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1

• Every year - St David's Day, a National Celebration in the UK.

• 1565 - The city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is founded.

• 1904 - Big Band leader Glenn Miller is born.

• 1953 - Soviet leader Josef Stalin dies. Stalin is referenced in the song 'We Didn't Start the Fire' by Billy Joel.

• 1961 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy signs an executive order that establishes the US Peace Corps, whose purpose is to help people all over the world with American workers.

• 1969 - Dafydd Ieuan, drummer of the welsh band Super Furry Animals, is born in Bangor.

• 1973 - The Black September terrorist group kill three hostages at the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum. Another event mentioned in Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start the Fire'.

• 2007 - Riots break out in Denmark after 'squatters' are evicted from Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen.

2

• Every year - The Nordfriesland Wintermarathon begins in Germany. One memorable event in our 'Universal Sporting Calendar'.

• 672 - St Chad Venerable Bishop of Lichfield dies.

• 1951 - The pilot episode of I Love Lucy is recorded, inspired by Lucille Ball's hit radio show My Favourite Husband.

• 1953 - The Academy Awards - Oscars - are broadcast on television for the first time.

• 1960 - Elvis Presley sets foot in Britain for the first and only time when he alights from a US Military DC-7 which landed to refuel at Prestwick airport, Ayrshire.

• 1990 - Serge Gainsbourg, French Singer and Songwriter, dies.

• 1999 - Most revered British female vocalist of the 1960s Dusty Springfield dies from breast cancer.

• 2004 - Death of Mercedes McCambridge, American actress and Oscar winner, who is perhaps best known for providing the voice of the possessed child in The Exorcist.

• 2008 - In Armenia, police clash with civilians and eight people are killed following riots concerning the presidential election.

3

• Every year - The traditional date for the Pafos Marathon in Cyprus. Another entry in our Universal Sporting Calendar.

• Every year - The Japanese festival of Hina-Matsuri is held.

• 1461 - The Duke of York is officially proclaimed King Edward IV as a result of The First War of the Roses.

• 1875 - The first organised indoor game of ice hockey is played in Montreal, Canada, as recorded in The Montreal Gazette.

• 1943 - Over 170 people die in a terrifying crush as panic spreads through the crowds of people trying to enter Bethnal Green Station's bomb shelter in the East End of London. It was the deadliest civilian incident of World War II.

• 1969 - Apollo 9 is launched into earth orbit.

• 1988 - Uncovering an 11th Century chalk mine, a number 26 bus falls into a hole in Earlham Road, Norwich, UK.

• 2005 - Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly a plane around the world solo without any stops or refuelling - some 25,000 miles in 67 hours and two minutes.

4

• 1774 - The Orion Nebula is seen for the first time, by Sir William Herschel.

• 1793 - George Washington delivers, at only 135 words long, the shortest inaugural address ever given by an incumbent President of the USA.

• 1841 - William Henry Harrison is inaugurated as the 9th US President and delivers the longest inauguration speech ever.

• 1869 - Ulysses S Grant, former Union General during the American Civil War, is inaugurated as US President.

• 1890 - The Forth Rail Bridge is formally completed. It will become the world's most famous paint job, as legend has it that as the painters reach the end another team have to start again at the beginning.

• 1923 - Astronomer, TV Presenter and Author Sir Patrick Moore is born in the small village of Pinner, Middlesex, England.

• 1975 - Film legend Charlie Chaplin is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

• 1989 - A London rail disaster at Purley claims five deaths and 88 are people injured, when a train fails to stop at a red signal.

• 2007 - About 30,000 people in Estonia become the first in the world to vote via the Internet in a parliamentary election.

5

• 1133 - Birth of Henry II, King of England (1154-1189)

• 1936 - The 8th Academy Awards, presented at the Biltmore Bowl Nightclub, Hollywood, LA, saw Mutiny on the Bounty win Best Picture.

• 1936 - The Supermarine Spitfire has its maiden flight.

• 1943 - The Gloster Meteor, Britain's first operational military jet, has its maiden flight.

• 1953 - Composer Sergey Prokofiev dies, an event mentioned in Billy Joel's song 'We Didn't Start the Fire'.

• 1963 - Patsy Cline, the biggest-selling Country Music singer of her day dies in an air crash near Camden, Tennessee.

• 1998 - NASA says the Clementine probe orbiting the Moon has found enough water to support a human colony.

• 2002 - The reality TV show known for the most swearwords per minute, The Osbournes, is first aired.

6

• 1853 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata premieres in Venice.

• 1917 - King of the sexual innuendo and future star of the TV comedy Up Pompeii  Frankie Howerd is born.

• 1927 - Fritz Lang's Metropolis is released.

• 1943 - The Memphis Belle flies on her 14th mission, to Lorient, France, to target U-Boat Pens.

• 2005 - Tommy Vance, the British radio DJ, dies (born 1943).

7

• 321 - Roman emperor Constantine I decrees that Sunday is the day of rest in the empire.

• 1946 - At the 18th Academy Awards, held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, the Best Picture Oscar goes to The Lost Weekend, which also won Best Actor for its star Ray Milland. The Best Actress statuette went to Joan Crawford for Mildred Pierce.

• 2005 - Employment, first album of Leeds rock band Kaiser Chiefs, is released.

• 2007 - In the UK, the House of Commons votes to make the upper chamber, the House of Lords, 100 per cent elected.

8

• 1702 - William III dies, leaving his daughter Anne to become the fourth Queen of England.

• 1775 - Thomas Paine's 'African Slavery in America' is published - the first article in the USA to call for the emancipation of all slaves and abolition of slavery.

• 1978 - The radio series The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is first broadcast. Written by Douglas Adams, it's later adapted for television, book, stage play and novelty towel before being developed for a feature film (released 2005). It also inspires a community-driven online guide to Life, the Universe and Everything called h2g2.

• 1996 - Fargo is released, a film by Joel and Ethan Coen, starring William H Macy, Frances McDormand and Steve Buscemi. The film claims to be based on a true story, though it's actually entirely a work of fiction.

• 2007 - The English actor John Inman dies (born 1935).

9

• 1776 - Adam Smith's book The Wealth of Nations is published.

• 1902 - Gustav Mahler and Alma Mahler-Werfel are married in Vienna, only four months after their first meeting.

• 1965 - As part of the ongoing conflict in Vietnam, President LB Johnson authorises the use of Napalm, a petroleum-based substance mixed with a thickening agent into a gel that would burn continuously and sticks to anything it touches.

• 1974 - Japanese WWII soldier 2nd Lieutenant Hiroo Ononda finally surrenders after 29 years of a lonely guerilla campaign against the American army.

• 2006 - Liquid water is discovered on Saturn's sixth-largest moon, Enceladus.

10

• 1876 - The first successful telephone is invented by Alexander Graham Bell.

• 1880 - Members of the Salvation Army land in the USA and begin operations.

• 1959 - Tibetan Uprising Day.

• 2003 - Callers to the speaking clock in the UK are treated to the voice of comedian Lenny Henry as part of the bi-annual Comic Relief campaign.

• 2006 - The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives at the planet Mars.

11

• 1845 - In New Zealand, Māori chiefs Hone Heke and Kawiti lead 700 people to chop down the British flagpole and drive settlers out Kororareka because of breaches of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, begining The Flagstaff War.

• 1952 - Douglas Adams, author of The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is born.

• 2005 - Dave Allen, a classic stand-up comedian, dies in his sleep, aged 68.

• 2006 - Michelle Bachelet is inaugurated as Chile's first female president.

12

• 1894 - In Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA, Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time.

• 1922 - Jack Kerouac, considered one of the most influential American writers of the 20th Century, is born in Lowell, Massachusetts.

• 1955 - Charlie 'Bird' Parker, widely considered to be one of the most important and influential improvising jazz musicians, dies.

• 2005 - Tung Chee Hwa, the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong, steps down after his resignation is approved by the Chinese central government.

13

• 1733 - English Chemist Joseph Priestley is born in Birstall Fieldhead, near Leeds, Yorkshire.

• 1781 - William Herschel discovers Uranus.

• 1965 - A compilation of some of Elvis Presley's earliest songs, entitled Elvis for Everyone, tops the American Billboard chart for ten weeks.

• 1996 - 16 Children and their class teacher are killed in the Dunblane Massacre, 12 more children and two teachers are injured.

• 1998 - Episode 1 of the third and final series of Father Ted series airs on Channel 4.

• 2008 - Gold prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange reach $1,000 an ounce for the first time.

14

• 1757 - Having been found guilty of not having done his utmost at the battle of Menorca, Admiral Byng is executed by firing squad on the deck of HMS Monarch.

• 1889 - The German Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his 'Navigable Balloon'.

• 2002 - John Lennon's childhood home in Liverpool is bought by his widow Yoko Ono and donated to the National Trust. The house, at 251 Menlove Avenue, is where the late Beatle lived with his aunt Mimi and where many of his early hits were written.

• 2002 - Sixteen 'Falun Gong' practitioners, including four Swiss nationals, are arrested during a protest outside Beijing's liaison office. Police said they were causing an obstruction and refused to move away. 'Falun Gong' said the protest had been peaceful.

• 2005 - More than 1.1 million people take to the streets of Beirut to demonstrate against Syria's military presence, and against Lebanon's government, following the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

15

• Every year - The folks of Hinckley, Ohio celebrate the arrival of spring when the buzzards return from their winter stomping grounds in the southern United States.

• 44 BC - Julius Caesar is assassinated on the Ides of March.

• 1877 - The first Test cricket match begins between England and Australia.

• 1937 - Author HP Lovecraft dies.

• 1953 - World Contact Day was established.

• 1968 - Singer, songwriter and member of the Beatles  George Harrison releases a solo single entitled 'The Inner Light'.

• 1976 - Many people are killed in a London Underground IRA bombing on a Hammersmith & City line train just west of West Ham.

• 2004 - Scientists announce the discovery of 90377 Sedna - the farthest away object in the solar system.

16

• 1751 - James Madison, the fourth president of the USA, is born (d. 1836).

• 1968 - Members of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry US Army enter the village of My Lai in the South Vietnamese district of Son My on a 'search and destroy' mission. Over 450 villagers are killed in what became known as the My Lai Massacre.

• 1976 - Luckily nobody is badly hurt in a London Underground IRA bombing on a train reversing into the siding at Wood Green.

• 2006 - The United Nations General Assembly votes in favour of establishing the UN Human Rights Council.

17

• Every year - St Patrick's Day - a National Celebration in Ireland, and indeed everywhere in the world where Irish descendents can be found.

• 1901 - The showing of 71 Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris, France, 11 years after his death, creates a sensation.

• 1957 - Third President of the Philippines Ramón Magsaysay dies in an air crash on Mt Manunggal in Cebu.

• 1969 - President Nixon authorises 'Operation Menu', which involves secretly bombing locations within the borders of Cambodia.

• 1976 - Singer Stephen Gately is born. He would go on to be a member of the pop group Boyzone.

• 1995 - Ronnie Kray, one of the most notorious gangsters in the history of London's East End, dies (born 1933).

• 2007 - Jim Cronin, founder of the Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre in Dorset, UK, dies at the age of 55.

18

• 37 - The Roman senate annuls Tiberius' will and proclaims Caligula emperor.

• 1915 - In the Battle of Gallipoli (World War I), three battleships are sunk during a failed British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles.

• 1927 - John Kander, one half of the songwriting team Kander and Ebb, is born.

• 1960 - The last steam locomotive built in Britain, rolls out of Swindon works and is named Evening Star.

• 2007 - Bob Woolmer, the cricketer, coach and commentator, dies (born 1948).

19

• Every year - Las Fallas, the Great Fire Festival of Valencia, takes place.

• 1898 - Dr Charles West, pioneer of English pediatrics, dies in Paris, France.

• 1931 - Gambling is legalised in the US state of Nevada, home to Las Vegas.

• 1979 - English comedy actor, Richard Beckinsale, star of hit TV sitcoms 'Rising Damp' and 'Porridge', dies aged just 31.

• 1982 - Heavy Metal guitarist Randy Rhoads, member of Ozzy Osbourne's band, dies in a bizarre air crash.

• 2004 - A semi-trailer truck and a bus crash head-on in Äänekoski, Finland, killing 24 people and injuring 13.

20

• 1914 - The first international figure skating championship takes place in New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

• 1969 - John Lennon and Yoko Ono tie the knot in Gibraltar.

• 1974 - Ian Ball attempts to abduct Princess Anne.

• 1987 - Country Musician, Businessman and Bootlegger Kenneth Threadgill suffers a pulmonary embolism and passes away in Austin's Brackenridge Hospital.

• 2006 - 'Cyclone Larry' makes landfall in eastern Australia, destroying most of the country's banana crop.

21

• Most years - The Vernal Equinox. In some years it occurs on the 20th.

• 630 - Byzantine emperor Heraclius restores the 'True Cross' to Jerusalem.

• 1935 - Brian Clough, future English football manager, is born.

• 1960 - Formula 1 racing legend Ayrton Senna is born in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

• 1999 - The British comedian Ernie Wise dies (born 1925).

22

• Some years - The first date in March on which Easter Day can ever fall.

• 1829 - The three protecting powers (Britain, France and Russia) establish the borders of Greece.

• 1878 - The HMS Eurydice sinks off the coast of the Isle Of Wight.

• 1933 - Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp opens. Soon after, Anne Frank and her family flee Germany for neutral Holland.

• 2002 - Margaret Thatcher retires from public life.

• 2008 - The French swimmer Alain Bernard sets a world record of 47.50 seconds for the 100-metre freestyle long course after winning the European LC Championships.

23

• 1857 - Elisha Otis' first lift is installed at 488 Broadway, New York City, USA.

• 1917 - Irish Tenor Josef Locke is born in his family home in Creggan Terrace, Derry, Northern Ireland as one of nine children.

• 1923 - Pilot of the Bluebird Donald Campbell is born.

• 2007 - The Iranian navy seizes British Royal Navy personnel in Iranian waters.

24

• 1829 - The Catholic Relief Act is passed in the United Kingdom.

• 1832 - In Hiram, Ohio, USA, a group of men beat, tar and feather Mormon leader Joseph Smith Jr.

• 1918 - The SS War Knight is shipwrecked off the coast of the Isle of Wight.

• 1973 - The Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd's Iconic Album - is released.

• 2008 - Bhutan officially becomes a democracy with its first general election.

25

• 1199 - King Richard I of England is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting the French, leading to his death on April 6.

• 1807 - The Slave Trade Act becomes law, abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire.

• 1858 - St Bernadette sees her 16th vision of Our Lady at Lourdes.

• 1947 - Reginald Kenneth Dwight, better known as Elton John, is born in Pinner, Middlesex.

• 1957 - The 'Treaty of Rome', establishing the European Economic Community, is signed in Rome by Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

• 1977 - the last episode of Porridge, 'Final Stretch', is screened.

• 2006 - In the US, a gunman kills six people then takes his own life at a party in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.

26

• 1875 - Syngman Rhee, future President of the First Republic of Korea, is born.

• 1903 - Thomas Bates, patron of St Peter's Park, Little Eaton, dies.

• 1944 - One of the most successful female singers of the 1960s and 1970s and the first artist to sing live via satellite Diana Ross is born in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

• 1976 - Queen Elizabeth II of the UK sends her first email, from the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment.

• 1996 - The Spaceguard Foundation is officially set up to protect the Earth's environment against bombardment of objects of the solar system.

• 2006 - Scotland bans smoking in all substantially enclosed public places.

27

• 1309 - Pope Clement V excommunicates Venice and all its population.

• 1794 - President George Washington signs a significant bill in shipping during the Quasi-war Between the United States and France, 1797 - 1800.

• 1963 - The highly controversial Dr Beeching Report proposes massive cuts to Britain's railway network, with up to a quarter destined to go.

• 1963 - One of the world's foremost controversial independent film makers, Quentin Tarantino, is born in Knoxville, Tennessee.

• 1970 - Singer/Songwriter Mariah Carey is born in Long Island, New York.

• 2002 - Dudley Moore, the British musician, comedian and actor, dies (b. 1935).

• 2002 - Billy Wilder, the US film director, dies (born 1906).

• 2006 - The United Nations Commission on Human Rights holds its final meeting.

28

• China - Serfs Emancipation Day.

• 1860 - Esther Cox, famous for being haunted by a poltergeist, is born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada.

• 1969 - Former US President Dwight D Eisenhower dies.

• 1979 - Radioactive steam leaks into the atmosphere at Three Mile Island's nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.

• 2004 - The British actor Peter Ustinov dies (b. 1921).

• 2006 - At least 1 million people take to the streets of France in protest at a proposed law to make it easier for employers to fire people aged under 26.

29

• 1788 - Preacher and hymn-writer Charles Wesley dies.

• 1943 - Eric Idle, the British actor, writer, comedian and composer, is born.

• 1951 - The musical The King and I hits the stage for the first time. Another event mentioned in the song 'We Didn't Start the Fire'.

• 1959 - Barthélemy Boganda, Prime Minister of the newly-independent Central African Republic dies in an air crash when his Nord 2501 Noratlas airplane crashes in the jungle.

• 1964 - Radio Caroline is officially opened by controversial broadcaster Simon Dee.

• 1973 - The United States officially withdraw the last American troops from Vietnam. President Nixon announces that 'the day we have all worked and prayed for has finally come'.

• 2004 - Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants.

30

• United States - National Doctors' Day.

• 1858 - Hymen Lipman patents a pencil with an attached rubber.

• 1945 - Former member of the band Cream and one of the world's greatest guitar players Eric Clapton is born.

• 1981 - John Hinkley attempts to assassinate President Reagan in order to get the attention of actress Jodie Foster. Foster had starred in the film Taxi Driver five years earlier in which the central character planned to assassinate a presidential candidate. This is just one of the events mentioned in the song 'We Didn't Start the Fire'.

• 2001 - The first episode of the animated series Invader Zim is aired.

• 2002 - HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the 'Queen Mum', dies at the age of nearly 102.

• 2006 - Marcos Pontes becomes the first Brazilian astronaut in space.

31

• Malta - Freedom Day.

• 1811 - Robert Bunsen, one of the world's greatest and best-known scientists due to the eponymous Bunsen burner, is born.

• 1855 - Death of Charlotte Bronte, author of Jane Eyre.

• 1949 - The Dominion of Newfoundland becomes the 10th province of Canada.

• 1981 - At the 53rd Academy Awards, ordinary People won four Oscars, including one for Best Film and one for Best Director, which went to actor Robert Redford in his directorial debut. Best Actor went to Robert De Niro for Raging Bull.

• 1984 - Marvin Gaye, the Prince of soul, is shot at by his own father and dies instantly.

• 1993 - The US actor Brandon Lee dies on set while filming The Crow (born 1965).

• 1997 - The pre-school children's series Teletubbies is transmitted for the first time.

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