On This Day - 29th January

1843 - William McKinley born
1880 - W.C. Fields born
1885 - Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter born
1913 - Victor Mature born
1918 - John Forsythe born
1942 - Katharine Ross born
1945 - Tom Selleck born
1950 - Ann Jillian born
1953 - Teresa Teng born
1954 - Oprah Winfrey born
1959 - Dense fog - the worst for seven years - brings road, rail and air transport in many parts of England and Wales to a virtual standstill
1960 - Greg Louganis born
1970 - Heather Graham born
1975 - Sara Gilbert born
1976 - A series of bombs explode in the West End of London during the night - one person, believed to be a taxi driver, has been hurt
1981 - Jonny Lang born
1985 - Oxford University snub Margaret Thatcher by refusing her an Honorary Degree
1987 - The president of the Philippines has put down a rebellion against her government in Manila
1996 - French President Jacques Chirac says France will no longer test nuclear weapons after uproar over Pacific tests
2003 - Solicitor Sally Clark is cleared by the Court of Appeal of murdering her two sons after serving more than three years of a life sentence

On This Day - 28th January

1853 - José Marti born
1887 - Arthur Rubenstein born
1912 - Jackson Pollock born
1933 - Susan Sontag born
1936 - Alan Alda born
1939 - Poet William Yeats dies
1953 - Teenager Derek Bentley is executed at Wandsworth Prison in London for his part in the murder of PC Sidney Miles. The conviction was quashed in 1998
1968 - A recovery team searches for wreckage from an American Air Force B-52 bomber armed with four hydrogen bombs. Also Sarah McLachlan born
1977 - Joey Fatone born
1980 - Nick Carter born
1981 - Elijah Wood born
1982 - Italian police rescue US Brigadier General James Dozier who has been held hostage by the Red Brigade for 42 days
1986 - The American space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after take-off killing all seven astronauts on board
1990 - Thousands of demonstrators take to the streets to protest against the interim Romanian government of Ion Iliescu

On This Day - 27th January

1756 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born
1832 - Lewis Carroll born
1885 - Jerome Kern born
1901 - Composer Giuseppe dies
1916 - Conscription introduced into Britain
1918 - Skitch Henderson born
1921 - Donna Reed born
1936 - Troy Donahue born
1944 - A successful Soviet offensive drives German troops away from the Leningrad which has been besieged since September 1941. Also Nick Mason born
1945 - The Red Army liberates the Nazi's biggest concentration camp at Auschwitz in southern Poland
1948 - Mikhail Baryshnikov born
1959 - Cris Collinsworth born
1964 - Bridget Fonda born
1967 - The crew of Apollo 1, astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee die when fire swept through their capsule in testing.
1969 - Students protesting against the closure of the London School of Economics seize control of another university building
1970 - Jennifer LB Leese born
1980 - Rhodesia opposition leader Robert Mugabe makes a triumphant return to his home country after five years in exile
1984 - Michael Jackson is rushed to hospital with burn injuries to his head after a stunt for a Pepsi commercial went wrong
1995 - Manchester United's Eric Cantona is fined £20,000 and banned from playing football over his kung fu-style attack on a fan

On This Day - 26th January

1836 - Michigan becomes the 26th State of the US
1880 - Douglas MacArthur born
1886 - General Gordon of Khartoum is killed
1923 - Anne Jeffreys born
1925 - Paul Newman born
1929 - Jules Feiffer born
1935 - Bob Uecker born
1942 - Scott Glenn born
1944 - Angela Davis born
1946 - Gene Siskel born
1950 - The independent republic of India is born as the new president replaces the King as head of state and a new constitution is adopted
1952 - Reports from Egypt say at least 20 people have been killed and hundreds injured in anti-British riots in Cairo
1953 - Lucinda Williams born
1955 - Eddie Van Halen born
1958 - Anita Baker and Ellen DeGeneres born
1961 - Wayne Gretzky born
1969 - Police wielding truncheons and firing tear gas from pressure canisters break up a march by hundreds of demonstrators in central Prague
1970 - Kirk Franklin born
1982 - The number of people out of work in Britain rises above three million for the first time since the 1930s
1998 - President Clinton denies allegations he had an affair with 24-year-old intern Monica Lewinsky and rejects accusations he asked her to lie on oath
2001 - A massive earthquake strikes western India and parts of Pakistan, killing many thousands of people.

On This Day - 25th January

1759 - Robert Burns born
1882 - Virginia Woolf born
1918 - Ernie Harwell born
1919 - Edwin Newman born
1931 - Dean Jones born
1933 - Corazon Aquino born
1971 - General Idi Amin seizes power in Uganda while President Milton Obote is away on a foreign visit - troops seal off Entebbe airport. Also China Kantner born
1981 - MPs Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins, William Rodgers and David Owen called a news conference today at Dr Owen's home in Limehouse, east London, to unveil plans for setting up of a "council for social democracy". Also Alicia Keys born
1990 - At least 39 people, some of them children, die in the worst weather to hit England and Wales since the 1987 hurricane
1998 - During a historic visit to Cuba Pope John Paul II demands the release of political prisoners while condemning US attempts to isolate the country
1999 - At least 300 people are killed and 1,000 are injured in an earthquake in Colombia, South America - the worst for 16 years. In addition six members of the International Olympic Committee face expulsion following an inquiry into a corruption scandal
2004 - The second of two Nasa rovers sent to explore Mars has landed on the surface of the planet, where it will look for signs of water

On This Day - 24th January

1862 - Edith Wharton born
1917 - Ernest Borgnine born
1925 - Maria Tallchief born
1941 - Aaron Neville and Neil Diamond born
1947 - Warren Zevon born
1949 - John Belushi born
1951 - Yakov Smirnoff born
1956 - Plans to build a "new town" in the Barbican area of London left devastated by the war are being considered at a public inquiry
1958 - Jools Holland born
1960 - Nastassia Kinski
1961 - Hollywood screen star Marilyn Monroe divorces her husband of five years, playwright Arthur Miller
1965 - Sir Winston Churchill dies at the age of 90 with his wife Lady Clementine Churchill and other members of the family at his bedside
1966 - Air India 707 crashes in to Mont Blanc killing 117 people
1968 - Mary Lou Retton born
1969 - Students protesting at the installation of steel security gates at the London School of Economics go on the rampage, with crowbars, pickaxes and sledgehammers
1979 - Tatyana Ali born
1986 - Trade and Industry Secretary Leon Brittan becomes the second cabinet minister to resign over the Westland affair
2001 - Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson resigns from the Cabinet over a passports-for-cash scandal

On This Day - 23rd January

1737 - John Hancock born
1832 - Edouard Manet born
1919 - Ernie Kovacs born
1928 - Jeanne Moreau born
1930 - Ballerina Anna Pavlova dies
1933 - Chita Rivera born
1944 - Rutger Hauer born
1947 - Dr. Laura Schlessinger born
1955 - Fourteen people die and dozens are injured when an express train travelling from York to Bristol derails at Sutton Coldfield station
1957 - Princess Caroline of Monaco born
1969 - Brendan Shanahan born
1971 - The Commonwealth Conference in Singapore ends with a compromise over the wording of the declaration
1973 - The US president, Richard Nixon, has appeared on national television to announce "peace with honour" in Vietnam
1974 - Tiffani-Amber Thiessen born
1989 - Hundreds of people are feared dead after a powerful earthquake strikes the Soviet Central Asian republic of Tajikistan
2002 - The treatment of a 94-year old woman sets off a bitter political row between the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition
2003 - Actress Nell Carter dies