11th AUGUST
Thomas Betterton (b. 1635)
Joseph Nollekens (b. 1737)
Bertram Mills (b. 1873)
Hugh MacDiarmid (b. 1892)
Enid Blyton (b. 1897)
Sir Angus Wilson (b. 1913)
Alex Haley (b. 1921)
Ron Grainer (b. 1922)
Ronnie Dawson (b. 1939)
Ian Charleson (b. 1949)
Cardinal John Henry Newman (d. 1890)
Andrew Carnegie (d. 1919)
Edith Wharton (d. 1937)
Jackson Pollock (d. 1956)
Percy Mayfield (d. 1984)
Peter Cushing (d. 1994)
Phil Harris (d. 1995)
Kenneth Lo (d. 1995)
Rafael Kubelik (d. 1996)
Loretta Young (d. 2000)
Armada of 1,500 English ships sets sail, Plymouth, 1415
1st Ascot race meeting, 1711
Battle of Passero Cape, 1718
Penang ceded to UK, 1786
Sao Miguel village sinks in earthquakes, Azores, 1810
Bridge at Walton-on-Thames collapses, 1859
81 die in burning railway bridge collapse, Chatsworth IL, 1887
West Highland & North British Railway Co. launched, Glasgow-Fort William, 1894
Record 136_4°F recorded, San Luia Potosi, Mexico, 1933
1st federal prisoners arrive at Alcatraz, San Francisco Bay CA, 1934
Nazi stormtroopers stage mass demonstrations against Jews, Germany, 1935
Atlantic Charter signed by Churchill & Roosevelt, 1941
New Waterloo Bridge opened to traffic, 1942
Bouncing bomb, used in Dam Busters raid, patented by Barnes Wallis, 1942
Hussein Ibn Talal succeeds as King of Jordan, 1952
Freak weather introduces myxomatosis via mosquitos from France to UK, 1953
Chad becomes independent, 1960
Andrian G Nikolayev becomes 3rd Russian in space, Vostok III, 1962
Last steam train service ends, British Railways, 1968
2000 die in monsoons, Bangladesh, 1974
Government takes ownership of British Leyland, 1975
5000 die in dam burst, Manchu River, India, 1979
The Mall of America, biggest US shopping mall, opened, Bloomington MN, 1992
Salman Rushdie appears on stage with U2, Wembley, 1993
Prime minister of Japan expresses "profound remorse" for wartime atrocities, 1995
BP purchases Amoco for $49 billion, biggest foreign takeover of a US company, 1998
Total eclipse of the Sun (visible from Cornwall), 1999

12th AUGUST
Thomas Bewick (b. 1753)
George IV, King of Gt Britain (b. 1762)
Robert Southey (b. 1774)
John Cadbury (b. 1801)
Jacinto Benavente (b. 1866)
Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall (b. 1880)
Cecil B De Mille (b. 1881)
Erwin Schrodinger (b. 1887)
CEM Joad (b. 1891)
Leon Theremin (b. OS 1896)
Cantinflas (b. 1911)
Samuel Fuller (b. 1911)
Guy Gibson (b. 1918)
Percy Mayfield (b. 1920)
Fulton Mackay (b. 1922)
Ross McWhirter (b. 1925)
Norris McWhirter (b. 1925)
John Derek (b. 1926)
Porter Wagoner (b. 1927)
Buck Owens (b. 1929)
Richard (Pistol) Allen (b. 1932)
Geoff Hamilton (b. 1936)
Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt (d. BC 30)
Matthew Hopkins (d. 1647)
William Blake (d. 1827)
George Stephenson (d. 1848)
Erwin Schrodinger (d. 1887)
James Russell Lowell (d. 1891)
John Phillip Holland (d. 1914)
Arthur Griffith (d. 1922)
Leos Janácek (d. 1928)
Thomas Mann (d. 1955)
Ian Fleming (d. 1964)
Henry Fonda (d. 1982)
B Kliban (d. 1990)
John Cage (d. 1992)
Battle of Ascalon, 1099
Great Cause lawsuit to decide Scottish succession adjourned, Berwick, 1291
Indian War begins, New England, 1676
Titus Oates' Popish Plot made known to Charles II, 1678
Highland dress prohibited by Parliament, 1746
Duke of Wellington's troops enter Madrid, 1812
America's Cup for yachting inaugurated as 100 Guinea Cup, Isle of Wight, 1851
Sewing machine patented by Isaac Singer, 1851
Last quagga dies, Amsterdam Zoo, 1883
Edison makes 1st sound recording, of himself singing Mary Had A Little Lamb, 1877
US & Spain conclude armistice over Cuba, 1898
US formally annexes Hawaii, 1898
1st Model T Ford, the Tin Lizzie, produced, 1908
UK declares war on Austria-Hungary, 1914
PLUTO begins supplying petrol to allied forces in France, Shanklin, 1944
Big Ben loses 4½ mins when starlings perch on its minute hand, 1949
USSR 1st tests hydrogen bomb, Pacific, 1953
Ann Davidson 1st woman to sail solo across Atlantic, Miami, 1953
1st communications satellite, Echo I, launched, Cape Canaveral FL, 1960
Pete Best joins Beatles (then the Silver Beetles), 1960
Pavel R Popovich becomes 4th Russian in space, Vostok IV, 1962
Fleetwood Mac makes stage debut, National Blues and Jazz Festival, Windsor, 1967
Time Out 1st published, 1968
CS gas & rubber bullets 1st used by UK troops against mobs, Londonderry, 1970
Bob Dylan performs at Woody Guthrie Memorial Show, Hollywood Bowl CA, 1970
Enterprise space shuttle 1st tested, US, 1977
1st panda born in captivity, Mexico, 1980
IBM launches personal computer, US, 1981
520 die when Boeing 747 on domestic flight crashes into mountain, Japan, 1985
Woodstock 94, 2 More Days of Peace & Music, begins, Saugerties NY, 1994

13th AUGUST
William Caxton (b. 1422)
Johann Christoph Denner (b. 1655)
James Gillray (b. 1756)
Adelaide, Queen of William IV (b. 1792)
Lucy Stone (b. 1818)
Sir George Grove (b. 1820)
Annie Oakley (b. 1860)
Karl Liebknecht (b. 1871)
John Logie Baird (b. 1888)
Christopher RW Nevinson (b. 1889)
Jean Borotra (b. 1898)
Sir Alfred Hitchcock (b. 1899)
Felix Wankel (b. 1902)
Sir Basil Spence (b. 1907)
Archbishop Makarios III (b. 1913)
Melvin Frank (b. 1913)
Bernard Manning (b. 1930)
Rod Hull (b. 1935)
Gerard David (d. 1523)
Giambologna (d. 1608)
Jeremy Taylor (d. 1667)
Eugène Delacroix (d. 1863)
Sir John Everett Millais (d. 1896)
Florence Nightingale (d. 1910)
Octavia Hill (d. 1912)
Jules Massenet (d. 1912)
HG Wells (d. 1946)
King Curtis (d. 1971)
Henry Williamson (d. 1977)
Joe Tex (d. 1982)
Alison Hargreaves (d. 1995)
Jimmy Knapp (d. 2001)
Cortes takes Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), 1521
Fabricius discovers Mira, 1st variable star, 1596
Battle of Blenheim, South Germany, NS 1704
Dutch cede Cape of Good Hope to UK, 1814
Reciprocity Treaty between US and Hawaii ratified, 1876
Birkenhead becomes a borough, 1877
Coin-operated telephone patented, by William Gray, Hartford CT, 1889
US forces capture Manila, 1898
Sturmey-Archer 3-speed bicycle gearbox patented, 1901
1st New York taxi-cab service begins, 1907
13,000 die in flooding, China, 1924
Austin launch the 2-seater Opal model car, 1934
Al Capp's comic strip Li'l Abner makes debut, US, 1934
Japanese attack Shanghai, 1937
Walt Disney's Bambi premieres, Radio City Music Hall, New York NY, 1942
Big Mama Thornton records original version of Hound Dog, US, 1952
Work begins on Verrazano-Narrows Br, New York NY, 1959
Central African Republic becomes independent, 1960
1st two-way telephone conversation by satellite takes place using Echo 1, 1960
Brandenburg Gate between East/West Berlin sealed by East Germany, 1961
Peter Allen & John Walby are last UK inmates to be hung, Liverpool & Manchester, 1964
Jefferson Airplane play their 1st gig, The Matrix, San Francisco CA, 1965
Last US troops leave Vietnam, 1972
The Clash make debut at a club in London, 1976
Rights Of Way Act comes into being, 1990
Curtis Mayfield left paralyzed when hit by wind-blown lighting rig, Brooklyn NY, 1990
Dangerous Dogs Act comes into force, UK, 1991
Norden-Corfe Castle-Swanage steam railway reopened, Swanage Railway Trust, 1995
Steffi Graf announces retirement from tennis, 1999
119 die when Kursk submarine collides & sinks, Barent Sea, Severemorsk, 2000

14th AUGUST
Paolo Sarpi (b. 1552)
John Galsworthy (b. 1864)
Florrie Ford (b. 1876)
Horst P Horst (b. 1906)
Feliks Topolski (b. 1907)
Cardew Robinson (b. 1917)
Thomas Sheridan (d. 1788)
Sapper (Cyril McNeile) (d. 1937)
William Randolph Hearst (d. 1951)
Bertolt Brecht (d. 1956)
Big Bill Broonzy (d. 1958)
Gladys Presley (d. 1958)
Clifford Odets (d. 1963)
Leonard Woolf (d. 1969)
Jules Romains (d. 1972)
Oscar Levant (d. 1972)
Pierre Brasseur (d. 1972)
Victor Sylvester (d. 1978)
Dorothy Stratten (d. 1980)
Karl Böhm (d. 1981)
JB Priestley (d. 1984)
Gale Sondergaard (d. 1985)
Enzo Ferrari (d. 1988)
Roy Buchanan (d. 1988)
Elias Canetti (d. 1994)
Mary, Queen of Scots sets sail for Scotland, Calais, 1561
Falkland Islands discovered by Capt John Davis, 1592
French repulse William of Orange, Battle of Mons, 1678
Tristan da Cunha annexed to and garrisoned by UK, 1816
Battle of Aljubantta, 1835
Henry David Thoreau jailed for tax resistance, 1846
The Oregon Territory is established, US, 1848
Cologne (Köln) Cathedral (begun 1248) completed, 1880
Cetewayo, Zulu chief, received by Victoria, Osborne, 1882
France is 1st country to introduce vehicle registration plates, 1893
US Marines help in capture of Peking, 1900
1st international beauty contest held, Pier Hippodrome, Folkestone, 1908
Royal Edward sunk by U-boat, Aegean, 1915
China declares war on Germany and Austria, World War I, 1917
Little Entente formed between Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, 1920
Rin Tin Tin dies, 1932
Last execution, of a German spy, takes place, Tower of London, 1941
Japan surrenders unconditionally to Allies, ending World War II, 1945
Pakistan becomes independent of British rule, 1947
Bradman plays last innings, and is bowled out for a duck, Oval, 1948
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Elvis Presley formed, US, 1956
Ringo Starr joins the Beatles, 1962
University of Strathclyde constituted, 1964
Radio London ceases to broadcast when Marine Offences Bill introduced, 1967
1st UK troops moved into Northern Ireland, 1969
Police found guilty of racism by Community Relations Commisson, UK, 1970
Turkish troops attack Nicosia, 1974
15 sailors die in Force 10 gales, Fastnet Race, 1979
Longest lasting rainbow on record shines for over 3 hours, Gwynedd-Clwyd, 1979
IBM launches PC AT computer with 80286 processor, US, 1984
FW de Klerk succeeds Botha, S Africa, 1989
13 die in worst hot-air balloon disaster, Alice Springs, Australia, 1989
1st UK sighting of a soft-plumaged petrel, near Penzance, 1989
Gull Rock handed over to National Trust, S Cornwall, 1989
1st car-carrying catamaran cross-channel ferry service begins, Portsmouth, 1990
Carlos the Jackal arrested by Sudanese security agents, Khartoum, 1994
Comet Swift-Tuttle passes near enough to Earth to collide with it, 2126

15th AUGUST
Luigi Pulci (b. 1432)
Agostino Carracci (b. 1557)
Jeremy Taylor (b. 1613)
Napoleon Bonaparte (b. 1769)
Sir Walter Scott (b. 1771)
Thomas de Quincey (b. 1785)
Baron Richard von Krafft-Ebing (b. 1840)
Walter Crane (b. 1845)
Keir Hardy (b. 1856)
Edith Nesbit (b. 1858)
Mikao Usui (b. 1865)
Sri Aurobindo (b. 1872)
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (b. 1875)
Ethel Barrymore (b. 1879)
Sir Montague Burton (b. 1885)
Jacques Ibert (b. 1890)
Louis Duc De Broglie (b. 1892)
Ned Washington (b. 1901)
Winfred Vaughan Thomas (b. 1907)
Ernst Schumacher (b. 1911)
Buster Brown (b. 1911)
Dame Wendy Hiller (b. 1912)
Jack Lynch (b. 1917)
Robert Bolt (b. 1924)
Oscar Peterson (b. 1925)
Jackie Brenston (b. 1930)
Rita Hunter (b. 1933)
Bobby Byrd (b. 1934)
Gianfranco Ferré (b. 1944)
Roland (d. 778)
Macbeth, King of Scotland (d. 1057)
Robert de Sorbon (d. 1274)
Philippa of Hainault (d. 1369)
Joseph Joachim (d. 1907)
Paul Signac (d. 1935)
Artur Schnabel (d. 1951)
René Magritte (d. 1967)
Patrick Magee (d. 1982)
Norman Petty (d. 1984)
John Trevalyn (d. 1986)
Sir Hugh Casson (d. 1999)
Joseph Cooper (d. 2001)
Idi Amin (d. 2003)
Jerry Wexler (d. 2008)
Berlin founded, 1237
Duke of Bedford destroys nearly 500 French ships, Harfleur, 1416
Loyola founds Jesuit order, Paris, 1534
Battle of Kilsyth, 1645
Charles II's pleasure boat Mary is 1st yacht to sail English waters, 1660
Battle of Nova Ligure, 1799
Tivoli Pleasure Gardens opened, Copenhagen, 1843
Bryant and May acquire UK rights to manufacture safety matches, 1855
1st Parliamentary election held by secret ballot, Pontefract, 1877
Joseph Pulitzer announces Pulitzer Prize, 1903
SS Ancon is 1st ship to pass through Panama Canal, 1914
Lenth of cars limited to 27' 6", UK, 1927
The Wizard Of Oz premiered, Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood CA, 1939
South Korea liberated from Japanese rule, 1945
Hostilities end in Far East, VJ Day, 1945
India & Pakistan become independent, 1947
Republic of (South) Korea proclaimed, 1948
38 killed by boulders during flooding, Lynton & Lynmouth, 1952
French Congo becomes independent, 1960
1st UK motorway restaurant opened, M1, Newport Pagnell, 1960
Woodstock Music and Arts Fayre begins, attended by 300-450,000, Bethel NY, 1969
Bahrain becomes independent, 1971
Harvey Smith makes V-sign at judges, British Showjumping Championships, 1971
Paul Simon marries Carrie Fisher, US, 1983
Virgin Atlantic Challenger sinks 100m from destination, 1985
Caning banned, except in independent schools, UK, 1987
1st UK EEC passports issued, Glasgow, 1988
Linford Christie completes grand slam of championship wins in 100m, Stuttgart, 1993
29 die and 370 injured in car bombing, Omagh, Northern Ireland, 1998
1st known extra-solar system, 2 planets orbiting star in Big Dipper, announced, 2001

16th AUGUST
Catherine Trotter (b. 1679)
Jules Laforgue (b. 1860)
TE Lawrence (b. 1888)
Roy Firebrace (b. 1889)
Tina Modotti (b. 1896)
Georgette Heyer (b. 1902)
Ernst Schumacher (b. 1911)
Menechem Begin (b. 1913)
Charles Bukowski (b. 1920)
Ted Hughes (b. 1930)
Margaret of Scotland, Queen of Louis XI (d. 1445)
Andrew Marvell (d. 1678)
Jakob Bernoulli (d. 1705)
Ramakrishna Paramahasa (d. 1886)
Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (d. 1899)
Umberto Boccioni (d. 1916)
Sir Norman Lockyer (d. 1920)
Robert Johnson (d. 1937)
Babe Ruth (d. 1948)
Margaret Mitchell (d. 1949)
Douglas Hogg, Lord Hailsham (d. 1950)
Bela Lugosi (d. 1956)
Elvis Presley (d. 1977)
Stewart Granger (d. 1993)
Peter Noble (d. 1997)
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (d. 1997)
Max Roach (d. 2007)
Norman Whitfield (d. 2008)
Ronnie Drew (d. 2008)
Battle of the Spurs, 1513
Jack Broughton formulates 1st prize-ring code of boxing, 1743
Jesuits expelled from Rome, 1773
Battle of Bennington, 1777
Battle of Camden, New Jersey, 1780
Battle of Smolensk begins, 1812
Detroit falls to British and Indian forces, War Of 1812, 1812
Peterloo Massacre, St Peter's Field, Manchester, 1819
Trial of Queen Caroline for adultery begins, 1820
Republic of Bolivia proclaimed, 1825
Battle of Tchernaya, 1855
1st paid-for telegraph, "Go to Chicago", sent by John Cash, London-New York, 1858
Tate Gallery opened, Pimlico, 1897
1st Post Office franking machine licence issued, to Prudential Assurance, 1922
Chaplin's The Gold Rush premiered, US, 1925
William Beebe descends 3028 ft in bathysphere, nr Bermuda, 1934
Liberation of Allied prisoners of war begins, 1945
Thunderstorms & floods in Somerset, Devon & Cornwall, 1952
Cyprus becomes an independent republic with Makarios as 1st president, 1960
Brian Epstein tells Pete Best he is no longer the Beatles' drummer, 1962
Jimi Hendrix debuts his version of Star Spangled Banner, Columbia MD, 1967
Madonna and Sean Penn marry, Malibu, 1985
156 die when Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes on take off, Detroit MI, 1987
New Agers celebrate "harmonic convergence" worldwide, 1987
Nigel Mansell becomes Formula 1 world drivers' champion, 1992
40,000 die in earthquake centred on Izmit, Turkey, 1999

17th AUGUST
Richard, Duke of York (b. 1472)
Thomas Stothard (b. 1755)
John Varley (b. 1778)
Davy Crockett (b. 1786)
Viktoria, Princess of Saxe-Coburg (b. 1786)
Wilfrid Blunt (b. 1840)
Alice Meynell (b. 1847)
Marcus Garvey (b. 1887)
Mae West (b. 1892)
George Melly (b. 1926)
Luther Allison (b. 1939)
David Koresh (b. 1959)
John Gower (d. 1408)
Richard, Duke of York (d. 1483)
Edward V (d. 1483)
Frederick the Great (d. 1786)
Honoré de Balzac (d. 1850)
Ole Bull (d. 1880)
Fernand Léger (d. 1955)
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (d. 1969)
Conrad Aiken (d. 1973)
Paul Williams (d. 1973)
Ira Gershwin (d. 1983)
Clarence Brown (d. 1987)
Rudolf Hess (d. 1987)
Harry Corbett (d. 1989)
Pearl Bailey (d. 1990)
Rick Griffin (d. 1991)
Luther Allison (d. 1997)
Lord (William) Deedes (d. 2007)
Battle of Verneuil, 1424
Reformation established, UK, 1560
Battle of Preston, 1648
Samuel Pepys acquires earliest recorded glass-fronted bookcase, 1666
1st practical steamboat trip completed by Robert Rilton in Clermont, Albany, 1807
Sioux Indian rebellion, Minnesota, 1862
French Panama Canal Co. established, 1879
Gold discovered, Bonanza Creek, Klondike R, Yukon, 1896
Bridget Driscoll becomes 1st pedestrian to be killed by a car, Croydon, 1896
General rail strike begins, UK, 1911
1st "All US" air raid against European target, 1942
Allies liberate Sicily, 1943
Indonesia proclaimed independent republic, 1945
Beatles play 1st gig outside UK, Indra Club, Hamburg, 1960
Work begins on East & West Berlin Wall, 1961
248 die when Hurricane Camille hits Gulf Coast, 1969
Over 6,000 die in earthquakes, Philippines, 1976
Double Eagle II completes 1st successful balloon crossing of Atlantic, Normandy, 1978
Rainforest Information Centre founded, Australia, 1979
Richard Hart becomes 1st electronically-tabbed suspect, UK, 1989
Russia devalues the ruble, 1998
Nick Bateman discovered cheating on Big Brother, London, C4, 2000
Flash floods decimate Boscastle, 2004

18th AUGUST
Antonio Salieri (b. 1750)
Meriwether Lewis (b. 1774)
Lord (John) Russell (b. 1792)
Otto Harbach (b. 1873)
Marcel Carné (b. 1906)
Elsa Morante (b. 1912)
Dame Moura Lympany (b. 1916)
Caspar Weinberger (b. 1917)
Shelley Winters (b. 1920)
Alain Robbe-Grillet (b. 1922)
Sonny Til (b. 1928)
William Rushton (b. 1937)
Carl Wayne (b. 1944)
Genghis Khan (d. 1227)
Guido Reni (d. 1642)
Matthew Boulton (d. 1809)
André Garnerin (d. 1823)
WH Hudson (d. 1922)
Walter Chrysler (d. 1940)
Anita Loos (d. 1981)
Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (d. 1983)
Sir Frederick Ashton (d. 1988)
John Sturges (d. 1992)
Elmer Bernstein (d. 2004)
Virginia Dare becomes 1st American child born of English parents, 1587
Battle of Lagos, 1759
Battle of Smolensk ends, 1812
Freud's mother born, 1835
American Society of Dental Surgeons was founded, 1840
US forces captures Santa Fé, 1846
Asaph Hall discovers Deimos & Phobos, Mars' moons, Washington, 1877
Starting-gates 1st used at Ascot Racecourse, Victoria, 1893
1st UK commercial orchestral recording, Sousa's Washington Post March, released, 1898
Official Secrets Act 1st passed in UK, 1911
Woodrow Wilson proclaims US neutrality in First World War, 1914
1st television picture broadcast, Arlington VA-Washington DC, 1926
Pluto 1st appears, in Chain Gang, 1930
Jim Mollison begins 1st westbound solo transatlantic flight, Portmarnock, 1932
Lores Bonney becomes 1st pilot to fly Australia-South Africa, 1937
1st FM radio construction permit issued, to W1X0J, later WGTR, Boston MA, 1837
National Fire Service established, UK, 1941
Lester Piggott (12) rides 1st winner, at his seventh ride, 1948
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 1st published, 1958
BMC Mini launched, 1959
1st photograph bounced off a satellite, Cedar Rapids IA, 1960
Searle Drug Co launch 1st oral contraceptive pills, US, 1960
South Africans banned from Olympics, 1964
David Bailey marries Catherine Deneuve, St Paul, 1965
Tay Road Bridge opened, 1966
Queen Mary sold to Long Beach CA, 1967
Jimi Hendrix plays at the Woodstock festival, 1969
130,000 mourn Elvis Presley at his funeral, 1977
22 die and $1 billion damage caused when Hurricane Alicia hits coast, Texas, 1983
Figures show sheep outnumber people 3 to 1 in Wales, 1989
Swaminanayan Hindu Temple opened, Neasden, 1995

19th AUGUST
James Crichton (b. 1560)
Elizabeth of Bohemia, Queen of Frederick V (b. 1596)
Jan Fyt (b. 1609)
John Flamsteed (b. 1646)
Samuel Richardson (bapt. 1689)
James Nasmyth (b. 1808)
Bernard Baruch (b. 1870)
Orville Wright (b. 1871)
Georges Enesco (b. 1881)
Coco Chanel (b. 1883)
Sir Arthur Waley (b. 1889)
Elsie Waters (b. 1894)
Ogden Nash (b. 1902)
Arthur Calder-Marshall (b. 1908)
Quentin Bell (b. 1910)
Gene Roddenberry (b. 1921)
Joseph di Mambro (b. 1924)
Bernard Levin (b. 1928)
Augustus Caesar (d. 14)
Andrea Palladio (d. 1580)
Blaise Pascal (d. 1662)
James Watt (d. 1819)
John Wesley Hardin (d. 1895)
Sergei Diaghilev (d. 1929)
Federico Garcia Lorca (d. 1936)
Sir Henry Wood (d. 1944)
Subhas Chandra Bose (d. 1945)
Alastair Sim (d. 1976)
Groucho Marx (d. 1977)
Dorsey Burnette (d. 1979)
Jessie Matthews (d. 1981)
Michael Ryan (d. 1987)
Linus Pauling (d. 1994)
Betty Everett (d. 2001)
Mo Mowlam (d. 2005)
Joseph Hill (d. 2006)
Coronation of Edward I, 1274
Mary, Queen of Scots, returns to Scotland from France, Leith, 1561
Bonnie Prince Charlie claims UK throne, Glenfinnan, 1745
France and Spain form an alliance against UK, 1796
USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) defeats Guerriere, Nova Scotia, War Of 1812, 1812
Canada Co. chartered to colonize Upper Canada (Ontario), 1826
Louis Daguerre reveals his photographic print process, 1839
Berlin Opera House destroyed by fire, 1843
200 die in whirlwind, Rouen, 1845
Passport system introduced, US, 1861
1st taxi cab service (London Electric Cab Co.) starts, East End & City, 1897
Jim Mollison completes 1st westbound solo transatlantic flight, Pennfield NB, 1932
Hitler awarded sole power by plebescite, Germany, 1934
UK forces driven out of Somaliland, 1940
Raid on Dieppe by UK and Canadian commandos, Operation Jubilee, 1942
1st US offensive in Pacific, Guadalcanal, Solomon Island, 1942
SF Junkin is 1st US pilot to shoot down German fighter plane, 1942
Day of Thanksgiving, UK, 1945
2000 die in earthquake, Turkey, 1966
1st night of Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly, Lafayette, Wolverhampton, 1977
Michael Ryan shoots 16 people and himself dead, Hungerford, 1987
Tadeuz Mazowiecke elected Solidarity prime minister, Poland, 1989
150 tons of crude oil spill into Mersey estuary from Shell pipeline, 1989
Hard-line coup deposing Gorbachev launched, Moscow, 1991
Woody Allen admits to affair with Soo-Lin, his wife's adopted daughter, 1992
Sally Gunnell runs 400m hurdles in record 52_74 secs, Stuttgart, 1993
Graeme Obree breaks world record to become world pursuit champion, Hamar, 1994
Google floats on stock exchange, US, 2004

20th AUGUST
Benjamin Harrison (b. 1833)
HP Lovecraft (b. 1890)
Jack Teagarden (b. 1905)
Bunny Austin (b. 1906)
Jim Reeves (b. 1924)
Yootha Joyce (b. 1927)
Jacqueline Susann (b. 1931)
Slobodan Milosevic (b. 1941)
Isaac Hayes (b. 1943)
Rajiv Gandhi (b. 1944)
Phil Lynott (b. 1949)
Darrell (Dimebag) Abbott (b. 1966)
Johan de Witt (d. 1672)
Friedrich Schelling (d. 1854)
Jules Laforgue (d. 1887)
William Booth (d. 1912)
Leon Trotsky (d. 1940)
George Jackson (d. 1971)
Hermione Baddeley (d. 1986)
Thad Jones (d. 1986)
Vitus Jonas Bering discovers Alaska, 1791
1812 Overture 1st performed, Cathedral of the Redeemer, Kremlin, 1882
Electric drill patented, Australia, 1889
Lord Chamberlain's power to censor stage plays challenged, 1909
Harry Brearley casts 1st stainless steel, Sheffield, 1913
German army occupies Brussels, 1914
Italy declares war on Turkey, 1915
1st demonstration of home reception of television by Dumont, New York NY, 1930
Discovery of vitamin E announced by scientists, University of California, 1935
Bo Diddley makes debut, Apollo Theatre, New York NY, 1955
HA Hanes is 1st pilot to exceed 1,800 mph, Palmdale CA, 1955
1st large-scale nuclear power station begins generating, Calder Hall, 1956
Senegal becomes independent, 1960
1st plastic carrier bag introduced, Sweden, 1960
Television news read by a woman for 1st time, Wales, 1963
Soviet troops march into Czechoslovakia, 1968
Beatles perform together for last time, recording I Want You, Abbey Rd, London, 1969
Wattstax festival takes place, Watts, Los Angeles CA, 1972
Viking 1 launched, 1975
Voyager 1 launched, 1977
Reinhold Messner 1st to climb Everest solo, 1980
Amstrad PCW 8256 launched, UK, 1985
1600 die in India/Nepal earthquake, 1988
United Nations cease-fire in the Gulf begins, 1988
The Sundays' performance at The Falcon leads to their discovery, London, 1988
56 die when Marchioness is struck by Thames sand dredger, Southwark Br, 1989
Jamie Reeves from Sheffield wins Strongest Man In World title, Spain, 1989
Daily Mirror publishes topless pictures of Duchess of York, 1992
Colin Jackson runs 110m hurdles in record 12_91 secs, Stuttgart, 1993
Zoë Ball and Norman Cook marry, Bath, 1999

Last updated: April 09, 2009