On This Day

[Raistlin]

Events

1497 Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope in his search for a route to India.

1938 The first coelacanth, a prehistoric fish believed to be extinct, was caught off the South African coast.

1946 Biro ball point pens went on sale in Britain, invented by Hungarian journalist László Biro.

1956 The 16th Olympic Games opened in Melbourne.

1963 John F Kennedy, 35th US president, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald.

1975 Two days after the death of General Franco, Juan Carlos I was sworn in as King of Spain.

1986 Mike Tyson, aged 20, defeated Trevor Berbick in Las Vegas, becoming the youngest-ever heavyweight boxing champion.

1990 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who had led Britain since 1979, announced her resignation.

1994 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was revealed to be under investigation for bribery.

1996 The 86-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa underwent heart surgery in Calcutta, India.

1997 Australian scientists demonstrated a 5-mm/0.2-in-long car, which drives itself and travels at 0.36 kph/0.22 mph.

Births

1819 George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), English novelist

1866 Wassily Kandinsky, Russian painter

1869 André Gide, French author

1890 Charles de Gaulle, French statesman

1913 Benjamin Britten, English composer

1943 Billie Jean King, US tennis champion

1967 Boris Becker, German tennis champion

Deaths

1718 Edward Teach (Blackbeard the pirate), English navigator

1774 Robert Clive, British general and administrator

1900 Arthur Sullivan, English composer

1916 jack London, US novelist

1980 Mae West, US film actress

1992 Sterling Holloway, US film actor

1993 Anthony Burgess, English novelist, critic, and composer

[Raistlin]

Events

1407 The Duke of Orleans is ambushed

1670 Molière's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme was performed for the first time in Paris.

1852 Britain's first pillar boxes were erected, at St Helier, Jersey.

1889 The first juke box was installed in the Palais Royal Saloon in San Francisco.

1906 Enrico Caruso was fined $10 for sexual harassment.

1921 US President Warren Harding banned doctors from prescribing beer, eliminating a loophole in the prohibition law.

1963 The first episode of the BBC TV serial Dr Who was broadcast, with William Hartnell as Dr Who and Anna Ford as his female companion.

1980 A violent earthquake struck Southern Italy, killing over 4,000 people.

1987 Secretary of State Shultz and USSR Foreign Minister Shevardnadze agreed on a treaty to eliminate all intermediate-range nuclear (INF) weapons.

1996 A hijacked Ethiopian 767 passenger jet crashed into the Indian Ocean, killing 125 of the 175 passengers and crew aboard. The three Ethiopian hijackers had ordered the pilot to take the plane to Australia, ignoring his warning that the plane did not have enough fuel for such a journey.

Births

1859 Billy the Kid, US outlaw

1876 Manuel de Falla, Spanish composer

1887 Boris Karloff, English film actor

1917 Michael Gough, English actor

1934 Lew Hoad, Australian tennis player

1956 Shane Gould, Australian swimmer

Deaths

1763 Abbé Prévost, French author

1910 Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen, US murderer, executed

1934 Arthur Wing Pinero, British dramatist

1941 P C Wren, British novelist

1976 André Malraux, French novelist

1979 Merle Oberon, British film actress

[Raistlin]

Events

1642 Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovered Van Diemen's Land which he named after his captain, but it was later renamed Tasmania.

1859 Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published.

1963 Lee Harvey Oswald, charged with the assassination of John F Kennedy, was shot while in police custody by jack Ruby, a stripclub owner.

1989 Czech politician Alexander Dubcek made his first public appearance in over 20 years, speaking at a pro-democracy rally in Prague.

1993 The last 14 bottles of Scotch whisky salvaged from the SS Politician, wrecked in 1941 and the inspiration of the book and film, Whisky Galore, were sold at auction for £11,462 at Christie's.

1996 Belarus relinquished control over the part of the former Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal that remained in Belarus after 1991.

1997 The Truth and Reconciliation Committee in South Africa began hearing allegations of involvement in political murder against Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, former wife of President Nelson Mandela.

Births

1632 Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher

1713 Laurence Sterne, Irish novelist

1864 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter

1868 Scott Joplin, US ragtime pianist and composer

1942 Billy Connolly, Scottish comedian

1955 Ian Botham, English cricketer

Deaths

1572 John Knox, Scottish religious reformer

1922 Erskine Childers, Irish nationalist and novelist

1929 Georges Clemenceau, French statesman

1980 George Raft, US film actor

1991 Freddie Mercury, English rock singer

1993 Albert Collins, US blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter

[Raistlin]

Births

1835 Andrew Carnegie, US industrialist and philanthropist

1844 Carl Benz, German engineer and car manufacturer

1915 Augusto Pinochet, Chilean dictator

1920 Ricardo Montalban, US film actor

1952 Imran Khan Niaz, Pakistani cricketer

Deaths

1748 Isaac Watts, English hymn writer

1949 Bojangles (Bill Robinson), US tapdancer and entertainer

1965 Myra Hess, British pianist

1968 Upton Sinclair, US novelist

1970 Yukio Mishima, Japanese novelist

1983 Anton Dolin, British dancer and choreographer

Events

1884 Evaporated milk was patented by John Mayenberg of St Louis, Missouri.

1937 An inter-regional spelling competition became the first British quiz programme to be broadcast.

1941 HMS Barham was sunk, with the loss of 868 lives.

1952 The longest-running play, The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie, opened in London, at the Ambassador's Theatre.

1969 John Lennon returned his MBE.

1975 Surinam, formerly called Dutch Guiana, became a fully independent republic.

1990 Christian militias withdrew from East Beirut in agreement to create a reunified city policed by government troops and Syrian soldiers.

1991 Winston Silcott became the first of the 'Tottenham Three', convicted for the 1985 killing of a policeman in Tottenham, North London, to have his conviction overturned.

1997 Astronauts on board the US space shuttle Columbia, retrieved the Spartan satellite which had gone out of control the previous week when it was hit by Columbia's robotic arm as it was being released into space.

[Raistlin]

Births

1731 William Cowper, English poet

1810 William George Armstrong, English inventor

1905 Emlyn Williams, Welsh actor and dramatist

1910 Cyril Cusack, Irish actor

1922 Charles Schultz, US cartoonist

1938 Tina Turner, US rock singer

Deaths

1504 Isabella I, Queen of Castile and Aragon

1836 John McAdam, Scottish engineer

1851 Nicolas Soult, French general

1917 Leander Jameson, British colonial administrator

1956 Tommy Dorsey, US trombonist and bandleader

1968 Arnold Zweig, German novelist

Events

1703 England was hit by severe gales, known as the Great Storm, in which 8,000 people died.

1789 The American holiday of Thanksgiving was celebrated nationally for the first time.

1906 Theodore Roosevelt returned to Washington after a trip to Central America, becoming the first US president to travel abroad while in office.

1942 The Soviet forces counter-attacked at Stalingrad, ending the siege and forcing General von Paulus's Sixth Army to retreat.

1949 India became a federal republic within the Commonwealth.

1964 Britain borrowed $3,000 million from foreign bankers to save the pound.

1966 Charles de Gaulle opened the world's first tidal power station in Brittany.

1976 Catholicism ceased to be the state religion of Italy.

1990 Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's prime minister for 31 years, announced that he was stepping down.

1994 An assault on the Chechen capital Grozny by Russian forces was defeated by Chechen forces loyal to President Dudayev.

[Raistlin]

Events

1095 Pope Urban began to preach the First Crusade at Clermont, France.

1582 William Shakespeare, aged 18, married Anne Hathaway.

1914 Britain's first policewomen went on duty, at Grantham, Lincolnshire.

1940 In Romania, the pro-fascist group Iron Guard murdered 64 people, including former prime minister Jorga.

1967 French President Charles de Gaulle rejected British entry into the Common Market.

1970 The Gay Liberation Front held its first demonstration in London.

1990 John Major won his second ballot for leadership of the Conservative Party.

1997 United Nations Inter-Agency Flood Response estimated that flooding in Somalia had left 230,000 people homeless.

Births

1701 Anders Celsius, Swedish astronomer and thermometer inventor

1809 Fanny Kemble, English actress

1874 Chaim Weizmann, Israeli chemist and Zionist leader

1894 Konosuke Matsushita, Japanese industrialist

1920 Alexander Dubcek, Czech statesman

1942 Jimi Hendrix, US guitarist and singer

Deaths

8 BC Horace, Roman poet

511 Clovis, Frankish King

1330 Roger de Mortimer, lover of Queen Isabella, mother of Edward III - Executed

1895 Alexandre Dumas fils, French novelist and dramatist

1953 Eugene O'Neill, US dramatist

1955 Arthur Honegger, Swiss composer

1975 Ross McWhirter, British editor

[Raistlin]

Events

1520 Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan sailed through the Straits at the tip of South America and reached an ocean which he named the Pacific.

1660 The Royal Society was chartered in London.

1905 The Irish political party Sinn Fein was founded by Arthur Griffith in Dublin.

1909 In France, a law was passed allowing women eight weeks' maternity leave.

1919 In Britain, Lady Nancy Astor was elected in a by-election as the first woman Member of Parliament to take her seat.

1948 Edwin Land's first polaroid cameras went on sale in Boston.

1960 Mauritania gained independence.

1978 Amid growing fundamentalist opposition, the Iranian government banned religious rallies.

1990 Mrs Thatcher resigned, and John Major took over as British Prime Minister.

1994 Norwegian voters rejected membership of the EU in a national referendum.

1996 Algerians approved a new constitution extending the power of the presidency and effectively banning Islamic-based parties.

Births

1632 Jean Baptiste Lully, Italian/French composer

1757 William Blake, English poet and artist

1820 Friedrich Engels, German Socialist

1907 Alberto Moravia, Italian writer

1908 Claude Lévi-Strauss, French anthropologist

1943 Randy Newman, US singer and songwriter

Deaths

1680 Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, Italian sculptor

1859 Washington Irving, US author

1954 Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist

1968 Enid Blyton, English children's book author

1993 Kenneth Connor, English actor

1994 Jerry Rubin, US activist, financier, and businessman

[bothwell_buyer]

2 days before my birthday so its oot with the bevvy!

[Raistlin]

2 days before my birthday so its oot with the bevvy!

Mines a pint

[Raistlin]

Events

1864 The Sand Creek massacre took place when over 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians who had surrendered and were disarmed were killed by US cavalry.

1929 US Admiral Richard Byrd became the first man to fly over the South Pole, with his pilot Bernt Balchen.

1932 Cole Porter's The Gay Divorcee, starring Fred Astaire, was first performed in New York.

1945 Yugoslavia was proclaimed a Federal People's Republic, under Tito's leadership.

1947 The UN approved Britain's plan for a partition of Palestine.

1975 Robert Muldoon of the New Zealand National Party was elected prime minister.

1990 The UN Security Council, at the urging of the USA, authorized the use of force against Iraq if it did not withdraw totally from Kuwait by 15 January 1991.

1996 French lorry drivers ended a 12-day strike that had crippled several sectors of France's economy.

Births

1797 Domenico Donizetti, Italian composer

1803 Christian Johann Doppler, Austrian physicist

1832 Louisa May Alcott, US author

1898 C S Lewis, English scholar and writer

1932 Jacques Chirac, French statesman

1949 John Mayall, British vocalist and guitarist

Deaths

1530 Thomas Wolsey, English cardinal and politician

1780 Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria

1924 Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer

1975 Graham Hill, English racing driver

1981 Natalie Wood, US film actress

1991 Ralph Bellamy, US film actor

[bothwell_buyer]

Winter landscape from my office window, with another fall of snow last night...meant that our 2 day holiday to North Berwick has been cancelled as the snow is much thicker in the East. Its only 6" here. Beer all finished today.

[Raistlin]

Events

1840 Napoleon I's remains were returned from St Helena to Paris.

1872 The first international football match was played, Scotland vs England (drawing 0 - 0).

1914 Charlie Chaplin made his film debut in Making a Living, a Mack Sennett one-reeler, without his trademark moustache and cane.

1936 The Crystal Palace at Sydenham, designed by Joseph Paxton and originally constructed in Hyde Park to house the Great Exhibition of 1851, burned down.

1939 The USSR invaded Finland.

1988 PLO leader Yassir Arafat attempted to enter the USA to address the UN General Assembly, but was refused a visa.

1993 In the USA, the Brady Act introduced controls on the acquisition of firearms.

1996 The government of Sierra Leone and rebel forces signed a peace agreement ending a five-year-long civil war.

1997 Carlos Roberto Flores Facussé was re-elected president of Honduras, while his Liberal Party won legislative elections.

Births

1508 Andrea Palladio, Italian architect

1554 Philip Sidney, English poet and soldier

1667 Jonathan Swift, Irish author

1835 Mark Twain, US author

1874 Winston Churchill, British statesman

1960 Gary Lineker, English footballer

Deaths

1900 Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist

1901 Edward John Eyre, Australian explorer

1957 Beniamino Gigli, Italian operatic tenor

1979 Zeppo Marx, US actor and comedian

1986 Cary Grant, US film actor

1987 James Baldwin, US writer

[Raistlin]

Events

1640 The Spanish were driven out of Portugal and the country regained its independence.

1919 US-born Lady Nancy Astor became the first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons, as MP for the Sutton division of Plymouth.

1925 The Locarno Pact was signed in London, guaranteeing peace and frontiers in Europe.

1939 The film Gone with the Wind premiered in New York.

1942 The Beveridge Report on Social Security, which formed the basis of the welfare state in Britain, was issued.

1953 The first issue of Hugh Heffner's Playboy magazine was published; the centre-spread nude featured Marilyn Monroe.

1970 Divorce became legal in certain cases in Italy.

1989 Pope John Paul II and Mikhail Gorbachev met in Rome, ending 70 years of hostility between the Vatican and the USSR.

1991 France won its first Davis Cup tennis title in 59 years by defeating the USA at the finals in Lyons, France.

1995 President Clinton visited Dublin, Ireland.

Births

1733 Samuel Crompton, inventor of the spinning mule

1761 Madame Tussaud, French wax-modeller

1910 Alicia Markova, British ballet dancer

1935 Woody Allen, US film actor, writer and director

1939 Lee Trevino, US golfer

1940 Richard Pryor, US comedian and actor

1945 Bette Midler, US comedienne and singer

Deaths

1135 Henry I, King of England

1455 Lorenzo Ghiberti, Italian sculptor and goldsmith

1931 Vincent d'Indy, French composer

1964 J B S Haldane, English scientist and writer

1966 Walt Disney, US Animator

1973 David Ben-Gurion, Israeli statesman

[Raistlin]

Events

1640 The Spanish were driven out of Portugal and the country regained its independence.

1919 US-born Lady Nancy Astor became the first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons, as MP for the Sutton division of Plymouth.

1925 The Locarno Pact was signed in London, guaranteeing peace and frontiers in Europe.

1939 The film Gone with the Wind premiered in New York.

1942 The Beveridge Report on Social Security, which formed the basis of the welfare state in Britain, was issued.

1953 The first issue of Hugh Heffner's Playboy magazine was published; the centre-spread nude featured Marilyn Monroe.

1970 Divorce became legal in certain cases in Italy.

1989 Pope John Paul II and Mikhail Gorbachev met in Rome, ending 70 years of hostility between the Vatican and the USSR.

1991 France won its first Davis Cup tennis title in 59 years by defeating the USA at the finals in Lyons, France.

1995 President Clinton visited Dublin, Ireland.

Births

1733 Samuel Crompton, inventor of the spinning mule

1761 Madame Tussaud, French wax-modeller

1910 Alicia Markova, British ballet dancer

1935 Woody Allen, US film actor, writer and director

1939 Lee Trevino, US golfer

1940 Richard Pryor, US comedian and actor

1945 Bette Midler, US comedienne and singer

Deaths

1135 Henry I, King of England

1455 Lorenzo Ghiberti, Italian sculptor and goldsmith

1931 Vincent d'Indy, French composer

1964 J B S Haldane, English scientist and writer

1966 Walt Disney, US Animator

1973 David Ben-Gurion, Israeli statesman

1987 James Baldwin, US writer

[Raistlin]

Births

1596 Niccolò Amati, Italian violin-maker

1857 Joseph Conrad, British novelist

1883 Anton von Webern, Austrian composer

1930 Andy Williams, US singer

1930 Jean-Luc Godard, French film director

1953 Franz Klammer, Austrian skier

Deaths

1839 Frederick VI, King of Denmark

1894 Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist

1910 Mary Baker Eddy, US founder of Christian Science

1919 Pierre Auguste Renoir, French painter

1980 Oswald Mosley, English fascist leader

1993 Lewis Thomas, US physician and biologist

1993 Frank Zappa, US composer and guitarist

Events

1810 The British captured Mauritius from the French.

1910 Neon lighting was displayed for the first time at the Paris Motor Show.

1917 The Quebec Bridge, the world's longest cantilever, over the St Lawrence River, was opened - 87 lives were lost during its construction.

1961 At the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Henri Matisse's painting Le Bateau, which had been hanging upside-down for 46 days, was hung the right way up.

1967 At Groote Schurr Hospital, Cape Town, Dr Christiaan Barnard carried out the world's first heart transplant.

1984 A chemical leakage at a pesticide factory in Bhopal, India caused the Deaths of over 2,500 people and blinded many thousands.

1996 A bomb exploded in a crowded commuter train in Paris, killing three people and injuring; Algerian terrorists were among the extremist groups suspected in the bombing.

1996 A circuit court judge in Honolulu, Hawaii, ordered the state to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

[Raistlin]

Events

1154 The only Englishman to become a pope, Nicholas Breakspear, became Adrian IV.

1791 Britain's oldest Sunday paper, the Observer, was first published.

1808 Napoleon abolished the Inquisition in Spain.

1829 Under British rule, suttee (whereby a widow commits suicide by joining her husband's funeral pyre) was made illegal in India.

1905 British Conservative prime minister Arthur Balfour resigned.

1947 The first performance of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire starring Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy, in New York.

1961 Birth control pills became available on the NHS.

1991 News correspondent Terry Anderson, the longest-held Western hostage in Lebanon (2,454 days in captivity), was freed by Islamic Jihad.

1991 Pan Am airline (founded 1927), burdened with massive debts, was closed down.

Births

1795 Thomas Carlyle, Scottish author

1865 Edith Cavell, English nurse

1875 Rainer Maria Rilke, German poet

1892 Francisco Franco, Spanish dictator

1903 A.L. Rowse, historian of Cornwall and Tudor England

1930 Ronnie Corbett, British comedian

1949 Jeff Bridges, US film actor

Deaths

1642 Cardinal Richelieu, French politician

1732 John Gay, English poet and dramatist

1798 Luigi Galvani, Italian physiologist

1969 jack Payne, British bandleader

1976 Benjamin Britten, English composer

1993 Frank Zappa, US rock musician and composer

1994 Geoffrey Elton, Czechoslovakian-born British historian

[Raistlin]

Events

1757 Frederick the Great's Prussian army of 36,000 men defeat an Austrian army of 60,000-80,000 at the Battle of Leuthen.

1766 James Christie, founder of the famous auctioneers, held his first sale in London.

1904 The Russian fleet was destroyed by the Japanese at Port Arthur, during the Russo-Japanese War.

1933 Prohibition was repealed in the USA after more than 13 years.

1958 Britain's first motorway, the Preston by-pass, was opened by Prime Minister Macmillan.

1976 Jacques Chirac re-founded the Gaullist party as the RPR (Rassemblement pour la République).

1991 Robert Maxwell's business empire collapsed with huge debts and revelations about misappropriation of money in pension funds.

1996 US President Clinton nominated Madeleine Albright as secretary of state; she would become the highest-ranking woman ever in the federal government.

Births

1830 Christina Georgina Rossetti, English poet

1890 Fritz Lang, Austrian film director

1901 Walt Disney, US filmmaker and animator

1906 Otto Preminger, Austrian film director

1935 Little Richard, US rock 'n' roll pioneer

1946 José Carreras, Spanish operatic tenor

Deaths

1791 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer

1870 Alexandre Dumas père, French novelist

1899 Henry Tate, English businessman and philanthropist

1926 Claude Monet, French painter

1940 Jan Kubelik, Czech violinist

1983 Robert Aldrich, US film director

[Raistlin]

Events

1492 Columbus discovered the island of Hispaniola, now separated into Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

1774 Austria became the first nation to introduce a state education system.

1877 With a recording of himself reciting Mary Had a Little Lamb Thomas Edison demonstrated the first gramophone, in New Jersey, USA.

1907 In Monongah, West Virginia 361 people were killed in America's worst mine disaster.

1917 Finland proclaimed independence from Russia.

1921 The Irish Free State was formally created, as a result of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

1926 In Italy, Mussolini introduced a tax on bachelors.

1990 Saddam Hussein announced that he would free all of the 2,000 foreign hostages held in Iraq and occupied Kuwait.

1992 Hindu extremists demolished a 16th-century mosque at Ayodhya, provoking sectarian violence throughout India which claims over 1,200 lives.

Births

1421 Henry VI, King of England

1608 George Monck, English admiral

1732 Warren Hastings, British administrator

1892 Osbert Sitwell, English writer

1896 Ira Gershwin, US lyricist

1920 Dave Brubeck, US jazz musician

Deaths

343 St Nicholas, later known as Sinterklaas, now known as Santa Claus

1779 Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, French painter

1793 Madame du Barry, mistress of King Louis XV of France

1815 Marshal Ney, French Soldier

1882 Anthony Trollope, English novelist

1892 Ernst Werner von Siemens, German inventor

1988 Roy Orbison, US singer and songwriter

1993 Don Ameche, US actor

1993 Wolfgang Paul, German nuclear physicist

[Raistlin]

Events

1431 In Paris, Henry VI of England was crowned King of France.

1732 The original Covent Garden Theatre Royal (now the Royal Opera House) was opened.

1787 Delaware became the first of the United States.

1907 At London's National Sporting Club, Eugene Corri became the first referee to officiate from inside a boxing ring.

1941 The Japanese attacked the US fleet in Pearl Harbor.

1974 President Makarios returned to Cyprus after five months in exile.

1982 The first execution by lethal injection took place at Fort Worth Prison, Texas.

1988 An earthquake in Armenia killed thousands and caused widespread destruction.

1990 A week-long succession of violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims in several Indian cities began, resulting in about 300 Deaths and 3,000 arrests.

Births

1598 Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, Italian sculptor

1863 Pietro Mascagni, Italian composer

1915 Eli Wallach, US film actor

1924 Mario Soares, Portuguese politician

1932 Ellen Burstyn, US actress

1958 Geoff Lawson, Australian cricketer

Deaths

43 BC Cicero, Roman orator

1817 William Bligh, captain of the Bounty

1894 Ferdinand de Lesseps, French engineer

1962 Kirsten Flagstad, Norwegian operatic soprano

1975 Thornton Wilder, US novelist

1985 Robert Graves, English poet and author

1993 Wolfgang Paul, German nuclear physicist

1993 Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Ivory Coast right-wing politician

[Raistlin]

Events

1854 Pope Pius IX declared the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary to be an article of faith.

1863 Tom King of England defeated American John Heenan, becoming the first world heavyweight champion.

1886 The American Federation of Labor was founded.

1941 The USA, Britain, and Australia declared war on Japan, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

1987 US President Reagan and Soviet President Gorbachev signed the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty in Washington DC, the first nuclear arms reduction agreement.

1991 The leaders of Russia, Belorus, and the Ukraine signed an agreement forming a 'Commonwealth of Independent States' to replace the USSR; the decision was denounced by President Gorbachev as unconstitutional.

Births

65 BC Horace, Roman poet

1542 Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots

1832 Björnstjerne Björnson, Norwegian poet and dramatist

1894 James Thurber, US wit and cartoonist

1925 Sammy Davis Jr, US singer, actor, and dancer

1943 Jim Morrison, US singer

Deaths

1859 Thomas de Quincey, English author

1903 Herbert Spencer, British philosopher and writer

1964 Simon Marks, English retailer

1978 Golda Meir, Israeli politician

1980 John Lennon, British rock singer and songwriter

[Raistlin]

Events

1431 In Paris, Henry VI of England was crowned King of France.

1732 The original Covent Garden Theatre Royal (now the Royal Opera House) was opened.

1787 Delaware became the first of the United States.

1907 At London's National Sporting Club, Eugene Corri became the first referee to officiate from inside a boxing ring.

1941 The Japanese attacked the US fleet in Pearl Harbor.

1974 President Makarios returned to Cyprus after five months in exile.

1982 The first execution by lethal injection took place at Fort Worth Prison, Texas.

1988 An earthquake in Armenia killed thousands and caused widespread destruction.

1990 A week-long succession of violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims in several Indian cities began, resulting in about 300 Deaths and 3,000 arrests.

Births

1598 Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, Italian sculptor

1863 Pietro Mascagni, Italian composer

1915 Eli Wallach, US film actor

1924 Mario Soares, Portuguese politician

1932 Ellen Burstyn, US actress

1958 Geoff Lawson, Australian cricketer

Deaths

43 BC Cicero, Roman orator

1817 William Bligh, captain of the Bounty

1894 Ferdinand de Lesseps, French engineer

1962 Kirsten Flagstad, Norwegian operatic soprano

1975 Thornton Wilder, US novelist

1985 Robert Graves, English poet and author

1993 Wolfgang Paul, German nuclear physicist

1993 Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Ivory Coast right-wing politician

[Raistlin]

Births

1822 César Franck, Belgian composer

1830 Emily Dickinson, US poet

1903 William Plomer, South African author

1908 Olivier Messiaen, French composer and organist

1914 Dorothy Lamour, US film actress

1960 Kenneth Branagh, British actor and director

Deaths

1475 Paolo Uccello, Italian painter

1865 Leopold I, King of the Belgians

1896 Alfred Nobel, Swedish industrialist and philathropist

1946 Damon Runyon, US writer

1967 Otis Redding, US soul singer and songwriter

1987 Jascha Heifetz, US violinist

1994 Keith Joseph, British Conservative politician

Events

1768 Royal Academy of Arts was founded in London by George III, with Joshua Reynolds as its first president.

1817 Mississippi was admitted to the Union as an American state.

1845 Pneumatic tyres were patented by Scottish civil engineer Robert Thompson.

1898 Cuba became independent of Spain following the Spanish-American War.

1901 Nobel prizes were first awarded.

1941 The Royal Naval battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk by Japanese aircraft in the Battle of Malaya.

1953 Nobel prize for literature is presented to Winston Churchill and Nobel Peace Prize to George Marshall.

1991 The leaders of the 12 EC nations ended their two-day summit and agreed on the treaty of Maastricht, pledging closer political and economic union.

1996 South Africa's President Mandela signed into law a new democratic constitution, completing the country's transition from white-minority rule to a non-racial democracy.

[Raistlin]

Events

1688 King James II flees London for exile in France.

1769 Edward Beran of London patented venetian blinds.

1844 Nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, was first used for a tooth extraction.

1894 The first motor show opened in Paris, with nine exhibitors.

1936 In Britain, King Edward VIII abdicated.

1941 Germany and Italy declared war on the USA.

1987 Charlie Chaplin's trademark cane and bowler hat were sold at Christie's for £82,500.

1991 Salman Rushdie, under an Islamic death sentence for blasphemy, made his first public appearance since 1989 in New York, at a dinner marking the 200th anniversary of the First Amendment (which guarantees freedom of speech).

1994 Russian forces invaded the breakaway republic of Chechnya.

1997 Delegates at the Kyoto, Japan, conference on global warming agreed to cut emission of greenhouse gases by 5.2% from 1990 levels during the years 2008 and 2012.

Births

1475 Pope Leo X

1803 Hector Berlioz, French composer

1913 Carlo Ponti, Italian film director and producer

1918 Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian author

1929 Kenneth MacMillan, Scottish choreographer

1944 Brenda Lee, US pop singer

Deaths

1282 Llewlyn ap Gruffydd, last native Prince of Wales

1513 Bernardino Pinturicchio, Italian painter

1920 Olive Schreiner, South African novelist

1965 Ed Murrow, US journalist and broadcaster

1997 Eddie Chapman, English safecracker and double agent

[Raistlin]

Events

1896 Guglielmo Marconi gave the first public demonstration of radio at Toynbee Hall, London.

1915 The first all-metal aircraft, the German Junkers J1, made its first flight.

1925 The world's first motel, in San Luis Obispo, California, opened.

1955 British engineer Christopher Cockerell patented the first hovercraft.

1982 20,000 women encircled Greenham Common air base in Britain in protest against proposed siting of US Cruise missiles there.

1989 US billionairess Leona Helmsley, dubbed the 'Queen of Greed', was fined $7 million and sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion.

1997 The US Justice Department ordered Microsoft to sell its Internet browser separately from its Windows operating system to prevent it from building a monopoly of Web access programs.

Births

1821 Gustave Flaubert, French novelist

1863 Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter

1893 Edward G Robinson, US film actor

1915 Frank Sinatra, US singer and actor

1941 Dionne Warwick, US singer

1960 Emerson Fittipaldi, Brazilian racing driver

Deaths

1889 Robert Browning, English poet

1939 Douglas Fairbanks, Sr, US film actor

1950 Peter Fraser, New Zealand politician

1968 Tallulah Bankhead, US actress

1985 Anne Baxter, US film actress

1993 Jozsef Antall, Hungarian prime minister

[Raistlin]

Events

1474 Isabella and her husband, Ferdinand of Aragon, were proclaimed as Queen and King of Castile.

1577 Francis Drake began his journey from Plymouth in the Golden Hind that was to take him around the world.

1642 Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovered New Zealand.

1903 Moulds for ice cream cones were patented by Italo Marcione of New York.

1904 The Metropolitan Underground railway in London went electric.

1967 A military coup replaced the monarchy in Greece, sending King Constantine II into exile.

1973 Due to the Arab oil embargo and the coalminers' slowdown, the British government ordered a three-day work week.

1981 Martial law was imposed in Poland, along with mass detention and curbs on civil liberties and trade unions.

Births

1797 Heinrich Heine, German poet and journalist

1903 John Piper, English painter and writer

1906 Laurens van der Post, South African writer and explorer

1915 Balthazar Johannes Vorster, South African politician

1929 Christopher Plummer, US film actor

1942 Howard Brenton, English dramatist

Deaths

1204 Maimonides, Jewish philosopher

1466 Donatello, Italian sculptor

1784 Dr Samuel Johnson, English lexicographer

1944 Wassily Kandinsky, Russian painter

1961 Grandma Moses, US primitive painter (aged 101)

1983 Mary Renault, English novelist