On This Day - 30th April

1873 - Explorer Dr David Livingstone dies
1908 - Eve Arden born
1926 - Cloris Leachman born
1933 - Willie Nelson born
1940 - Burt Young born
1944 - Jill Clayburgh born
1945 - Dachau concentration camp liberated by Americans
1946 - Carl XVI Gustav born

1952 - The British public gets the chance to read The Diary of a Young Girl, written by Anne Frank who hid from the Nazis in Holland during the war.
1961 - Isiah Thomas born
1971 - Carolyn Dawn Johnson born
1973 - President Richard Nixon takes responsibility for the Watergate scandal but denies any personal involvement. Also Jeff Timmons born

1975 - The war in Vietnam ends as the government in Saigon announces its unconditional surrender to the Vietcong.
1982 - Kirsten Dunst born
1993 - The world number one women's tennis player, Monica Seles, is stabbed in the back during a quarter-final match in Hamburg.

1999 - Two people are killed and at least 30 injured in the third nail-bomb attack in London in two weeks.

On This Day - 29th April

1863 - William Randolph Hearst born
1899 - Duke Ellington born
1909 - Tom Ewell born
1919 - Celeste Holm born
1936 - Zubin Mehta born
1951 - Dale Earnhardt born
1954 - Jerry Seinfeld born
1955 - Kate Mulgrew born
1957 - Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis born
1958 - The Broadway musical, My Fair Lady, opens for its first night in London to a rapturous reception.
1970 - Uma Thurman and Andre Agassi born
1978 - The new left-wing rulers of Afghanistan say almost all the leaders of the ousted Daoud regime are dead.
1979 - Jo O'Meara born
1986 - The Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, is laid to rest alongside her husband, the abdicated King Edward VIII, at Frogmore in Windsor.

1992 - Fierce rioting breaks out in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four white police officers accused of beating black motorist Rodney King.

1993 - It is announced that the public will be allowed inside Buckingham Palace for the first time this summer for an adult entrance fee of £8.

2011 - Prince William and Catherine Elizabeth Middleton marry at Westminster Abbey

On This Day - 28th April

1758 - 5th U.S. president James Monroe born
1926 - Harper Lee born
1937 - Saddam Hussein born
1941 - Ann-Margret born
1945 - Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy until his downfall in 1943, is killed by partisans along with his mistress, Clara Petacci, and some close associates.

1950 - Jay Leno born
1958 - Nancy Lee Grahn born
1969 - The French president, Charles de Gaulle, resigns from office after 11 years, following his defeat in a referendum on governmental reforms.

1974 - Penelope Cruz born
1981 - Jessica Alba born
1986 - The Soviet Union has acknowledges there has been an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
1994 - Former CIA agent Aldrich Ames admits selling secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia, in one of the most damaging spy cases in US history.
1996 - 35 people die when a man opens fire indiscriminately on a crowded tourist area of Tasmania, Australia.
2001 - Denis Tito, a billionaire businessman from California has become the first paying passenger to go to outer space.

On This Day - 27th April

1791 - Samuel Morse born
1822 - Ulysses S. Grant born
1865 - Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, is killed
1882 - Writer Ralph Waldo Emerson dies
1922 - Jack Klugman born

1927 - Coretta Scott King born
1932 - Anouk Aimée and Casey Kasem born
1937 - Guernica in Spain is destroyed by Luftwaffe. Also Sandy Dennis born
1945 - Russian and American troops have joined hands at the River Elbe in Germany, bringing the end of the war a step closer.
1951 - Ace Frehley born
1959 - Sheena Easton born
1961 - Sierra Leone becomes the latest West African state to win independence, after more than 150 years of British colonial rule.
1971 - Police in Wales have to remove demonstrators from the entrance of a courtroom after they disrupted proceedings inside.

1984 - The siege of the Libyan Embassy in London ends 11 days after the shooting of WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the St James's Square building.
1992 - The House of Commons has elected a woman, Betty Boothroyd to the post of Speaker for the first time in its 700-year history.

On This Day - 26th April

1785 - John James Audubon born
1917 - I.M. Pei born
1933 - Carol Burnett born
1938 - Duane Eddy born
1942 - Bobby Rydell born

1962 - The American Moon rocket Ranger IV lands on the far side of the moon but has fails to send back pictures due to a technical fault. Also Michael Damian born
1963 - Jet Li born
1967 - Kane born
1970 - Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins born
1975 - A one-day conference held by the Labour Party to debate Britain's membership of Europe has voted by almost 2-1 to leave the European Economic Community.

1982 - Jon Lee born
1983 - The Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian SSR.
1984 - US President Ronald Reagan lands in China at the start of a six-day state visit, the first by an American president since 1972.
1993 - The British government announces that the recession is over after new figures show growth in the economy for the first time in over two years.
2000 - The Home Secretary, Jack Straw, witnesses nine people being caught attempting to illegally enter the UK as he inspects immigration procedures in Dover.
2005 - Syria pulls all of its troops out of Lebanon after 29 years as a military band sees off the last soldiers.

On This Day - 25th April

1859 - Building of the Suez Canal begins
1898 - The Spanish American war begins
1908 - Edward R. Murrow born
1918 - Ella Fitzgerald born
1930 - Paul Mazursky born
1932 - Meadowlark Lemon born
1940 - Al Pacino born
1945 - Björn Ulvaeus born
1945 - Stu Cook born
1946 - Talia Shire born
1953 - Two Cambridge University scientists publish their answer to one of the most fundamental questions of biology - how do living things reproduce themselves? In an article published in Nature magazine, James D Watson and Francis Crick describe the structure of a chemical called deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA.
1964 - Hank Azaria born
1969 - Renée Zellweger born
1974 - Army rebels are in control of Portugal tonight after an almost bloodless dawn coup ended nearly 50 years of dictatorship.
1980 - A top-secret attempt by the United States to free American hostages held in Iran collapses in failure, with the death of eight soldiers. Also Jacob Underwood born

1982 - Britain re-establishes its presence in the Falkland Islands after a two-hour assault by Royal Marines on the remote island of South Georgia.
1983 - The German magazine, Stern, publishes the first instalment of the controversial "Hitler Diaries", said to be written by the Führer himself.
2002 - Two teenage brothers are cleared of the murder of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor.

On This Day - 24th April

1815 - Anthony Trollope born
1930 - Amy Johnson becomes the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia
1934 - Shirley MacLaine born
1936 - Jill Ireland born
1942 - Barbra Streisand born
1945 - Doug Clifford born
1952 - Jean-Paul Gaultier born
1954 - 1954: British security forces round up more than 10,000 men in the biggest anti-Mau Mau operation since the state of emergency was declared in Kenya 18 months ago.

1967 - The Soviet Union has announced the catastrophic failure of its latest space mission, with the crash of Soyuz 1 and the death of cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov who was on board.
1972 - Chipper Jones born
1975 - A tense stand-off at the West German embassy in Stockholm has ended in violence, with the death of at least three people.

1982 - Britain suffess its first casualty in the Falklands campaign before a single shot has been fired. Petty Officer Kevin Stuart Casey is announced missing presumed drowned after the Sea King helicopter he was travelling in ditched into the sea. Also Kelly Clarkson born
1990 - The American space agency Nasa successfully launches the space shuttle Discovery from Cape Canaveral in Florida on its historic mission to carry the Hubble space telescope into orbit 380 miles (611.5 km) above the Earth.
1993 - A massive IRA bomb rips through the heart of the City of London, killing one and injuring more than 40.

On This Day - 23rd April

1564 - William Shakespeare born
1891 - Sergei Prokofiev born
1899 - Vladimir Nabokov born
1928 - Shirley Temple Black born
1936 - Roy Orbison born
1940 - Lee Majors born
1942 - Sandra Dee born
1949 - Joyce DeWitt born
1954 - Michael Moore born
1957 - Jan Hooks born
1960 - Craig Sheffer and Valerie Bertinelli born
1968 - The first decimal coins make their way into purses throughout Britain in preparation for replacing the current system of pounds, shillings and pence by 1971.
1970 - Scott Bairstow born
1979 - A 33-year-old man dies from head injuries after a bloody battle breaks out between police and demonstrators in Southall.
1984 - The discovery of a virus which may cause Aids, the fatal disease sweeping through America, is hailed as a "monumental breakthrough" in medical research.

1998 - James Earl Ray, the convicted killer of the black American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, dies in prison aged 70, still protesting his innocence.
2001 - Jane Andrews, aformer personal assistant to the Duchess of York goes on trial accused of murdering her boyfriend.
Jane Andrews
2005 - John Mill dies

On This Day - 22nd April

1870 - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin born
1908 - Eddie Albert born
1915 - The Germans use Poison gas for the first time in warfare
1916 - Yehudi Menuhin born
1928 - Aaron Spelling born
1936 - Glen Campbell born

1937 - Jack Nicholson born
1950 - Peter Frampton born
1959 - The world famous British ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn arrives in New York after spending 24 hours in a Panama City jail.

1971 - Dictator of Haiti Papa Doc Duvalier dies after 14 years in power
1978 - Kim Elizabeth born
1979 - Daniel Johns born
1980 - Thirteen leading officials of the ousted government in Liberia are publicly executed on the orders of the new military regime.
1997 - The four-month siege of the Japanese embassy in Peru ends in gunfire and explosions as troops storm in.
2000 - US federal agents seize six-year-old Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez in an early morning raid on the home of his relatives in Miami.

On This Day - 21st April

1619 - Jan van Riebeeck born
1729 - Catherine the Great born
1816 - Charlotte Bronte born
1838 - John Muir born
1910 - Aurthor Mark Twain dies

1915 - Anthony Quinn born
1926 - Elizabeth II born
1932 - Elaine May born
1935 - Charles Grodin born
1945 - Russian troops capture some outlying suburbs of Berlin at the beginning of what promises to be a bitter battle for control of the city.

1947 - Iggy Pop born
1951 - Tony Danza born
1955 - National newspapers are published for the first time in nearly a month following the end of the maintenance workers' strike.
1958 - Andie Macdowell born
1959 - Robert Smith born
1975 - The President of South Vietnam, Nguyen Van Thieu is forced to resign, accusing the United States of betrayal.
1987 - More than 100 people are killed and over 300 injured after a Tamil Tiger bomb explodes in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.
1994 - One of the Guildford Four, Paul Hill, wins his appeal against a conviction for an IRA murder in Northern Ireland.

On This Day - 20th April

1889 - Adolf Hitler born
1893 - Joan Miró and Harold Lloyd born
1908 - Lionel Hampton born
1924 - Nina Foch born
1940 - George Takei born
1941 - Ryan O'Neal born
1949 - Jessica Lange born
1953 - The US and Korea swap sick and wounded prisoners of war at Panmunjon.
1959 - Clint Howard born
1961 - Don Mattingly born
1968 - The Conservative right-winger Enoch Powell makes a hard-hitting speech attacking the government's immigration policy.

1972 - The Apollo 16 mission has landed on the Moon after a seven-hour crisis that nearly aborted the mission altogether. Also Carmen Electra born
1974 - The conflict in Northern Ireland claims its 1,000th victim, James Murphy a petrol station owner from County Fermanagh.

1976 - Joey Lawrence born
1999 - Two students, wearing balaclavas and trench coats, rampage through Columbine High School in Denver, Colorado, firing automatic weapons and throwing homemade bombs, leaving 15 dead.

On This Day - 19th April

1838 - The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is established
1881 - Lord Salisbury becomes Leader of the Tory Party
1906 - Pierre Curie killed
1925 - Hugh O'Brian born
1933 - Jayne Mansfield born
1935 - Dudley Moore born
1946 - Tim Curry born
1949 - Paloma Picasso born

1956 - Prince Rainier III of Monaco marries film actress Grace Kelly in a religious ceremony at the Cathedral of Monaco.
1962 - Al Unser born
1966 - Suge Knight born
1968 - Ashley Judd born
1970 - Luis Miguel Basteri born
1972 - The British army is largely cleared of blame for Bloody Sunday which ended in the deaths of 14 civilians in Northern Ireland.
1979 - Kate Hudson born
1981 - Hayden Christensen born
1987 - Maria Sharapova born

1993 - 77 people die in a fire at the besieged headquarters of the Branch Davidian sect near Waco, Texas.
1995 - A huge car bomb explodes at a government building in Oklahoma, killing 168 people, including 19 children, and injuring more than 500 others.
2001 - The world's biggest pharmaceutical companies back out of a landmark court battle over cheap anti-Aids drugs.
2005 - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected as the Pope, taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.

On This Day - 18th April

1857 - Clarence Darrow born
1882 - Leopold Stokowski born
1906 - San Francisco is destroyed by an earth quake
1913 - A diptheria serum is discovered
1946 - Hayley Mills born
1947 - James Woods born
1955 - Eminent scientist Dr Albert Einstein, who developed the theory of relativity, dies in hospital aged 76.

1956 - The British Chancellor Harold Macmillan unveils plans for a new state 'premium bond' saving scheme offering cash prizes instead of interest. Also Eric Roberts born
1960 - At least 60,000 demonstrators gather in Trafalgar Square to mark the end of the Aldermaston to London "ban the bomb" march

1963 - Conan O'Brien born
1967 - Maria Bello born
1976 - Melissa Joan Hart born
1978 - The US Senate narrowly back President Carter's controversial Panama Canal treaty.
1988 - A retired US car worker has been found guilty of Nazi war crimes. John Demjanjuk was sentenced to death but appealed. His conviction was quashed in 1993 by the Israeli Supreme Court, after evidence suggested that another Ukrainian was Ivan the Terrible.

1994 - The ethnic violence in Rwandan capital Kigali is spreading throughout the country, aid officials say.
1996 - Seventeen Greek tourists and an Egyptian tour guide are killed by gunmen in Cairo.

On This Day - 17th April

1894 - Nikita Khrushchev born
1918 - William Holden born
1923 - Harry Reasoner born
1945 - Buchenwald concentration camp liberated by Americans
1951 - The entire 75-strong crew of HM Submarine Affray are feared dead after going missing off the south coast of England. Also Olivia Hussey born
1961 - Reports from Cuba say an invasion force has landed on the island to try to overthrow the country's leader, Fidel Castro.
1967 - Liz Phair born
1969 - A 21-year-old woman, Bernadette Devlin, is voted in as Britain's youngest ever female MP and the country's third youngest ever.
1972 - Jennifer Garner born
1974 - Victoria Addams born
1984 - WPC Yvonne Fletcher is killed after shots were fired from the Libyan People's Bureau in central London.

1986 - John McCarthy is abducted on his way to the airport - three bodies, believed to be of British hostages, are also found.
1999 - An explosion outside a busy supermarket in Brixton, south London, injures at least 45 people.

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.