On This Day - 12th February

1809 - Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin born
1904 - Ted Mack born
1906 - Keir Hardie becomes Labour Party leader
1915 - Lorne Greene born
1917 - Dom DiMaggio born
1923 - Franco Zeffirelli born
1926 - Joe Garagiola born
1934 - Bill Russell born
1938 - Judy Blume born
1939 - Ray Manzarek born
1954 - A new body is established (Atomic Energy Authority) to control the production and development of atomic energy in the UK.
1955 - Arsenio Hall born
1964 - Fighting between ethnic Turks and Greeks in the disputed island of Cyprus has left at least 16 people dead.
1974 - Naseem Hamed born
1980 - Christina Ricci born
1989 - Leading solicitor Pat Finucane is shot dead at his home in north Belfast in front of his wife and children.
1994 - One of the world's best-known paintings, The Scream by Edvard Munch, is stolen from a museum in Norway.
1999 - A group of international scientists reinforces warnings that genetically modified food may be damaging to health.

On This Day - 11th February

1815 - The Anglo American war ends
1847 - Thomas Alva Edison born
1917 - Sidney Sheldon born
1921 - Eva Gabor born
1926 - Leslie Nielsen born
1929 - The Vatican becomes a state
1934 - Tina Louise born
1936 - Burt Reynolds born
1940 - Author John Buchan dies and Bobby "Boris" Pickett born
1941 - Segio Mendes born
1956 - Two British diplomats, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, who vanished in mysterious circumstances five years ago re-appear in the Soviet Union.
1963 - Sheryl Crow born
1969 - Jennifer Aniston born
1975 - Margeret Thatcher elected first female leader of the Tory party
1976 - Figure skater John Curry wins Britain's first Olympic gold in the sport - and the country's first medal at the winter games for 12 years.
1977 - Mike Shinoda born
1979 - Supporters of the Ayatollah Khomeini appear to be in control of the Iranian capital, Tehran tonight
1980 - Matt Lawrence born
1981 - Kelly Rowland born
1987 - Party planner Cynthia Payne is acquitted of nine charges of controlling prostitutes at her home in south-west London.
1990 - Leading anti-apartheid campaigner Nelson Mandela has been freed from prison in South Africa after 27 years.
2010 - President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak steps down after 30 years in power following 18 days of protests in the capitol Cairo.

On This Day - 10th February

1840 - Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert
1890 - Boris Pasternak born
1893 - Jimmy Durante born
1898 - Bertolt Brecht born
1905 - Lon Chaney born
1912 - Joseph Lister dies
1913 - Scott of the Antarctic found dead
1927 - Leontyne Price born
1930 - Robert Wagner born
1939 - Pope Pius XI dies and Roberta Flack born
1950 - Mark Spitz born
1952 - Independent India's first general elections pass off peacefully, and return Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to power.
1955 - The American Navy has moved thousands of people from the Chinese Nationalist Tachen Islands and Greg Norman born
1961 - George Stephanopoulos born
1962 - American spy plane pilot Captain Francis "Gary" Powers is freed from prison in the Soviet Union in exchange for a Russian spy jailed in the US.
1967 - Laura Dern born
1976 - Lance Berkman born
1983 - Police launch a mass murder investigation in London after discovering human remains in drains.
1996 - The IRA admit planting the bomb that exploded in the Docklands area of London last night.
2005 - The Prince of Wales and long-term partner Camilla Parker Bowles are engaged, Clarence House announces.

On This Day - 9th February

1773 - The 9th US President William Henry Harrison born
1891 - Ronald Colman born
1909 - Carmen Miranda born
1914 - Gypsy Rose Lee born
1922 - Kathryn Grayson born
1923 - Brendan Behan born
1928 - Roger Mudd born
1942 - Carole King born
1943 - Joe Pesci born
1944 - Alice Walker born
1945 - Mia Farrow born
1950 - United States Senator Joe McCarthy accuses more than 200 staff in the State Department of being Communists.
1955 - Charles Shaughnessy born
1963 - Travis Tritt born
1966 - A Protype Fast Reactor will be built at the Dounreay power station in a remote part of Scotland, the government announces.
1979 - Mena Suvari and Ziyi Zhang born
1979 - Football club Nottingham Forest clinches Trevor Francis in Britain's first £1m transfer deal.
1983 - A nationwide hunt for 1981 Derby winner and prize stallion Shergar begins in Ireland.
1985 - David Gallagher born
1995 - British-born Michael Foale and the first African-American astronaut, Bernard Harris, walk in space as part of a Nasa experiment.

On This Day - 8th February

1820 William Tecumseh Sherman born
1828 Jules Verne born
1902 Lyle Talbot born
1921 Freddie Blassie and Lana Turner born
1924 Audrey Meadows born
1925 Jack Lemmon born
1931 James Dean born
1932 John Williams born
1940 Nick Nolte and Ted Koppel born
1942 Robert Klein born
1952 Princess Elizabeth proclaims herself Queen at a ceremony in St James's Palace, London.
1962 - At least eight people have been killed during a demonstration in the French capital protesting against the independence of Algeria.
1968 Gary Coleman and Claudette Pace born
1974 Three US astronauts return safely to Earth after a record-breaking stay in space and Seth Green born
1977 David "Phoenix" Farrell born
1979 Josh Keaton born
1983 - Ariel Sharon is removed from office in the Israeli government following a tribunal into the 1982 killings of hundreds of people in two refugee camps.
1994 - Forensic scientists investigate the "suspicious circumstances" of the death of Conservative MP for Eastleigh Stephen Milligan.
2005 - The Palestinian leader and Israeli prime minister declare a truce amid hopes of a "new era of peace".

On This Day - 7th February

1812 - Charles Dickens born
1867 - Laura Ingalls Wilder born
1878 - Pope Pius IX dies
1885 - Sinclair Lewis born
1908 - Larry "Buster" Crabbe born
1920 - Eddie Bracken born
1923 - Keefe Brasselle born
1945 - Plans are being drawn up by London, Washington and Moscow for the final phase of the war against Germany.
1960 - James Spader born
1962 - Garth Brooks born
1964 - Four members of the British hit band, the Beatles, arrive in New York at the start of their first tour of the United States.
1966 - Chris Rock born
1974 - Prime Minister Edward Heath announces a general election and appeals to the miners to suspend their planned strike. Also al ittle-known group calling itself the Symbionese Liberation Army says its members are responsible for kidnapping 19-year-old newspaper heiress Patty Hearst.
1978 - Ashton Kutcher born
1985 - Tina Majorino born
1987 - South Korean police make hundreds of arrests in the country's biggest demonstrations for six years.
1992 - Ministers from the 12 countries in the European Community take another step towards political and economic union.
2005 - Britain's Ellen MacArthur becomes the fastest person to sail solo around the world.

On This Day - 6th February

1820 - The first freed slaves leave the US to form Liberia
1840 - The treaty of Waitangi is signed thus creating New Zealand as a British Colony
1895 - Babe Ruth born
1911 - Ronald Reagan born
1913 - Mary Leakey born
1919 - Zsa Zsa Gabor born
1931 - Rip Torn and Mamie Van Doren born
1939 - Mike Farrell born
1940 - Tom Brokaw born
1943 - Fabian born
1944 - Michael Tucker born
1945 - Bob Marley born
1950 - Natalie Cole born
1952 - His Majesty, King George VI, dies peacefully in his sleep at Sandringham House, aged 56.
1958 - Manchester City legend Frank Swift and seven Manchester United footballers are among 21 dead after an air crash in Munich
1962 - Axl Rose born
1969 - Masaharu Fukuyama born
1971 - Alan Shepard becomes the first man to hit a golf ball on the Moon during a two-day Moon walk from Apollo 14.
1983 - War criminal and former Gestapo commandant, Klaus Barbie (Butcher of Lyon), arrives in France to stand trial for crimes committed 37 years ago.
1997 - The Court of Appeal makes an historic judgement in favour of Diane Blood who will be allowed to be inseminated with her dead husband's sperm.
2001 - The leader of the right-wing Likud party, Ariel Sharon, wins a landslide victory to become the new prime minister of Israel.
2005 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair marks 2,838 days in his post at Number 10, making him Labours longest serving PM.
2010 - Former Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore dies on holiday in Spain at the age of 58