On This Day - 26th March

1827 - Composer Ludwig Von Beethoven dies
1874 - Robert Frost born
1892 - Writer Walt Whitman dies
1902 - Cecil Rhodes dies
1911 - Tennessee Williams born
1923 - Actress Sarah Bernhardt dies
1930 - Sandra Day O'Connor born
1931 - Leonard Nimoy born
1934 - Alan Arkin born
1939 - James Caan born
1942 - Erica Jong born
1942 - Deportation of Jews to Auschwitz begins
1943 - Bob Woodward born
1944 - Diana Ross born and Lloyd George dies
1948 - Steven Tyler born
1949 - Vicki Lawrence born
1950 - Martin Short and Teddy Pendergrass born
1954 - Curtis Sliwa born
1960 - Marcus Allen born
1968 - Kenny Chesney born

1973 - Women are allowed on to the trading floor of the London Stock Exchange for the first time in the institution's 200 year history.
1979 - In a ceremony at the White House, Israel and Egypt end 30 years of war with a handshake, after the signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty.
1981 - The Social Democrats launch their new political party pledging to 'reconcile the nation' and 'heal divisions between classes'.

1999 - Ex-miners suffering from lung diseases win the biggest industrial injuries case in British legal history.
2000 - Pope John Paul II, visiting Jerusalem, has prayed for forgiveness for those involved in the Holocaust.

On This Day - 25th March

1867 - Arturo Toscanini born
1881 - Béla Bartók born
1908 - David Lean born
1920 - Howard Cosell born
1921 - Simone Signoret born
1934 - Gloria Steinem born
1940 - Anita Bryant born
1942 - Aretha Franklin born
1943 - Paul Michael Glaser born
1946 - Bonnie Bedelia born
1947 - Elton John born
1950 - Norway comes to North London for a ski-jumping competition complete with imported snow.
1965 - Sarah Jessica Parker born
1971 - Sheryl Swoopes born
1975 - King Faisal of Saudi Arabia has dies after a gun attack despite the efforts of doctors to keep him alive. Also members of an extreme right-wing UK party, flanked by 2,000 police officers, march through north London protesting against integration with Europe.
1976 - Amy Smart born

1980 - The British Olympic Association votes by a large majority to defy government requests and send athletes to the Olympic Games in Moscow.
2000 - David Trimble narrowly beats off a challenge to his leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party.

On This Day - 24th March

1603 - Elizabeth I of England dies aged 69
1874 - Harry Houdini born
1882 - Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow dies
1887 - Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle born
1905 - Author Jules Verne dies
1911 - Joseph Barbera born
1919 - Lawrence Ferlinghetti born
1930 - Steve McQueen born

1953 - Her Majesty Queen Mary, the Queen's grandmother, dies in her sleep after a lengthy illness. Also Louie Anderson born
1964 - Annabella Sciorra born
1965 - Ranger 9 beams live pictures of the Moon to ordinary Americans as it hurtles down to crash on the surface.
1970 - Sharon Corr born
1974 - Alyson Hannigan born
1976 - Peyton Manning born

1978 - Violent seas split the Amoco Cadiz super tanker wrecked off the coast of France, destroying any hopes of salvaging any remaining oil and threatening an ecological disaster.
1981 - Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs is rescued by Barbados police following his kidnapping.
1989 - An oil tanker, the Exxon Valdez, runs aground off the Alaskan coast, releasing crude oil into the sea.
1992 - Punch, Britain's oldest satirical magazine, is to close after suffering crippling losses of £1.5m a year.

On This Day - 23rd March

1904 - Joan Crawford born
1910 - Akira Kurosawa born
1912 - Wernher Von Braun born
1923 - Doc Watson born
1929 - Roger Bannister born
1953 - Chaka Khan born
1976 - Keri Russell born
1977 - The Labour government survives a vote of "no confidence" in the House of Commons thanks to support from the Liberals.
1981 - The government bans all animal transport to contain an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

1983 - President Reagan unveils plans to combat nuclear war in space.
1987 - More than 30 people are injured in a car bomb explosion at the UK Army headquarters in Rheindahlen, West Germany.
1990 - Princess Eugenie born
1991 - Failing public service providers will be forced to offer customers cash refunds or face government budget cuts, the Prime Minister announces.

2011 - Movie icon Elizabeth Taylor dies aged 79.

On This Day - 22nd March

1887 - Chico Marx born
1908 - Louis L'Amour born
1913 - Karl Malden born
1923 - Marcel Marceau born
1930 - Stephen Sondheim born
1931 - William Shatner born
1933 - J.P. McCarthy born
1938 - Marvin Yagoda born
1943 - George Benson born
1948 - Andrew Lloyd Webber born
1952 - Bob Costas born
1955 - Lena Olin born
1956 - Civil rights leader, the Reverend Martin Luther King, has been convicted of organising an illegal boycott by black passengers of buses in the US state of Alabama.
1959 - Matthew Modine born

1963 - The Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, denies any impropriety with Christine Keeler
1972 - Elvis Stojko born
1976 - Reese Witherspoon born
1979 - British ambassador in Holland Sir Richard Sykes is shot dead outside his Dutch home.

1980 - Teenager Annabel Schild is reunited with her mother after being released from seven months in captivity in Sardinia.
1985 - Keira Knightley born
2002 - A woman paralysed from the neck down wins the legal right to die by having her treatment withdrawn.

On This Day - 21st March

1685 - Johann Sebastian Bach born
1839 - Modest Mussorgsky born
1858 - The Indian Mutany ends
1867 - Florenz Ziegfeld born
1944 - Timothy Dalton born
1958 - Gary Oldman born
1960 - Sharpeville massacre,69 demonstrators were killed and 180 where injured when police opened fire on the protest against the racist pass laws.
1960 - Ayrton Senna da Silva born
1962 - Rosie O'Donnell and Matthew Broderick born
1963 - The first automatic train on the London underground could be hurtling into stations in three weeks, the government has revealed.
1984 - Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher comes under attack for the breakdown of negotiations at the European Economic Community common market summit in Brussels.
1991 - The government has revealed plans for a new property tax in place of the controversial poll tax.
1999 - One of Britain's most loved and most successful comedians, Ernie Wise, dies aged 73.

On This Day - 20th March

1904 - B.F. Skinner born
1906 - Ozzie Nelson born
1922 - Carl Reiner born
1928 - Fred "Mr." Rogers born
1929 - Marshal Foch dies
1931 - Hal Linden born
1933 - Dachau concentration camp opened
1937 - Lois Lowry born
1945 - Pat Riley born
1950 - William Hurt born
1957 - Spike Lee born
1958 - Holly Hunter born
1966 - The Jules Rimet trophy, footballs World Cup is stolen while on exhibition in London.
1974 - Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips escape an apparent kidnap attempt.

1976 - Chester Bennington born
1989 - Two senior RUC officers negotiating cross-border security co-operation in south Armagh are ambushed and shot dead by the IRA.
1993 - Two boys die and 56 people are injured as two IRA bombs explode in the centre of Warrington.
2003 - American missiles hit the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, signalling the start of the US-led campaign to topple Saddam Hussein.