On This Day - 16th April

1867 - Wilbur Wright born
1889 - Charlie Chaplin born
1919 - Merce Cunningham born
1920 - Barry Nelson born
1921 - Peter Ustinov born
1924 - Henry Mancini born
1929 - Edie Adams born
1930 - Herbie Mann born
1935 - Bobby Vinton born
1939 - Dusty Springfield born
1947 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar born

1953 - Thousands welcome the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh when they arrived in Scotland to launch the new royal yacht, Britannia.
1955 - Ellen Barkin born
1964 - Some of the longest sentences in British criminal history are imposed on the men involved in the so-called "Great Train Robbery".

1965 - Martin Lawrence born
1970 - Protestant right-winger Ian Paisley wins a seat in Northern Ireland's parliament.
1971 - Selena Quintanilla born
1987 - Conservative MP Harvey Proctor appears in court charged with indecency.
1993 - The United Nations Security Council votes to create a safe haven for Bosnian Muslims under siege in the town of Srebrenica.

On This Day - 15th April

1452 - Leonardo da Vinci born
1843 - Henry James born

1865 - US President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated
1880 - William Gladstone becomes Prime Minister
1894 - Bessie Smith born

1912 - SS Titanic sinks
1917 - Hans Conried born
1922 - Leon Schotter born
1933 - Elizabeth Montgomery born
1933 - Roy Clark born
1939 - Claudia Cardinale born
1942 - The people of Malta are awarded the George Cross in recognition of their heroic struggle against occupation.

1945 - British troops enter the German concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen.
1953 - Reis Leming, a 22-year-old US airman, is awarded the George Medal for rescuing people trapped by winter floods in Britain.
1959 - Emma Thompson born
1986 - The United States bombs Tripoli in retaliation for Libyan terrorist attacks on American targets.

1989 - 96 Liverpool fans are crushed to death at Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield during the FA Cup semi-final between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.
1998 - The former Cambodian dictator, Pol Pot, whose regime led to the deaths of millions of his people, dies.

2000 - A white farmer in Zimbabwe is kidnapped and shot dead by squatters occupying his land.

On This Day - 14th April

1904 - John Gielgud born
1913 - Typhus Vaccine discovered
1925 - Rod Steiger born
1929 - The first Monaco Grand Priz is run
1935 - Loretta Lynn born
1941 - Pete Rose and Julie Christie born
1943 - Germans evacuate North Africa
1945 - Ritchie Blackmore born
1960 - Brad Garrett born
1961 - Robert Carlyle born
1968 - A massive student rally in West Berlin has ended in violent clashes between police and protesters.
1970 - An explosion on board Apollo 13 causes one of the most critical situations in American space history.
1977 - Sarah Michelle Gellar born
1979 - Yusufu Lule, once driven into exile by former Uganda dictator Idi Amin has been sworn in as the country's new president.
1988 - The Soviet Union signs an agreement paving the way for pulling Russian troops out of Afghanistan.
2000 - Kenneth Noye, the man who carried out a "road rage" killing is beginning a life sentence after being convicted of murder at the Old Bailey in London.

On This Day - 13th April

1743 - Thomas Jefferson born - Signatory to the US Declaration of Independence, U.S. President, scientist and founder of the Library of Congress
1906 - Samuel Beckett born
1909 - Eudora Welty born
1919 - Howard Keel born
1926 - Don Adams born
1935 - Lyle Waggoner born
1944 - Jack Casady born
1945 - Tony Dow born
1946 - Al Green born
1963 - Garry Kasparov born
1964 - Sidney Poitier becomes the first black person to win the best actor Oscar.
1970 - Rick Schroder born

1975 - 26 people are killed and up to 30 wounded in a gun battle between Palestinian guerrillas and Christian militants in Beirut. Also police believe a woman attacked in the early hours of Sunday morning was the sixth victim of a serial rapist operating in Cambridge.
1978 - Kyle Howard born
1989 - At least six Palestinians have been killed in an early morning raid by Israeli soldiers on an Arab village on the West Bank.

1992 - Neil Kinnock resigns as Labour Party leader blaming the Conservative-backed press for his party's defeat at the general election.
1997 - Golfing sensation Tiger Woods wins the US Masters, the youngest player ever to do so at the age of 21.

On This Day - 12th April

1861 - The American civil war begins
1908 - Herbert Asquith becomes British Prime Minister
1923 - Ann Miller born
1930 - Tiny Tim born
1940 - Herbie Hancock born

1945 - US President Franklin D Roosevelt dies
1946 - Ed O'Neill born
1947 - David Letterman and Tom Clancy born
1950 - David Cassidy born
1956 - Andy Garcia born
1957 - Vince Gill born
1961 - The Soviet Union beats the USA in the race to get the first man into space and Yuri Gagarin becomes a national hero.
1962 - Art Alexakis born
1970 - Nick Hexum born
1971 - Nicholas Brendon and Shannen Doherty born
1975 - The US admits defeat in Cambodia and removes its remaining embassy personnel from the capital, Phnom Penh.
1979 - Claire Danes born
1982 - Riley Smith born
1984 - Arthur Scargill, leader of the miners' union the NUM, will not allow a national ballot to take place on whether to stop the strike.

1997 - Police in Sarajevo discover mines under a bridge just hours before the arrival of the Pope.
2000 - The Queen presents the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) with the George Cross, the highest civilian award for bravery.

On This Day - 11th April

1913 - Oleg Cassini born
1928 - Ethel Kennedy born
1932 - Joel Grey born
1939 - Louise Lasser born
1947 - Meshach Taylor born
1951 - US President Truman appoints General Ridgway as supreme commander of the UN forces in Korea after shocking the American public by dismissing General Macarthur
1957 - The island of Singapore is granted self-government from Britain to come into effect next year.
1961 - Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann put on trial

1981 - The arrest of a black man leads to hundreds of youths rampaging through the streets of Brixton in south London
1987 - Joss Stone born

1990 - Customs officers in Middlesbrough say they have seized what they believe to be the barrel of a massive gun on a ship bound for Iraq.
1996 - Israeli planes and helicopters have launched air strikes against targets in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, for the first time in nearly 14 years.

On This Day - 10th April

1794 - Commodore Matthew Perry born
1847 - Joseph Pulitzer born
1915 - Harry Morgan born
1919 - Mexican rebel Emiliano Zapata is killed
1921 - Chuck Connors born

1929 - Max Von Sydow born
1932 - Omar Sharif born
1936 - John Madden born
1952 - Steven Seagal born

1968 - Fifty-one people die after a ferry, TEV Wahine capsized in Wellington Harbour, New Zealand during one of the worst storms ever to hit the country.
1972 - Over 5,000 people die in a massive earthquake in southern Iran which flattens entire towns and villages.
1981 - Imprisoned IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands has been elected to Westminster as the MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone. Also Lil McClarnon born

1983 - Ryan Merriman born
1998 - The Northern Ireland peace talks have ended with an historic agreement called the Good Friday Agreement.
2000 - Shop manager Mark Hedley, who was sacked for being HIV positive by Aldi is set to receive thousands of pounds in compensation.