On This Day - 14th May

1727 - Thomas Gainsborough born
1885 - Otto Klemperer born
1897 - Marconi makes the first wireless transmission
1933 - Laszlo Kovacs born
1936 - Bobby Darin born
1944 - George Lucas born
1951 - Robert Zemeckis born
1952 - David Byrne born
1955 - The Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies sign a defence agrement 'Warsaw Pact' in the Polish capital, Warsaw, places all member countries under one military command.
1957 - Petrol rationing, which was in force in Britain for five months following the Suez crisis, is finally abolished.
1961 - Tim Roth born

1964 - President Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev have marked the first stage in the building of the Aswan High Dam.
1965 - Jose Da Silveira born
1969 - Danny Wood and Cate Blanchett born
1991 - Winnie Mandela, the wife of anti-apartheid campaigner Nelson Mandela, is given a six-year jail term for her part in the kidnap of four youths.

2001 - Leading experts on new variant CJD, the human form of BSE or "mad cow" disease, have warned the current outbreak could get much worse. So far, 99 people have had the disease and nearly all of them have died.
2011 - Manchester City beat Stoke City to win the FA Cup, their first trophy in 35 years. Manchester United win a record 19th league title.

On This Day - 13th May

1842 - Arthur Sullivan born
1846 - The US declares war on Mexico
1914 - Joe Louis born
1923 - Beatrice Arthur born
1926 - The first flight of an airship over the North Pole
1939 - Harvey Keitel born
1941 - Ritchie Valens born
1950 - Stevie Wonder born
1961 - Dennis Rodman born
1966 - Darius Rucker born
1968 - A one-day workers' general strike is called in solidarity with students in Paris, calling for the fall of government and protesting police brutality.
1977 - England captain Tony Greig is fired for recruiting players to Australian media mogul Kerry Packer's rival World XI team in what is seen as a "breach of trust". Also Samantha Morton born
1981 - Crowds in St Peter's Square in Rome are stunned by the close-range shooting of Pope John Paul II by 23-year-old Turkish citizen Mehmet Ali Hagca.

1989 - British war hero Jackie Mann,74, is feared kidnapped in Beirut after disappearing in the Lebanese capital.
1995 - A British mother of two becomes the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas. Alison Hargreaves, 33, becomes only the second person ever to reach the peak of the world's highest mountain unaided.

On This Day - 12th May

1820 - Florence Nightingale born
1907 - Katharine Hepburn born
1925 - Yogi Berra born
1926 - The General Strike ends
1929 - Burt Bacharach born
1936 - Tom Snyder born
1937 - Coronation of King George VI. Also George Carlin born
1948 - Steve Winwood born
1961 - Ving Rhames born
1962 - Emilio Estevez born
1966 - Stephen Baldwin born

1967 - The British Government gives the go-ahead to proposals to convert Stansted into an international airport.
1968 - Tony Hawk born
1969 - Kim Fields born
1971 - The Rolling Stones singer, Mick Jagger, marries his fiancee Bianca Perez Morena de Macias after a row with the media nearly halts proceedings.
1978 - Jason Biggs born
1981 - Francis Hughes starves to death in the Maze Prison in a republican campaign for political status to be granted to IRA prisoners.

1994 - The Labour Party leader John Smith dies in a London hospital after two serious heart attacks.
2000 - Ford workers at its Dagenham plant react with shock and anger at the news that car production is to be transferred to Germany and Spain, with the loss of 3,000jobs.

On This Day - 11th May

1858 - Minnesota becomes the 32nd US State
1888 - Irving Berlin born
1894 - Martha Graham born
1904 - Salvador Dali born
1911 - Phil Silvers born
1912 - Foster Brooks born
1927 - Mort Sahl born
1933 - Louis Farrakhan born

1956 - Colonial Secretary Alan Lennox-Boyd announces the Gold Coast is to become the first black African nation to be granted independence from Britain.
1963 - Greville Wynne, a British businessman accused of spying for the West is sentenced to eight years' detention by a Moscow tribunal. Also Natasha Richardson born
1971 - The Daily Sketch newspaper which was founded in 1909 has been published for the last time.
1983 - Holly Valance born
1985 - 56 people are killed and 265 injured after fire engulfs Bradford City football stadium.
1998 - The Indian government announces it has carried out a series of underground nuclear tests in a move which has shocked the world.

On This Day - 10th May

1857 - Sepoy mutiny
1871 - The Franco Prussian war ends
1888 - Max Steiner born
1899 - Fred Astaire born
1902 - David O. Selznick born
1922 - Nancy Walker born
1930 - Pat Summerall born
1936 - Gary Owens born

1940 - German forces invade the Low Countries by air and land, while in London, Chamberlain is replaced by Winston Churchill as prime minister
1941 - Vice Furher Rudolf Hess lands in Scotland
1946 - Donovan born
1957 - Sid Vicious as well as Phil and Steve Mahre born
1960 - Paul "Bono" Hewson born
1967 - Mick Jagger and Keith Richards appeared before magistrates charged with drug offences.

1977 - Amanda Borden born
1978 - The murdered Italian politician Aldo Moro is buried after a private funeral service, 55 days after he was kidnapped by the Red Brigade. Also Kenan Thompson born
1994 - Nelson Mandela becomes South Africa's first black president after more than three centuries of white rule.
1998 - The political wing of the republican IRA back the Good Friday peace agreement heralding a major shift in modern republicanism.

On This Day - 9th May

1800 - John Brown born
1873 - Howard Carter born
1904 - Explorer Sir Henry Stanley dies
1918 - Mike Wallace born
1936 - Glenda Jackson and Albert Finney born
1940 - James L. Brooks born
1946 - Candice Bergen born
1949 - Billy Joel born
1955 - West Germany formally joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation 'NATO' at a special ceremony in Paris.

1956 - Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden refuses to give details about the disappearance of a naval diver during a goodwill visit by the Soviet leadership.
1960 - Tony Gwynn born
1965 - Steve Yzerman born
1972 - Twelve Israeli soldiers disguised as maintenance staff storm a hijacked Sabena Boeing at Lod airport in Tel Aviv and released the 100 people on board.

1979 - At least 18 demonstrators are shot dead and many wounded after police opened fire on anti-government protesters in El Salvador. Also Pierre Bouvier born
1988 - Syria has hints for the first time it may send in troops to halt the bloodshed in the slums of southern Beirut.
1999 - Major cities in China see their biggest demonstrations for years since the destruction by Nato bombs of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

On This Day - 8th May

1884 - Harry S. Truman born
1895 - Bishop Fulton Sheen born
1903 - Artist Paul Gauguin dies
1915 - The Lusitania torpedoed by Germans
1926 - Don Rickles born
1940 - Rick Nelson and Peter Benchley born
1943 - Toni Tennille born
1945 - VE Day, the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, has officially announces the end of the war with Germany.
1964 - Melissa Gilbert born

1968 - The Kray twins, Reginald and Ronnie aged 34, and their 41-year-old brother Charlie have been arrested on suspicion of murder, after a series of dawn raids in London.
1969 - Robert M. Hensel born
1972 - Darren Hayes born
1975 - Enrique Iglesias born

1978 - David 'Son of Sam' Berkowitz, the man alleged to have murdered six people in a killing spree last year has pleaded guilty to all the charges against him.
1984 - Twelve weeks before the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympic Games, the USSR announces it is boycotting them. It is expected most of the Eastern Bloc will follow suit.
2000 - The Tate Modern art gallery in London opens its doors to the world's media ahead of the official opening by the Queen on May 11.