Moore is born in Dagenham.

• 1946 - British actor Tim Curry, famous for his performance in the movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show, is born in the Cheshire village of Grapenhall.

• 1949 - 'Lawn Chair' Larry Walters is born.

• 1971 - A protest is staged across Lincoln Memorial Bridge by Vietnam veterans and mothers of dead soldiers.

• 1972 - The North Vietnamese army attack the city of An Loc.

• 1993 - The Waco siege ends tragically.

• 2005 - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of the Papal conclave.

20

• Every year - The last day of Aries, according to the horoscope.

• Every year - Feast day of Saint Caedwalla, the Patron Saint of serial killers.

• 570 - Mohammed, founder of the Islam, is born in Mecca.

• 1941 - Baseball legend Pete Rose is sentenced to five months in jail, 1000 hour community service and a $500,000 fine.

• 1943 - Edie Sedgwick is born in the Cottage Hospital of Santa Barbara, as seventh of eight children.

• 1971 - About 200 veterans attend hearings on proposals to end the war in Vietnam.

• 1991 - Steve Marriott, the British singer/songwriter with the band The Small Faces, and later Humble Pie, dies (b. 1947).

• 2001 - China removes homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.

21

• Every year - The first day of Taurus, according to the horoscope..

• 1926 - Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary is born. She is better known by the title 'Queen Elizabeth II'.

• 1975 - President Thieu of North Vietnam resigns from office.

• 1995 - The TV series Father Ted is first broadcast.

• 2004 - Pilot Robert Morgan of the Memphis Belle falls over at Asheville Regional Airport and breaks his neck.

• 2007 - Princess Isabella of Denmark is born.

22

• 1313 - The Ship of Blessed Mary is wrecked off the coast of the Isle of Wight.

• 1429 - Sire de Rotslaer writes a letter describing several predictions made by 'Joan of Arc'.

• 1833 - Inventor of the first steam locomotive, Richard Trevithick, dies in extreme poverty.

• 1914 - Baseball legend Babe Ruth pitches his first game with the Baltimore Orioles.

• 1994 - Richard Nixon - 37th President of the United States - dies.

• 2002 - Reading's rising urinals are first, er, christened.

• 2006 - Some 243 people are injured in Nepal after security forces open fire on pro-democracy protesters opposed to King Gyanendra.

23

• 1564 - Birthdate of William Shakespeare. He would die on the same day 52 years later.

• 1616 - A Great Date in History - owing to the death on this day of both Shakespeare and Cervantes.

• 1858 - Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, the reluctant revolutionary of quantum mechanics, is born in Kiel, Germany.

• 1891 - Composer Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev is born.

• 1954 - Baseball legend Hank Aaron hits his first major league home run.

• 1967 - Tenor Saxophonist John Coltrane makes his last recording.

• 1968 - Students protest against the Vietnam War at Columbia University.

• 1971 - The final day of the Operation Dewey Canyon III protest against the Vietnam War.

• 2003 - All schools in Beijing, China, are closed for two weeks because of the SARS virus.

24

• 1066 - Halley's Comet is sighted on this day above the Isle of Wight.

• 1494 - Explorer Christopher Columbus leaves the settlement on La Isabella on this day to search for what he thought was the Chinese mainland.

• 1816 - Lord Byron leaves England on self-imposed exile.

• 1907 - Alfred Packer - the 'Colorado Cannibal', dies on a ranch near Denver.

• 1942 - Singer and actress Barbra Streisand is born in Brooklyn, New York.

• 1971 - Half a million demonstrators arrive in Washington DC to protest against the War in Vietnam.

• 1993 - An IRA London Underground bomb detonates in Bishopsgate, destroying the Undergroud station and wrecking nearby buildings.

• 2007 - Iceland announces that Norway will shoulder the defence of Iceland during peacetime.

25

• Some years - The latest date in April on which Easter Day can ever fall.

• 1557 - Scarborough Castle is seized by Thomas Stafford on this day.

• 1763 - John Wilkes publishes controversial comments in newssheet The North Briton - an event that planted some of the Seeds of the American Revolution.

• 1843 - Alice, one of Queen Victoria's Children, is born.

• 1873 - Birth of Félix d' Hérelle, joint discoverer of bacteriophages, the most numerous organisms in the Earth's biosphere.

• 1908 - HMS Gladiator shipwrecks off the Isle of Wight.

• 1915 - The Battle of Gallipoli, and the date on which ANZAC Day falls each year, commemorating those who died in the battle.

• 1918 - Ella Fitzgerald, peerless black American jazz and pop singer and the 'first lady of song', is born.

• 1935 - Band Leader Glenn Miller plays titles under his own name for the first time.

• 1989 - Tibet's 'Stolen Child', Gedhun Choekyi Nyima the 11th Panchen Lama, is born.

• 2007 - Boris Yeltsin's funeral is the first to be sanctioned by the Russian Orthodox Church for a head of state since the funeral of Emperor Alexander III in 1894.

26

• 1573 - Marie de Medici is born.

• 1848 - The surviving members of the Franklin Expedition to the Northwest Passage leave the safety of their ships for the final time...

• 1923 - Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon - later HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother - and Prince Albert are wed.

• 1926 - David Coleman, much-loved English TV sports commentator, was born. He was the first quizmaster of the BBC TV sports show, A Question of Sport, and the originator of Colemanballs.

• 1953 - Panmunjom peace talks began again - an event referred to in the lyrics of Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start The Fire'.

• 1957 - Sir Patrick Moore begins presenting the monthly television series The Sky At Night which is going to make him, and his monocle, famous.

• 1986 - The Chernobyl Disaster takes place on this day.

• 2007 - Queen's Pier is officially closed by the Hong Kong government, after a bitter struggle by conservationists, to facilitate land reclamation in the Central district.

27

• 1822 - Ulysses S Grant, Union General and American President is born in Point Pleasant, Ohio.

• 1882 - Leopold, Duke of Albany - one of Queen Victoria's Children - marries Princess Helena of Prussia.

• 1896 - Baseball legend Rogers Hornsby is born.

• 1947 - Declared 'Babe Ruth Day' across the USA and Japan.

• 1956 - Rocky Marciano announces his retirement from boxing - an event referred to in the lyrics of Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start the Fire'.

• 1958 - The doomed third Sputnik satellite is launched - an event referred to in the lyrics of Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start The Fire'.

• 1967 - Bolivian President René Barrientos dies in an helicopter crash.

• 1972 - Apollo 16 splashes down.

• 1972 - Vietnam War peace talks resume in Paris.

• 1986 - The town of Pripyat, lying next door to the Chernobyl Power Station, is evacuated.

• 1993 - All of the Zambian naional football team die in an air crash, when their Zambian Air Force de Havilland Buffalo crashes near Libreville, Gabon, after an engine starts to burn.

• 2002 - Musician, Comedian and Actor Dudley Moore dies in his home in New Jersey.

• 2006 - Construction work begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.

28

• 1934 - Coventry City Football Club score their biggest ever victory.

• 1941 - 'Ole Betty' - the nickname for the oldest-surviving B-17 Flying Fortress aeroplane - begins her career.

• 1947 - Thor Heyerdahl sets out to sail across the Pacific to Polynesia.

• 1967 - Muhammad Ali is arrested for refusing army induction during the Vietnam War.

• 1975 - General Duong Van Minh becomes the new president of South Vietnam.

• 1999 - Douglas Adams launches h2g2 - an internet-based Guide to Life, the Universe and Everything inspired by his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. The site is unveiled on the BBC's science programme Tomorrow's World.

29

• 1483 - The Dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham meet Lord Rivers at Northampton: a brief peaceful moment of The House of York during the Wars of the Roses.

• 1950 - Three adults are injured and a baby dies in a London rail disaster at Boarer's Manor Way Level Crossing, when a train hits a lorry occupying the tracks, due to poor visibility that day.

• 1975 - The North Vietnamese army shell the Tan Son Nhut air base in Saigon during the Vietnam War.

• 1993 - Guitarist Mick Ronson, famed for his collaboration with David Bowie, dies.

• 2002 - Reading's 'Rising Urinals' are first opened to the public.

30

• Every year - The National Celebration of 'Queens Day' in Holland.

• 1429 - Joan of Arc enters the Orleans army.

• 1789 - At his Inauguration as US President, George Washington starts the tradition of kissing bibles and saying 'So help me God' at the end of the oath.

• 1812 - Lousiana officially becomes the 18th State of the USA.

• 1918 - The SS Isleworth is sunk off the Isle of Wight.

• 1926 - The first black female US pilot Bessie Coleman dies in an air crash when she is practising for an air show in Jacksonville, Florida.

• 1943 - One of the greatest anti-Nazi deceptions of the Second World War, 'Operation Mincemeat', takes place.

• 1968 - Battle at Dai Do, part of the Vietnam War.

• 1969 - US Troops in Vietnam are at 543,400 - the highest at any point during the conflict.

• 1970 - Nixon announces moves to destroy North Vietnamese and Vietcong sanctuaries during the Vietnam War.

• 1973 - Nixon makes the first of three speeches on the Watergate scandal - an event mentioned in the lyrics of Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start The Fire'.

• 1975 - The last ten US marines are evacuated from the Tan Son Nhut air base in Saigon, one of the final events of the Vietnam War.

• 1993 - Virgin 1215 AM is launched - the first national commercial pop Radio station in Britain.

• 1993 - Mick Ronson, ace lead guitarist in David Bowie's 1970s group, 'Spiders from Mars', departed Earth.

Next Month