On This Day - 31st May

1819 - Walt Whitman born
1894 - Fred Allen born
1898 - Norman Vincent Peale born
1902 - The Boer War ends
1908 - Don Ameche born
1922 - Denholm Elliott born
1930 - Clint Eastwood born
1938 - Peter Yarrow born
1941 - Johnny Paycheck born
1943 - Joe Namath and Sharon Gless born
1948 - John Bonham born
1950 - Gregory Harrison born
1957 - US playwright Arthur Miller is convicted of contempt of Congress after refusing to reveal the names of alleged Communist writers
1961 - Lea Thompson born
1965 - Brooke Shields born

1966 - Nguyen Thi Can becomes the fifth Buddhist in three days to set fire to herself in protest against South Vietnam's regime.
1973 - The US Senate votes to cut off funds for the bombing of Cambodia despite pleas from Dr Henry Kissinger.
1976 - Colin Farrell born
1985 - The Football Association, supported by Margaret Thatcher, bans English clubs from playing in Europe following the Heysel stadium tragedy.

1998 - Geri Halliwell, aka Ginger Spice, leaves the Spice Girls.

On This Day - 30th May

1908 - Mel Blanc born
1909 - Benny Goodman born
1936 - Keir Dullea born
1939 - Michael J. Pollard born
1945 - Meredith MacRae born
1964 - Wynonna Judd born

1967 - The King of Jordan and President Abdel Nasser of Egypt sign a joint defence agreement in case of a conflict with Israel.
1972 - The Official IRA announces a ceasefire, but the Provisional IRA says it will continue fighting until the British leave Northern Ireland.

1981 - The president of Bangladesh, Zia Rahman, is assassinated in Chittagong in a coup attempt.
1990 - The French Government bans imports of British beef and live cattle because of fears over BSE or "mad cow" disease.

2001 - Former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas is sentenced to six months in prison over the country's biggest political scandal in recent history.

On This Day - 29th May

1874 - G.K. Chesterton born
1903 - Bob Hope born
1917 - John F. Kennedy born
1932 - Paul Erlich born
1939 - Al Unser born
1947 - Anthony Geary born
1953 - New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Also Danny Elfman born.
1956 - LaToya Jackson born
1958 - Annette Bening born
1959 - Adrian Paul born
1961 - Melissa Etheridge born
1967 - Noel Gallagher born

1968 - Manchester United become the first English club to win the European Cup beating Portuguese side Benfica by four goals to one.
1972 - Three Japanese gunmen open fire at Lod International Airport in Israel, killing 26 people and injuring dozens more.
1975 - Melanie Janine Brown born

1982 - Pope John Paul II visits Canterbury Cathedral, the first pontiff ever to do so.
1984 - Police use riot gear for the first time since the miners' strike began three before. Forming the biggest picket of the strike so far, at least 5,000 miners gathered outside Orgreave coking plant near Sheffield.

1985 - Thirty-nine Juventus fans are crushed to death during rioting at the European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus in Brussels.

On This Day - 28th May

1888 - Jim Thorpe born
1906 - Playright Henrik Ibsen dies
1908 - Ian Fleming born
1931 - Carroll Baker born
1937 - Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister
1944 - Gladys Knight born
1944 - Rudolph Giuliani born
1945 - John Fogerty born

1951 - Her Royal Highness, Princess Elizabeth, formally opens the Exhibition of Industrial Power in Glasgow
1959 - Two monkeys, 'Able and Baker' have become the first living creatures to survive a space flight.
1967 - Sir Francis Chichester has arrived in Plymouth tonight in his yacht, Gypsy Moth IV, after completing his epic single-handed voyage around the world. Also Glen Rice born

1968 - Kylie Minogue born
1974 - Northern Ireland's first power-sharing assembly collapses after its leader Brian Faulkner steps down faced with rising opposition.
1979 - Jesse Bradford born
1998 - Pakistan explodes five underground nuclear devices in response to India's recent nuclear tests.

On This Day - 27th May

1837 - Wild Bill Hickok born
1840 - Violinst Niccolo Paganini dies
1878 - Isadora Duncan born
1894 - Dashiell Hammett born
1911 - Hubert H. Humphrey and Vincent Price born
1912 - Sam Snead born
1922 - Christopher Lee born
1923 - Henry Kissinger born
1936 - Louis Gossett born
1955 - Anthony Eden's Conservatives win the general election with a clear majority, ending a five-year political stalemate.

1963 - Jomo Kenyatta is certain to become prime minister after his party, Kenya African Nation Union, won the country's first general election.
1964 - Jawaharlal Nehru, founder of modern India and its current prime minister, dies suddenly at the age of 74.
1964 - Adam Carolla born
1965 - Todd Bridges born
1969 - Jeremy Mayfield born
1970 - Joseph Fiennes born
1971 - Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes born
1975 - Andre 3000 born
1980 - The jury at the inquest of Blair Peach, the London teacher who died in a demonstration last year, returns a verdict of misadventure.

1994 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn flies back to his native Russia after 20 years living in exile.
2000 - Scottish farmers who accidentally planted genetically modified seeds say they will fight for compensation.

2011 - Actor Jeff Conaway (Kenickie in the film Grease) dies aged 60 following a drug induced coma.

On This Day - 26th May

1886 - Al Jolson born
1907 - John Wayne born
1908 - Robert Morley born
1913 - Peter Cushing born
1914 - Frankie Manning born
1919 - Jay Silverheels born
1920 - Peggy Lee born
1923 - James Arness born
1939 - Brent Musburger born
1948 - Stevie Nicks born
1949 - Pam Grier, Philip Michael Thomas and Hank Williams born
1950 - Long queues appear at garages this evening and motorists have torn their ration books into confetti after an end to petrol rationing is announced.
1951 - Sally Ride born
1964 - Lenny Kravitz born
1972 - State-owned travel firm Thomas Cook & Son is sold to a consortium of private businesses headed by the Midland Bank.

1981 - The entire Italian coalition cabinet under Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani steps down in the wake of a scandal over freemasonry.
1998 - Emperor Akihito of Japan speaks of his "pain" over the suffering inflicted by his country during World War II, but war veterans feel he does not go far enough.
2000 - The Hezbollah leader is greeted by thousands of supporters during a victory rally to celebrate the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon.

On This Day - 25th May

1803 - Ralph W. Emerson born
1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge is opened
1918 - Claude Akins born
1925 - Jeanne Crain born
1926 - Miles Davis born
1927 - Robert Ludlum born
1929 - Beverly Sills born
1934 - Composer Gustav Holst dies
1936 - Tom T. Hall born
1939 - Ian McKellen born
1943 - Leslie Uggams born
1944 - Frank Oz born
1955 - Connie Sellecca born
1961 - President John F Kennedy says the US will aim to put the first man on the Moon by the end of the decade.
1963 - Leaders of 32 African nations set up the' OAU' organisation that will give them a united voice for the first time in African history. Also Mike Myers born

1967 - Celtic become the first British team to win the European Cup, beating favourites Internazionale Milan 2-1.
1969 - Anne Heche born
1975 - Lauryn Hill born
1979 - The price of milk is to go up by more than 10% to 15p a pint - three times the price it was five years ago.
1982 - Dozens of men are feared dead in the seas around the Falkland Islands after the container ship Atlantic Conveyor and the destroyer HMS Coventry were hit by Argentine missiles.

1994 - The Camelot consortium wins the contract to run Britain's first national lottery starting in November.

On This Day - 24th May

1844 - Samual Morse demonstrates the first telegraph message
1938 - Tommy Chong born
1941 - Bob Dylan born
1943 - Gary Burghoff born
1944 - Patti LaBelle born
1945 - Priscilla Presley born
1955 - Rosanne Cash born
1963 - Joe Dumars born

1968 - The President of France, Charles de Gaulle, issues a 'back me or sack me' ultimatum to striking students and workers.
1975 - A group of 80 reporters and cameramen - including nine Britons - are allowed to fly out of Saigon.
1989 - A jury at the High Court in London awards £600,000 damages to Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, against the satirical magazine Private Eye.
1999 - Lawrence Dallaglio resigns as England's rugby union captain following newspaper allegations over hard drugs.
2001 - 23 people are killed and hundreds are injured at a wedding party in Jerusalem when a building collapses.

On This Day - 23rd May

1883 - Douglas Fairbanks born
1910 - Artie Shaw born
1910 - Scatman Crothers born
1920 - Helen O'Connell born
1928 - Rosemary Clooney born
1933 - Joan Collins born
1934 - Gangsters Bonnie and Clyde killed by police
1952 - Marvin Hagler born
1958 - Drew Carey and Mitch Albom born

1962 - A military court in Paris imposes a life sentence on Raoul Salan, leader of an extremist group violently opposed to Algerian independence.
1966 - The British government declares a state of emergency a week after the nation's seamen strike begins.

1974 - Jewel and Ken Jennings born
1976 - Kelly Monaco born
1977 - More than 100 children and six teachers are taken hostage in a primary school in northern Holland.
1984 - Sixteen people are left dead and dozens more injured in an explosion at the Abbeystead water treatment plant in Lancashire.
1998 - The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, welcomes the resounding "yes" vote in the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement on Northern Ireland calling it "a day for joy".

On This Day - 22nd May

1813 - Richard Wagner born
1844 - Mary Cassat born
1859 - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle born
1907 - Sir Laurence Olivier born
1934 - Peter Nero born
1938 - Susan Strasberg and Richard Benjamin born
1941 - Paul Winfield born
1959 - Morrissey born
1969 - The Apollo 10 mission sends a manned lunar module within eight miles of the Moon's surface in rehearsal for a summer Moon landing.
1970 - The Cricket Council reverses a decision to allow South African cricketers to tour England, a move welcomed by anti-apartheid activist Peter Hain. Also Naomi Campbell born

1972 - America's President Richard Nixon is given a modest welcome as he arrives in Moscow for talks with Soviet leaders.
1981 - Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper, is sentenced to life imprisonment after the judge describes him as "an unusually dangerous man".

2000 - Lebanese Hezbollah fighters split Israel's southern occupation zone into two as they approach the common border.
2011 - Former model and designer Suzanne Mizzi dies aged 43 from ovarian cancer.

On This Day - 21st May

1904 - Fats Waller born
1916 - Harold Robbins born
1917 - Dennis Day and Raymond Burr born
1923 - Stanley Baldwin becomes Prime Minister
1924 - Peggy Cass born

1927 - Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo flight across the Atlantic
1950 - Two people die and more are injured as violent storms and a tornado sweep through counties around London.
1958 - Trunk dialling heralds cheaper calls
1961 - Martial law is imposed in the town of Montgomery, Alabama, after violent racial clashes.

1966 - American Cassius Clay beats Britain's Henry Cooper in the sixth round at the Arsenal football ground, North London.
1972 - Notorious B.I.G. born
1974 - Fairuza Balk born
1991 - Rajiv Gandhi, the former Indian prime minister, is assassinated in a bomb attack in Tamil Nadu.
2011 - Bernard Hopkins, 46, becomes the oldest man to win a boxing world title when he defeated Canadian Jean Pascal by unanimous decision to claim the WBC and IBO light-heavyweight belts.

On This Day - 20th May

1900 - Relief of Mafeking
1908 - Jimmy Stewart born
1919 - George Gobel born
1936 - Anthony Zerbe born
1940 - Stan Mikita born
1944 - Joe Cocker born
1946 - Cher born
1958 - Citizens of the English town of High Wycombe witness a unique ceremony at which the mayor is weighed in public.
1959 - Bronson Pinchot born
1965 - Britain's police are to be armed with tear gas guns and grenades to be used against armed criminals or dangerous individuals.
1972 - Busta Rhymes born

1973 - Britain has sent in Royal Navy ships to protect trawlers in the disputed Icelandic 50-mile zone as the so-called "cod war" escalates.
1983 - 17 people are killed and 197 people injured in a car bomb explosion in South Africa's capital city, Pretoria.
2000 - The British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie celebrate the birth of their baby son who will be called Leo. He is the first child to be born to a serving British Prime Minister for more than 150 years and was named after Mr Blair's father.
2012 - 'Bee Gee' singer Robin Gibb dies aged 62 of liver and kidney failure.

On This Day - 19th May

1890 - Ho Chi Minh born
1898 - Former Prime Minister William Gladstone dies
1925 - Malcolm X born
1935 - T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) dies
1939 - James Fox born
1941 - Nora Ephron born

1945 - Pete Townshend born
1946 - Andre the Giant born
1951 - Joey Ramone born
1952 - Grace Jones born
1968 - Kyle Eastwood born
1974 - Valery Giscard d'Estaing is elected President of France, defeating socialist Francois Mitterrand.
1976 - Kevin Garnett born
1980 - 57 people die after the massive eruption of Mount St Helens volcano in Washington State, USA.
1986 - South African troops attack Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana bringing to an end diplomatic efforts to bring a peaceful end to apartheid.
1997 - The sponsorship of sports events by tobacco firms is to be outlawed, says Health Secretary Frank Dobson.
2004 - Security at the House of Commons comes under scrutiny after Fathers 4 Justice protesters attack the prime minister.

On This Day - 18th May

1897 - Frank Capra born
1911 - Composer Gustav Mahler dies
1912 - Perry Como born
1919 - Margot Fonteyn born
1920 - Pope John Paul II born
1930 - Pernell Roberts born
1931 - Robert Morse born
1934 - Dwayne Hickman born
1937 - Brooks Robinson born
1944 - British and Polish forces take control of Monte Cassino, the ancient Italian monastery that was a symbol of German resistance
1946 - Reggie Jackson born
1950 - Almost exactly a year after signing the North Atlantic Treaty, 12 nations have agreed a permanent organisation for the defence of the United States and Europe.
1952 - George Strait born
1955 - Chow Yun-Fat born

1964 - Scores of youths are given prison sentences following a Whitsun weekend of violent clashes between gangs of Mods and Rockers at a number of resorts on the south coast of England.
1970 - Tina Fey born

1972 - The Duke of Windsor was not well enough to attend tea with the Queen when she came to visit his home in Paris this afternoon.
1991 - Britain's first astronaut, 27-year-old Helen Sharman from Sheffield, has blasts into orbit. The Soviet Soyuz TM-12 space capsule made a textbook launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the Soviet republic of Kazakhstan at 1350 BST carrying Miss Sharman and fellow cosmonauts Anatoly Artebartsky and Sergei Krikalyov.