On This Day - 31st March

1596 - Rene Descartes born
1732 - Joseph Haydn born
1855 - Novelist Charlotte Bronte dies
1915 - Henry Morgan born
1925 - Leo Buscaglia born
1927 - César Chávez and William Daniels born
1928 - Gordie Howe born
1934 - Shirley Jones born
1935 - Richard Chamberlain and Herb Alpert born
1943 - Christopher Walken born
1945 - Gabe Kaplan born
1948 - Al Gore and Rhea Perlman born
1953 - More than 1,500 attend the funeral of Queen Mary at St George's Chapel in Windsor.
1959 - The spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, crosses the border into India after an epic 15-day journey on foot from the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, over the Himalayan mountains.

1966 - Harold Wilson and the Labour party win the general election with a landslide majority of 96 seats in the House of Commons.
1971 - Pavel Bure and Ewan McGregor born
1972 - More than 500 people attend a rally in London ahead of a four-day demonstration against nuclear arms.

1986 - Thousands of people take part in festivities to mark the historic final hours of 97 years of local rule in London, as the GLC is abolished
1990 - An anti-poll tax rally in central London erupts into the worst riots in the city for a century.

2001 - Footballer David 'Rocky' Rocastle dies of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, aged 33.

On This Day - 30th March

1853 - Vincent Van Gogh born
1856 - Crimean war ends
1913 - Frankie Laine born
1930 - John Astin, Rolf Harris and Peter Marshall born
1937 - Warren Beatty born
1940 - Astrud Gilberto born
1945 - Eric Clapton born
1951 - Julius Rosenberg, an American electrical engineer and his wife Ethel are found guilty by the Federal Court in New York of passing secrets about the atomic bomb to Russia.
1962 - M.C. Hammer born
1964 - Ian Ziering born
1968 - Celine Dion born
1976 - Matt Doran born
1978 - The Conservative Party recruits advertisers Saatchi & Saatchi to revamp its image and get its political message across ahead of the General Election.
1979 -
1979 - Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Airey Neave is killed by an IRA car bomb as he leaves the House of Commons car park. Also Norah Jones born
1981 - President Ronald Reagan is shot and wounded when lone gunman John Hinckley opens fire in Washington.
1983 - Scott Moffatt born
1992 - British Prime Minister John Major has mounted his soapbox to urge voters in Cheltenham to elect John Taylor as the first black Conservative MP.
2002 - The Queen Mother dies peacefully in her sleep aged 101.

On This Day - 29th March

1790 - 10th President of the U.S John Tyler born.
1867 - Cy Young born
1905 - Philip Ahn born
1918 - Sam Walton born
1918 - Pearl Bailey born
1943 - John Major born
1950 - Bud Cort born
1964 - Elle Macpherson born
1967 - The stricken oil supertanker, the Torrey Canyon, refuses to sink despite more than a day of heavy bombing by the RAF and the Royal Navy

1968 - Lucy Lawless born
1971 - Lieutenant William Calley is found guilty of murder at a court martial for his part in the My Lai massacre which claimed the lives of 500 South Vietnamese civilians. Also Charles Manson and three members of his hippy cult are sentenced to death in Los Angeles.

1976 - Jennifer Capriati born
1981 - Thousands of people jog through the normally quiet Sunday streets of the capital to try and cross the finish line of the first ever London marathon.
1982 - Hideaki Takizawa born
1999 - The case of James Hanratty is sent back to the Court of Appeal - 37 years after he was hanged for the notorious A6 murder in Bedfordshire.

On This Day - 28th March

1868 - Maxim Gorky born
1899 - August Anheuser Busch born
1921 - Dirk Bogarde born
1933 - The Reichstag burns down
1939 - Spanish Civil War ends
1941 - Author Virginia Woolf commits suicide
1943 - Composer Sergei Rachmaninov dies
1944 - Ken Howard born
1948 - Dianne Wiest born
1955 - Reba McEntire born

1965 - Martin Luther King leads protests to the steps of the state capital of Montgomery in Alabama.
1971 - Juliandra Gillen born
1979 - Radioactive steam leaks into the atmosphere at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania prompting fears for the safety of the plant's 500 workers. Also Prime Minister James Callaghan loses a parliamentary vote of confidence by a minority of one - forcing him to call an early general election.

1981 - Julia Stiles born
1983 - Ian Macgregor, leader of the British Steel Corporation is named as the new chairman of the National Coal Board.
1991 - A jury returns a verdict of accidental death at the end of the inquest of 95 Liverpool football fans crushed to death in Sheffield.

On This Day - 27th March

1899 - Gloria Swanson born
1921 - Harold Nicholas born
1924 - Sarah Vaughan born
1931 - David Janssen born
1942 - Michael York born
1963 - A far-reaching report giving the first full description of the state of the railways recommends the closure of large sections of the network. Also Quentin Tarantino born
1970 - Mariah Carey born
1977 - 583 people die when two jumbo jets collide on a runway in the popular holiday destination of Tenerife.

1980 - 123 oil rig workers die when the Alexander Kielland North Sea accommodation platform collapses during gales.
1989 - Russian voters have gone to the polls - with early indications that many Communist candidates have been rejected by the electorate.
1994 - The troubled European Fighter Aircraft makes its inaugural flight two years later than expected.

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.

On This Day - 19th March

1848 - Wyatt Earp born
1928 - Patrick McGoohan born
1930 - Former prime minister Arthir Balfour dies
1935 - Phyllis Newman born
1936 - Ursula Andress born
1947 - Glenn Close born
1955 - Bruce Willis born
1964 - Three new cities are proposed for south east England as part of the largest regional expansion plan in Britain as the population is expected to boom by three million.
1970 - Crowds of East Germans cheer West Germany's Chancellor Willy Brandt as he meets East Germany's leader Willi Stoph for the first time since the two countries were divided.
1976 - Buckingham Palace announces that Princess Margaret will separate from Lord Snowdon after 16 years of marriage.
1982 - A group of Argentines land on the island of St Georgia a dependancy of the British colony of the Falkland Islands in the south Atlantic and plant their nation's flag.
1992 - Buckingham Palace announces the Duke and Duchess of York are to separate due to irreconcilable differences.

2011 - Allied forces begin air strikes on Libya to enforce the new U.N. 'No Fly Zone' over the country. Also the Moon reaches it's closet perihelion (closets point)for almost 19 years.

On This Day - 18th March

1837 - Grover Cleveland born
1886 - Edward Everett Horton born
1926 - Peter Graves born
1927 - George Plimpton born
1932 - John Updike born and Sydney Harbour bridge opens
1936 - F.W. deKlerk born
1938 - Charlie Pride born
1941 - Wilson Pickett born
1950 - The Belgian government collapses over a referendum on the return from exile of King Leopold III. Also Brad Dourif born
1959 - Irene Cara born
1963 - Vanessa Williams born
1964 - Bonnie Blair born

1967 - The supertanker Torrey Canyon has run aground between Land's End and the Scilly Isles, leaking oil into the sea.
1970 - Queen Latifah born
1974 - Two Israeli soldiers are killed and three others injured along the Golan Heights.
1977 - Devin Lima born
1979 - Three die and eight are seriously injured in an explosion at the Golborne colliery in Lancashire.
1982 - Charges of gross indecency brought by Mary Whitehouse against a National Theatre director end today after intervention by the Attorney-General.
1992 - White South Africans back an overwhelming mandate for political reforms to end apartheid.

On This Day - 17th March

1895 - Shemp Howard born
1902 - Bobby Jones born
1918 - Mercedes McCambridge born
1919 - Nat King Cole born
1921 - The first birth control clinic is opened in Britain by Marie Stopes
1938 - Rudolf Nureyev born
1941 - Paul Kantner born
1944 - John Sebastian born
1949 - Patrick Duffy born
1951 - Kurt Russell born
1955 - Gary Sinise born
1957 - British European Airways withdraws 25 Viscount 701s in the wake of the fatal Manchester aircrash.
1960 - Arye Gross born
1964 - Rob Lowe born
1968 - More than 200 people are arrested after thousands clash in an anti-Vietnam war protest outside the United States embassy in London.
1972 - Mia Hamm born
1973 - Caroline Corr born
1978 - Thousands of Palestinian civilians flee a third day of Israeli attacks.
1984 - The 130th Boat Race is postponed less than an hour before it is due to start after the Cambridge vessel is involved in a collision.

1995 - Notorious gangland killer Ronnie Kray dies in hospital two days after he collapses in his ward at Broadmoor.
2001 - The £86m Eden Project attracted 7,000 visitors to its official opening, despite a protest by farmers who said it should not have opened because of the foot-and-mouth crisis.

On This Day - 16th March

1751 - 4th president of the U.S.A James Maddison is born. During his presidency he declared war on Britain in 1812 and got the Whitehouse burnt down for his troubles.
1906 - Henny Youngman born
1912 - Pat Nixon born
1917 - Czar Nicholes II or Russia abdicates
1926 - Jerry Lewis born
1940 - Bernardo Bertolucci born
1949 - Erik Estrada born
1953 - Marshal Josef Tito of Yugoslavia has arrived in Britain, the first Communist head of state to visit the country.
1963 - Kevin Tod Smith born

1976 - Harold Wilson, Labour leader for 13 years and Prime Minister for almost eight, announces his resignation to a shocked nation.
1978 - Former Italian premier Aldo Moro is kidnapped at gunpoint in Rome by a gang believed to be from the Red Brigade.
1988 - In the region of 5000 people, mainly women and children, are killed and up to 10,000 were injured when Saddam Hussain ordered a poison gas attack on a Kurdish town in Northern Iraq.
1988 - A gunman at the Milltown Cemetery in West Belfast kills three mourners and injures at least 50 people attending a funeral for IRA members shot dead in Gibraltar.

2001 - An 18-year-old woman, Claire Marsh is convicted of rape after she pinned down a victim during a horrific gang sex attack.

On This Day - 15th March

1767 - 7th US President Andrew Jackson born
1912 - Samuel "Lightnin'" Hopkins born
1913 - Macdonald Carey born
1916 - Harry James born
1935 - Judd Hirsch born
1940 - Phil Lesh born
1944 - Sly Stone born
1961 - Fabio born
1962- The Liberals get their first by-election victory for four years, seizing Orpington from the government.
1972 - Mark Hoppus born
1974 - Architect John Poulson has been jailed for five years for bribing public figures to win contracts.
1976 - The driver of a London Underground train is shot dead as he chases a gunman after a bomb exploded on his train.

1977 - Joe Hahn born
1981 - The passengers and crew of a Pakistan Airways plane held hostage for nearly two weeks have been released in Syria.
1983 - Sean Biggerstaff born
1990 - Iraqi authorities execute The Observer journalist Farzad Bazoft in Baghdad bringing strong condemnation from Britain.
2011 - Japan's fears of a nuclear meltdown are rising after a third explosion and fire at the quake-damaged Fukushima nuclear plant have led to radiation leaking from the facility. People living less than 20km from the complex, which is 250km (155 miles) north of Tokyo, have been told to leave the area. Japan is later hit by a further aftershock of magnitude 6.4.

2011 - British reggae star DJ Smiley Culture dies during a police drugs raid on his home in Surrey.