On This Day - 18th September

1894 - The Blackpool Tower opens
1905 - Greta Garbo and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson born
1920 - Jack Warden and June Foray born
1933 - Robert Blake born
1939 - Frankie Avalon born
1961 - UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold killed in air crash and James Gandolfini born
1970 - Rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix dies after collapsing at a party in London.
1971 - Jada Pinkett Smith and Lance Armstrong born
1972 - The first Ugandan refugees fleeing the persecution of the country's military dictatorship arrive in Britain.
1975 - FBI captures Patty Hearst 'brainwashed' into robbing banks
1978 - The leaders of Israel and Egypt reach a settlement for the Middle East at Camp David in the US.
1981 - French politicians vote to abolish the death penalty
1997 - Islamic militants kill nine tourists and bus driver in Egypt
2000 - Survivors of the Southall and Ladbroke Grove rail crashes accuse Railtrack of putting costs before safety.

On This Day - 17th September

1904 - Frederick Ashton born
1928 - Roddy McDowall born
1931 - Anne Bancroft born
1935 - Ken Kesey born
1944 - Airborne invasion of Holland begins with British, American and Polish troops descending behind enemy lines in a massive operation designed to bring a swift end to the war.
1948 - John Ritter born
1951 - Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson born
1956 - A 48-year-old solicitor from Manchester breaks the one-hour world water speed record in his motorboat, Miss Windermere III.
1970 - King Hussein's army and Palestinian guerrillas engage in fierce fighting in major towns all over Jordan and Mark Brunell born
1980 - Sandinista agents murder exiled Nicaraguan dictator Somoza
1982 - More than 1,000 people are feared to have been killed during a 24-hour rampage by Lebanese militia in West Beirut and Wade Robson born
1990 - USSR and Saudi Arabia restore diplomatic relations
2000 - TV presenter Paula Yates found dead from drugs overdose
2001 - New Yorkers return to work six days after the terror attacks which devastated the heart of their city.
1993 - The British National Party wins its first council seat in a by-election in East London, provoking fear in the local Asian community.

On This Day - 16th September

1914 - Allen Funt born
1924 - Lauren Bacall born
1925 - B.B. King born
1927 - Peter Falk born
1955 - Robin Yount born
1956 - Mickey Rourke and David Copperfield born
1961 - Jennifer Tilly born
1968 - First and Second class posts introduced into Britain and Marc Anthony born
1974 - President Ford pardons Richard Nixon over Watergate
1976 - Tina Barrett born
1977 - Mark Bolan the leader singer of T-Rex is killed in a car crash
1978 - An earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale hits south-east Iran demolishing a major city and dozens of surrounding villages.
1982 - Alexis Bledel born
1986 - More than 177 people die during a lethal fire in a South African gold mine.
1988 - Winds reach 175mph as Hurricane Gilbert hits Mexico
1991 - The government suspends Britain's membership of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism following Black Wednesday
2004 - Ken Bigley, Jack Hensley, Eugene Armstrong seized in Iraq

On This Day - 15th September

1830 - Tory MP William Huskisson is run over by a train whilst at the opening of the Manchester to Liverpool railway line.
1857 - William H. Taft born
1889 - Robert Benchley born
1890 - Agatha Christie born
1903 - Roy Acuff born
1907 - Fay Wray born
1922 - Jackie Cooper born
1940 - RAF Fighter Command is claiming victory over the Luftwaffe after a day of heavy bombing raids ends in major losses for the enemy and Merlin Olsen born
1946 - Oliver Stone and Tommy Lee Jones born
1950 - The United Nations lands thousands of troops on the Korean coast behind enemy lines, in the first counter-attack of the war.
1959 - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev pays first visit to USA
1961 - Dan Marino born
1964 - The Sun newspaper is published today for the first time. It is replacing the Daily Herald.
1978 - One of the most wanted members of the West German Baader-Meinhof gang is detained in London.
1984 - Princess Diana gives birth to second son, Harry
1985 - Tony Jacklin's team of golfers beats the United States in the Ryder Cup for the first time in 28 years after dominating the final day of the competition.
2000 - The fuel protests which have paralysed Britain for seven days are at an end.
2004 - Protesters storm Parliament as MPs vote to ban hunting

On This Day - 14th September

1847 - The US-Mexican war ends in victory for the US
1852 - The Duke of Wellington dies
1901 - US President William McKinley assassinated
1914 - Clayton Moore born
1927 - Isadora Duncan is killed
1933 - Harve Presnell born
1938 - Nicol Williamson born
1944 - Joey Heatherton born
1947 - Sam Neill born
1951 - Prime Minister Clement Attlee opens the largest oil refinery in Europe, at Fawley on Southampton Water.
1960 - The army says it is in control of the West African state of Congo after a day of heavy fighting which left up to 70 people dead and Callum Keith Rennie born
1975 - Rembrandt's "Night Watch" slashed at Amsterdam museum
1981 - A teenage boy who fired blank shots at the Queen last June pleads guilty to a charge under the 1848 Treason Act.
1982 - Princess Grace of Monaco dies of the injuries she sustained in a car crash near Monte Carlo and Lebanese president-elect Bashir Gemayel is assassinated
1985 - Moscow retaliates two days after Britain expels 25 Soviet spies following the defection of KGB chief Oleg Gordievsky.
1993 - A British holidaymaker is murdered and his girlfriend injured during an attempted mugging in Florida.
1997 - Hendrix becomes first rock star commemorated by blue plaque

On This Day - 13th September

1860 - John J. Pershing born
1903 - Claudette Colbert born
1916 - Roald Dahl born
1925 - Mel Torme born
1941 - David Clayton-Thomas born
1942 - Bela Karolyi born
1944 - Jacqueline Bisset born
1948 - Nell Carter born
1959 - Jean Smart born
1977 - Fiona Apple born
1980 - A bear who went missing on a Scottish island while being filmed for a television commercial is recaptured and Ben Savage born
1982 - A mother who claims her nine-week-old daughter was killed by a dingo appears in court in Australia charged with her murder.
1988 - A Cuban diplomat opened fire in a crowded London street because of an American plot to make him defect, his government says.
1993 - The Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, and the PLO leader, Yasser Arafat, shake hands on the White House lawn in Washington.
2001 - Ian Duncan Smith a relatively unknown former soldier and standard bearer of the Tory right is elected the new leader of the Conservative Party.

On This Day - 12th September

1888 - Maurice Chevalier born
1901 - Ben Blue born
1913 - Jesse Owens born
1925 - Dickie Moore born
1940 - Linda Gray born
1943 - Maria Muldaur born
1944 - Barry White born
1952 - Neal Peart born
1952 - Gerry Beckley born
1954 - Peter Scolari born
1957 - Rachel Ward born

1959 - A massive Russian rocket, carrying 860lb (391kg) of scientific instruments, is successfully launched at the Moon.

1970 - Palestinian militants blow up the three planes they have been holding at an airfield in the Jordanian desert.
1973 - Paul Walker born
1977 - The leader of the black consciousness movement in South Africa, Steve Biko, dies in police custody.

1978 - Benjamin McKenzie born
1997 - Scotland votes decisively for home rule in a referendum on how they want the country to be governed.
2001 - The President of the United States describes the destruction caused in New York and Washington as an act of war against all freedom-loving people.
2003 - One of the great legends of country music, Johnny Cash, dies after a short illness.
2005 - England take the Ashes from Australia for the first time since 1987 after the "best ever" series.