On This Day - 9th October

1871 - The Great Chicago fire
1890 - Aimee Semple McPherson born
1899 - Bruce Catton born
1908 - Jacques Tati born
1940 - John Lennon born
1941 - Brian Lamb born
1944 - John Entwistle born
1948 - Jackson Browne born
1952 - Sharon Osbourne born
1954 - Scott Bakula born
1959 - The Conservatives, under Harold Macmillan, win a third consecutive general election.
1967 - Marxist revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara is reportedly killed during a battle between army troops and guerillas in the Bolivian jungle.
1973 - Steve Burns born
1975 - One man dies and at least 20 people are injured in the latest bomb attack on London.
1981 - Zachery Ty Bryan born
1988 - Thousands of Latvians start a mass movement to press Moscow for greater independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 - The first Sumo wrestling tournament ever held off Japanese soil in the sport's 1500 year history begins at the Royal Albert Hall.

On This Day - 8th October

1895 - Juan Peron born
1935 - Clement Atlee is elected Labour Party leader
1936 - Rona Barrett born
1939 - Paul Hogan born
1941 - Jesse Jackson born
1943 - R.L. Stine born
1943 - Chevy Chase born
1949 - Sigourney Weaver born
1952 - Three trains crash at Harrow killing a total of 108 passengers and four rail crew were killed, in addition nearly 340 people were injured.
1956 - Stephanie Zimbalist born
1970 - Matt Damon born
1973 - Britain's first independent radio station (LBC) begins broadcasting on VHF and medium wave.
1987 - The coroner's inquest jury into the capsizing of the Herald of Free Enterprise returns verdicts of unlawful killing.
1990 - Hectic trading in the City marks Britain's first day as a full member of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) of the European Monetary System.
2003 - Film star Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected governor of California, ousting the incumbent, Gray Davis, three years before the end of his term of office.
2005 - Many hundreds of people die in Pakistan, north India and Afghanistan following a massive quake.

On This Day - 7th October

1826 - The first railway line in the USA is opened in Massachusetts
1849 - Author Edgar Allan Poe dies
1885 - Niels Bohr born
1905 - Andy Devine born
1911 - Vaughn Monroe born
1917 - June Allyson born
1920 - The first women are admitted to Oxford to study for full degrees
1927 - R.D. Laing born
1931 - Bishop Desmond Tutu born
1951 - John Cougar Mellencamp born
1952 - Vladimir Putin born
1955 - Yo-Yo Ma born
1957 - Michael W. Smith born
1959 - Hundreds trapped by fire on the world longest pier at Southend on Sea and Simon Cowell born
1968 - Thom Yorke and Toni Braxton born
1976 - Rachel McAdams born
1977 - Ninety sets of Swedish identical twins travel to Felixstowe for a brief shopping trip.
1979 - Shawn Ashmore born
1985 - Palestinian militants hijack the Achille Lauro cruise ship in the Mediterranean and threaten to blow it up.
2001 - The United States launches its military offensive against al-Qaeda and the Taleban in Afghanistan
2004 - Fears are growing for the British hostage, Kenneth Bigley, abducted three weeks ago in Iraq.
2010 - Bishop Desmond Tutu retires from public office on his 79th birthday.

On This Day - 6th October

1846 - George Westinghouse born
1887 - Le Corbusier born
1892 - Poet Alfred Lord Tennyson dies
1908 - Carole Lombard born
1942 - Britt Ekland born
1953 - Naval and military forces are on their way to British Guiana in response to what the UK Government says is a threat to the administration of the British colony.
1963 - Elisabeth Shue born
1970 - Amy Jo Johnson born
1973 - Heavy fighting erupts between Arab and Israeli forces along two fronts as Egypt and Syria attempt to re-take land occupied since 1967.
1979 - John Paul II becomes the first Pope to set foot in the White House after greeting US President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn.
1981 - President Sadat of Egypt dies after being shot by gunmen at a military parade.
1985 - A police officer is hacked to death by a mob during riots at the Broadwater Farm housing estate in North London.
1986 - Fears grow for a missing nuclear technician who disappeared in London after revealing details of Israel's nuclear weapons programme.
2000 - Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic resigns under mounting pressure after allegations of vote-rigging.

On This Day - 5th October

1829 - Chester A. Arthur born
1902 - Larry Fine and Ray Kroc born
1917 - Allen Ludden born
1919 - Donald Pleasence born
1923 - Glynis Johns born
1951 - Karen Allen born
1954 - Bob Geldof born
1957 - Bernie Mac born
1965 - Mario Lemieux and Patrick Roy born
1967 - Guy Pearce born
1968 - Batons and water cannon have been used by police to break up a civil rights march in Londonderry.
1972 - Grant Hill born
1974 - Guildford pub bombings claim the lives of four people and more than 50 injured in explosions in southern England.
1975 - Kate Winslet born
1983 - Nikki Hilton born
1984 - Police and Customs in Essex seize Britain's biggest ever haul of cannabis made in a single raid.
1994 - The bodies of 48 members of a religious cult are discovered by Swiss police after an apparent mass suicide.
1999 - 31 people are killed and over 160 injured after two trains collide at Ladbroke Grove 'Paddington' in west London.
2000 - Opposition supporters storm the Yugoslav parliament building and proclaim Vojislav Kostunica as the new president.

2011 - Former England cricketer Graham Dilley dies aged 52 after a short illness.
2011 - Apple founder Steve Jobs dies of pancreatic cancer aged 56.

On This Day - 4th October

1822 - Rutherford B. Hayes born
1884 - Damon Runyon born
1895 - Buster Keaton born
1924 - Charlton Heston born
1928 - Alvin Toffler born
1941 - Anne Rice born
1946 - Susan Sarandon born
1957 - 'Sputnik 1' a Russian satellite has been launched into space, the first man-made object ever to leave the Earth's atmosphere.
1965 - The BBC announces it will begin broadcasting a new programme for immigrants from next week.
1976 - British Rail begins its new 125mph Intercity 'High Speed Train' service and Alicia Silverstone born
1979 - Rachael Leigh Cook born
1992 - An Israeli Boeing 747 cargo plane crashes in the outskirts of Amsterdam killing dozens of people.
1993 - At least five US soldiers die and two Blackhawk helicopters are shot down in a firefight with Mogadishu warlords.
2010 - Europe wins the Ryder Cup 14.5 to 13.5 points at Celtic Manor in Wales. In addition Chancellor George Osborne announces plans to cap welfare payments and scrap child support higher tax bracket families. Comedy actor Sir Norman Wisdom dies aged 95.

On This Day - 3rd October

1916 - James Herriot born
1925 - Gore Vidal born
1928 - Erik Bruhn born
1935 - Italy invade Ethiopia
1941 - Chubby Checker born
1944 - The Polish Prime Minister announces the uprising in the Polish capital has ended after 63 days of intense fighting and Roy Uwe Ludwig Horn born
1952 - Britons will soon be able to enjoy unlimited "cuppas" for the first time in 12 years following an announcement from the Ministry of Food that tea rationing is to end.
1954 - Stevie Ray Vaughan born
1962 - Tommy Lee born
1969 - Gwen Stefani born
1971 - Kevin Richardson born
1973 - Neve Campbell born
1975 - Three gunmen give themselves up to police after releasing six hostages from London's 'Spaghetti House' Italian restaurant on Knightsbridge and India Arie born
1979 - Seven Anti-racist protesters are arrested in a pitch invasion South African Barbarian match against Devon.
1981 - Senior Republican figures and inmates' families are indicating that the hunger strike in the Maze prison is effectively over.
1982 - Eric von Detten born
1995 - OJ Simpson is found not guilty of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman.