On This Day - 4th December

1872 - The Mary Celeste (not Marie) is found abandoned
1892 - Francisco Franco born
1944 - Dennis Wilson born
1949 - Jeff Bridges born
1961 - The Health Minister, Enoch Powell, announces that women who wish to have oral contraception will be able to get it on the National Health Service.
1963 - Jozef Sabovcik born
1964 - Marisa Tomei born
1970 - Jay-Z born
1971 - 15 people, including a 13-year-old boy and a woman, are killed and 17 injured after a bomb explodes in a crowded pub in Belfast.
1973 - Tyra Banks born
1976 - Benjamin Britten, considered to be Britain's leading composer, dies aged 63.
1981 - Lila McCann born
1983 - SAS soldiers involved in undercover operations in Northern Ireland shoot dead two IRA gunmen and injured a third man who escaped.
1991 - Terry Anderson, the last and longest-held US hostage in Lebanon, is freed after six and a half years.
2003 - The US President, George W Bush, withdraws a punitive tax on imported steel to avoid a damaging trade war between the United States and Europe.

On This Day - 3rd December

1818 - Illinois becomes the 21st State of the US
1857 - Joseph Conrad born
1930 - Andy Williams born
1930 - Jean-Luc Godard born
1948 - Ozzy Osbourne born
1960 - Julianne Moore and Daryl Hannah born
1965 - An all-white jury in the southern US state of Alabama convicts three Ku Klux Klansmen over the murder of white civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo.
1968 - Brendan Fraser born
1971 - Border battles between India and Pakistan erupt into full-scale war.
1972 - Bucky Lasek born
1973 - Holly Marie Combs born
1980 - Anna Chlumsky born
1981 - Brian Bonsall born
1984 - Thousands of people die from the effects of toxic gases which leaked from theAmerican-owned Union Carbide Pesticide Plant near the central Indian city of Bhopal.
1989 - The leaders of the two world superpowers, the USA and the USSR, declare an end to the Cold War after two days of storm-lashed talks at the Malta summit.
1988 - Health minister Edwina Currie provokes outrage by saying most of Britain's egg production is infected with the salmonella bacteria.
1992 - Two IRA bombs explode in the centre of Manchester injuring 65 people.

On This Day - 2nd December

1814 - The Marquis de Sade dies
1859 - Georges Seurat born
1863 - Charles Ringling born
1923 - Maria Callas born
1946 - Gianni Versace born
1948 - Cathy Lee Crosby born
1952 - Michael McDonald born
1954 - US President Dwight D Eisenhower announces the signing of a pact of mutual security with the Nationalist Chinese Government.
1968 - Lucy Liu born
1973 - Monica Seles born
1977 - Security police in South Africa are exonerated of any blame in the death of black consciousness leader Steve Biko who died while in detention. In addition the United States Senate censures Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy for conduct unbecoming to a senator.
1978 - Nelly Furtado born
1980 - Ric Felix born
1981 - Britney Spears born
1988 - Thousands of people die in the most devastating cyclone to strike Bangladesh in almost 20 years, the UN reports.
1995 - Former futures trader Nick Leeson is jailed for six-and-a-half years for his part in the collapse of Britain's oldest merchant bank.

On This Day - 1st December

1897 - Cyril Ritchard born
1913 - Mary Martin born
1919 - Nancy Astor becomes the first female MP
1935 - Woody Allen born
1936 - Lou Raw
1939 - Lee Trevino born
1940 - Richard Pryor born
1942 - The coalition British Government has unveils plans for a welfare state offering care to all from the cradle to the grave.
1943 - Allied leaders of Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union have ended a landmark conference held in Tehran, the capital of Iran.
1944 - John Densmore born
1945 - Bette Midler born
1955 - Rosa Parks is arrested by police in Montgomery, Alabama, after refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white person.
1965 - The Labour Government puts forward a plan to improve production in farming and decrease Britain's reliance on imports of beef.
1970 - Julie Condra born
1973 - David Ben-Gurion, a founder of the Israeli state and its first prime minister, dies aged 87.
1977 - Brad Delson born
1986 - Guinness shares plunge by £300m after the government ordered an inquiry into the affairs of the company.
1990 - Construction workers drill through the final wall of rock to join the two halves of the Channel Tunnel and link Britain to France.

On This Day - 30th November

1667 - Author of Gullivers Travels Jonathan Swift born
1835 - Mark Twain born
1874 - Winston Churchill born
1900 - Poet and playwrite Oscar Wilde dies
1912 - Gordon Parks born
1923 - Efrem Zimbalist born
1924 - Shirley Chisholm born
1926 - Richard Crenna born
1929 - Dick Clark born
1930 - G. Gordon Liddy born
1936 - Abbie Hoffman born
1937 - Robert Guillaume born
1947 - David Mamet born
1952 - Mandy Patinkin born
1953 - Shuggie Otis born
1954 - The Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, celebrates his 80th birthday in a day of ceremonies and tributes to his remarkable career.
1955 - Billy Idol born
1962 - Bo Jackson born
1965 - Ben Stiller born
1968 - The Trade Descriptions Act comes into effect.
1978 - Clay Aiken born
1982 - A letter bomb explodes inside 10 Downing Street, the British Prime Minister's London residence.
1994 - Almost 1,000 people are forced to abandon the luxury cruise ship 'The Achille Lauro' in the Indian Ocean after it caught fire.
1995 - The people of Northern Ireland give a rapturous welcome to President Bill Clinton, the first serving US president to visit their country.
1999 - The Government announces that the beef-on-the-bone ban will be lifted next month.

On This Day - 29th November

1832 - Louisa May Alcott born
1895 - Busby Berkeley born
1898 - C.S. Lewis born
1908 - Adam Clayton Powell born
1918 - Madeline L'Engle born
1927 - Vin Scully born
1932 - Diane Ladd born
1933 - John Mayall born
1939 - Peter Bergman born
1940 - Chuck Mangione born
1949 - Garry Shandling born
1955 - Howie Mandel born
1956 - The government issues further details of its plans for rationing petrol from next month and Jeff Fahey born
1960 - Cathy Moriarty born
1961 - Kim Delaney born
1963 - A Canadian jet has crashes within minutes of take-off, killing all 118 people on board.
1968 - Jon Knight born
1975 - Former motor racing champion and father of Damon, Graham Hill killed in air crash
1985 - A young family of four are killed in an explosion in a block of flats in Glasgow.
1993 - The Conservative government comes under attack in the Commons over the revelations it has had secret contacts with the IRA.
1999 - Northern Ireland moves a step closer to ending 25 years of direct rule from London after the election of a Northern Ireland Assembly.

On This Day - 28th November

1894 - Brooks Atkinson born
1929 - Berry Gordy born
1943 - Randy Newman born
1946 - Joe Dante born
1949 - Paul Shaffer and Alexander Godunov born
1950 - Ed Harris born
1959 - Judd Nelson born
1965 - Jon Stewart born
1967 - All horse racing in Britain is cancelled indefinitely to help prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease and Anna Nicole Smith born
1988 - Scarlett Pomers born
1990 - Margaret Thatcher formally tenders her resignation to the Queen early this morning after leaving Downing Street for the last time.
1994 - Norway votes to reject membership of the European Union in a referendum, for the second time in its history.
1999 - Eleven people are injured in a sword attack at a church in south London.
2010 - Naked Gun and Airplane actor Leslie Nielsen dies age 84.