On This Day - 18th June

1812 – War of 1812. The US declared war on Britain and Ireland
1815 - The Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon's last battle and the end of the Napoleonic war
1859 - Lord Palmerston becomes British Prime Minsiter
1903 - Jeanette MacDonald born
1908 - Bud Collyer born
1910 - E.G. Marshall born
1942 - Paul McCartney and Roger Ebert born
1946 - England manager Fabio Capello born.
1952 - Isabella Rossellini and Carol Kane born
1956 - The former President of the United States, Harry Truman, dismisses suggestions Moscow may be about to turn its back on its Stalinist past.
1965 - The government announces it will introduce a blood alcohol limit for drivers with penalties for those caught above it.
1971 - Nathan Morris born

1972 - A flight from London Heathrow to Brussels crashes near Staines minutes after take-off killing all 118 people on board.
1974 - Zaire (Democratic Republic of Congo) are beaten 9 - 0 by Yugoslavia, equaling Hungary's record scoreline from 1954.
1979 - United States President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev sign Salt II, the first arms-reduction treaty between the two super powers.

1999 - Police and protesters clash at a demonstration against capitalism in the centre of London's financial district.
2011 - Clarence Clemons saxophonist with the E Street Band dies aged 69.

2012 - Actor Vittorio Giorgio Andrea 'Victor' Spinetti dies of prostate cancer aged 82.

On This Day - 17th June

1631 - Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. The Taj Mahal was built to serve as her tomb.
1882 - Igor Stravinsky born
1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York.
1898 - M.C. Escher born
1904 - Ralph Bellamy born
1919 - Gene De Paul born
1940 - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union
1943 - Newt Gingrich born
1945 - Art Bell born
1946 - Barry Manilow born
1951 - Joe Piscopo born

1961 - Principal dancer of the Kirov Ballet, Rudolf Nureyev, breaks free from Russian embassy guards at a Paris airport and requests asylum in France.
1964 - The first purpose-built floating trade fair docks at Tilbury in London with 22,000 samples of Japanese goods on board.
1965 - Dan Jansen born

1970 - The bodies of the 'Babes in the wood' Susan Blatchford, aged 11, and Gary Hanlon, aged 12, are found in a shallow grave in a wood at Waltham Abbey in Essex.
1974 - An IRA bomb has explodes at the Houses of Parliament, causing extensive damage and injuring 11 people.
1980 - The locations for the first US nuclear cruise missiles to be stored on British soil are revealed by the government. Secretary of State for Defence Francis Pym told the House of Commons the 160 missiles would be located at RAF Greenham Common, Berkshire, and the disused RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire. Also Venus Williams born

1983 - Lee Ryan born
2001 - The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland 'Cardinal Thomas Winning', dies suddenly at his Glasgow home after suffering his second heart attack in 10 days.

On This Day - 16th June

1779 - Spain declare war on Great Britain over Gibraltar
1890 - Stan Laurel born
1903 - The Ford motor company was founded.
1916 - Lord Kitchener killed
1937 - Erich Segal born
1938 - Joyce Carol Oates born
1943 - Joan Van Ark born
1963 - A former textile worker from the Soviet Union has become the first woman in space. Lieutenant Valentina Tereshkova, 26, was the fifth Russian cosmonaut to go into the Earth's orbit when her spaceship Vostok VI was launched at 1230 Moscow time.
1971 - Tupac Shakur born

1976 - At least 12 people are reported to have been killed in a series of violent clashes between black demonstrators and police in several South African townships.
1982 - The South Wales coalfield has come to a standstill after about 24,000 miners went on strike in support of health service workers, who are demanding a 12% pay rise. Also Bryan Robson score the fastest goal to date in the World Cup finals. It took only 27 - seconds to put the ball in the back of the net against France in Spain.
1989 - Former Communist prime minister Imre Nagy, the man who symbolises the 1956 Hungarian uprising, has been given a formal public funeral 31 years after he was executed.

1992 - An explosive new book about the Princess of Wales, including claims she attempted suicide, is published by author Andrew Morton.

On This Day - 15th June

1215 - King John stamped the royal seal on the Magna Carta
1752 - Benjamin Franklin demonstrated that lightning is electricity
1836 - Arkansas becomes the 25th US State
1910 - Captain Scott set out on his expedition to the South Pole
1919 - Alcock and Brown complete the first non-stop transatlantic flight
1921 - Erroll Garner born
1924 - Ford complete their 10 millionth car
1932 - Mario Cuomo born
1937 - Waylon Jennings born
1954 - Jim Belushi born
1963 - Helen Hunt born
1964 - Courteney Cox born
1966 - The world's first hovershow opens in Britain with news of a Ministry of Defence order worth £1m.

1969 - Dina Meyer born
1969 - Ice Cube born
1971 - Opposition is growing to Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher's plans to end free school milk for children over the age of seven.
1974 - A march through central London leaves one person dead and many more injured as rival demonstrators clashed with police and each other.
1996 - A massive IRA bomb devastates central Manchester. Two hundred people are injured in the attack, mostly by flying glass.

2000 - The major contingent of the British military task force sent to help restore order in Sierra Leone leaves the country.
2002 - Cesare Maldini becomes the oldest world cup coach at 70 years and 131 days, whilst managing Paraguay.

On This Day - 14th June

1777 - The Stars and Stripes becomes the official flag of the USA
1811 - Harriet Beecher Stowe born
1909 - Burl Ives born
1925 - Pierre Salinger born
1927 - Author Jerome K Jerome dies
1928 - Che Guevara was born in Rosario, Argentina
1931 - Marla Gibbs born
1933 - Jerzy Kosinski born
1940 - German troops marched into Paris in the early hours of this morning as French and allied forces retreated.
1946 - Donald Trump born
1961 - It is announced that a new type of zebra crossing with push button controls for pedestrians will be introduced next year. Also Boy George born
1968 - Yasmine Bleeth born
1969 - Steffi Graf born
1970 - Bobby Charlton retires from international football
1972 - Hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers face flight delays and cancellations as pilots threaten to strike over hijack fears.

1982 - A ceasefire between British and Argentine forces on the Falkland Islands has been agreed, the prime minister has announced.
1991 - More than a thousand Kurds besiege a US military base near the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk, pleading with American troops not to withdraw.

On This Day - 13th June

1865 - William Butler Yeats born
1913 - Ralph Edwards born
1926 - Paul Lynde born
1935 - Christo born
1939 - Siegfried Fischbacher born
1943 - Malcolm McDowell born
1951 - Richard Thomas born

1953 - Tim Allen born
1962 - Ally Sheedy born
1967 - The United Nations Security Council rejects Soviet demands for an immediate vote to condemn Israel's aggression in the so-called six-day war.

1969 - Jamie Walters born
1970 - Rivers Cuomo born
1978 - Israeli troops complete their withdrawal from southern Lebanon handing over many of their positions to a right-wing Christian movement.
1981 - A 17-year-old man has been arrested for shooting a replica gun at the Queen as she rode past crowds on horseback. Marcus Serjeant pointed a pistol directly at the Queen as she turned down Horseguards' Parade for the start of the Trooping the Colour ceremony.
1991 - Boris Yeltsin celebrates victory as Russia's first popularly-elected president.


1996 - Guernsey votes to legalise abortion, overturning a ban which dates back to 1910.
2005 - Pop star Michael Jackson is found not guilty of all charges after a four-month-long child abuse trial.

On This Day - 12th June

1897 - Alexandre Tansman born
1924 - George Bush born
1928 - Vic Damone born
1929 - Anne Frank born
1932 - Jim Nabors born
1941 - Chick Corea and Marv Albert born

1962 - Three prisoners make their way out of California's Alcatraz prison using spoons and a homemade raft. Frank Lee Morris and two brothers, Clarence and John Anglin, all convicted of bank robbery, escaped last night from the notorious island prison in San Francisco Bay renowned for its high level of security.
1964 - The leader of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, Nelson Mandela, is given a life sentence for sabotage.
1975 - Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is barred from holding office for six years after she being found guilty of electoral corruption.

1986 - Derek Hatton, the controversial deputy leader of Liverpool Council, is thrown out of the Labour Party for belonging to the leftwing Militant faction.
1997 - It is announced that Home Secretary, Jack Straw is to reconsider the fate of James Bulger's killers. Former Home Secretary Michael Howard is said to have acted illegally when he raised the minimum sentence imposed on the Bulger killers, law lords have ruled.