1st DECEMBER
Man With The Iron Mask (b. 1640)
John Keill (b. 1671)
Marie Tussaud (b. 1761)
Alexandra, Queen Consort of Edward VII (b. 1844)
Ernst Toller (b. 1893)
Henry Williamson (b. 1895)
Eileen Agar (b. 1899)
Dame Alicia Markova (b. 1910)
Margaret, Duchess of Argyll (b. 1912)
Mary Martin (b. 1913)
Matt Munro (b. 1930)
Lou Rawls (b. 1935)
Richard Pryor (b. 1940)
Pablo Escobar (b. 1949)
Jaco Pastorius (b. 1951)
Henry I, King of England (d. OS 1135)
Mary of Gueldres, Queen of James II of Scotland (d. OS 1463)
Leo X (d. OS 1521)
St Edmund Campion (d. OS 1581)
Susannah Centlivre (d. OS 1723)
Ebenezer Elliott (d. 1849)
Sergei Kirov (d. 1934)
Samuel Courtauld (d. 1947)
Magic Sam (d. 1969)
David Ben-Gurion (d. 1973)
Stéphane Grapelli (d. 1997)
Mary Hayley Bell (d. 2005)
Anton Rodgers (d. 2007)
Sir Francis Drake introduces potato to UK, 1586
Portugal becomes independent of Spain, 1640
Samuel Pepys marries Elizabeth St Michel, St Margaret's, Westminster, 1655
Jacques Charles leads 1st ascent in hydrogen-filled balloon, Paris-Nesles, 1783
Sweeney Todd's 1st murder, in Hyde Park Corner, reported in The Annual Register, 1784
Dominican Republic set up, 1821
Disc brakes patented by Lanchester car company, 1902
Cinema Omnia Pathé, 1st purpose built picture palace, opened, Paris, 1906
Pennsylvania Trust is 1st US bank to offer a Christmas Club account, Carlisle PA, 1909
1st drive-in automobile service station opened, Pittsburgh PA, 1913
Lady Astor becomes 1st woman MP to take her seat in the Commons, 1919
1st helium-filled balloon floats from Virginia-Washington DC, 1921
Locarno Pact signed, London, 1925
Tate Gallery reassumes original name, 1932
Stalin's great purge begins, 1934
Premiere of Gone With The Wind, New York NY, 1939
Points rationing introduced in UK, 1941
Beveridge report on Social Security published, 1942
George Jorgensen becomes 1st person to have sex change operation, Denmark, 1952
Playboy 1st published, with Marilyn Monroe centrefold, 1953
Rosa Parks arrested for not giving up her bus seat to a white man, Montgomery AL, 1955
1st colour photographs of Earth from outer space taken, 1959
Antarctic treaty signed, 1959
Hurricane winds across UK, 1966
Christmas stamps 1st issued, UK, 1966
Isaac Newton telescope inaugurated, Royal Greenwich Observatory, 1967
Sex Pistols swear during Bill Grundy TV interview on Thames Today, 1976
Nadia Comaneci defects from Romania to US, 1989
Gorbachev meets Pope John Paul II, Vatican, 1989
UK & French engineers exchange flags as Channel Tunnel halves are linked, 1990
1st UK personal telephone number service launched by Flextel, 1993
Vicente Fox sworn in as president of Mexico, 2000

2nd DECEMBER
Georges Seurat (b. 1859)
Ruth Draper (b. 1884)
Sir John Barbirolli (b. 1899)
Peter Carl Goldmark (b. 1906)
Adolph Green (b. 1915)
Randolph A Hearst (b. 1915)
Jon Silkin (b. 1930)
Gianni Versace (b. 1946)
Hernán Cortéz (d. 1547)
Gerhardus Mercator (d. 1594)
Richard Topcliffe (d. 1604)
Pierre Puget (d. 1694)
Johann Agricola (d. 1774)
Marquis de Sade (d. 1814)
Adelaide, Queen Consort of William IV (d. 1849)
Amelia Opie (d. 1853)
John Brown (d. 1859)
Jenny Marx (d. 1881)
Albert Ammons (d. 1949)
Cow-Cow Davenport (d. 1955)
Stephen Potter (d. 1969)
Philip Larkin (d. 1985)
Lee Dorsey (d. 1986)
Desi Arnaz (d. 1986)
Aaron Copland (d. 1990)
Pablo Escobar (d. 1993)
Big Daddy (d. 1997)
Charlie Byrd (d. 1999)
Dame Alicia Markova (d. 2004)
Kevin Coyne (d. 2004)
Rebuilt St Paul's Cathedral formally opened, 1697
Napoleon crowned Emperor by Pope, Paris, 1804
Napoleon I defeats Austrian-Russian Army, Battle of Austerlitz, Moravia, 1805
Birkbeck College (University of London) founded, 1823
Proclamation of 2nd French Empire, 1852
Gaiety Theatre closed, 1866
Dickens gives 1st United States public reading, New York NY, 1867
Gelignite patented by Alfred Noble, 1875
King Camp Gillette begins to market 1st safety razor, 1901
Ford Model A goes on sale as successor to Model T, 1927
1st 20 public telephone kiosks come into service, UK, 1929
Bing Crosby and Bob Hope 1st appear together, Paramount Th, US, 1932
La Guardia Airport begins operations, New York NY, 1939
Fermi and Compton produce 1st nuclear chain reaction, University of Chicago, 1942
1st human birth televised, Denver CO, 1952
Joseph McCarthy condemned by US Senate, 1954
400 die when Malpasset Dam bursts, Frejus, 1959
United Arab Emirates formed from sheikhdoms, Persian Gulf, 1971
1st permanent artificial heart implanted, Salt Lake City UT, 1982
Benazir Bhutto sworn in as president, Pakistan, 1988
Toyohiro Akiyami becomes 1st journalist in space, USSR, 1990
Helmut Kohl elected chancellor of United Germany, 1990
Terry Anderson released, Bierut, 1991
National museum charges abolished, UK, 2001

3rd DECEMBER
Charles VI, King of France (b. 1368)
Nicolo Amati (b. 1596)
Samuel Crompton (b. 1753)
Mary Lamb (b. 1764)
Sir Rowland Hill (b. 1795)
Octavia Hill (b. 1838)
Francis Kilvert (b. 1840)
Joseph Conrad (b. 1857)
Anton Webern (b. 1883)
Anna Freud (b. 1895)
John von Neumann (b. 1903)
Victor Pasmore (b. 1908)
Rabon Delmore (b. 1910)
Raymond Baxter (b. 1922)
Maria Callas (b. 1923)
St Francis Xavier (d. 1552)
Robert Louis Stevenson (d. 1894)
Mary Baker Eddy (d. 1910)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (d. 1919)
Princess Louise (d. 1939)
Sir Oswald Mosley (d. 1980)
Marty Feldman (d. 1982)
Elizabeth Glaser (d. 1994)
Jimmy Jewel (d. 1995)
Madeline Kahn (d. 1999)
David Hemmings (d. 2003)
Galileo patents telescope, 1621
JS Bach marries Anna Magdalena, 1721
UK captures Mauritius from French, 1810
Illinois, the Prairie State, becomes 21st state of the Union, 1818
Battle of Eureka Stockade, Australia, 1854
Neon lighting displayed for 1st time, Paris Motor Show, 1910
Battle of Cambrai ends, 1917
Longest cantilever, Quebec Bridge, opened to traffic, 1917
Kipling awarded £2 for unauthorised use of poem If in medical advert, 1920
Radio Luxembourg launched, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, 1933
Home Guards stand down with 7,000 man parade, Hyde Park, 1944
Greek civil war begins, 1944
Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire opened on Broadway, New York NY, 1947
Matisse's Le Bateau found to have been hung upside-down, Museum of Modern Art, 1961
Christiaan Barnard performs 1st heart transplant, Cape Town, 1967
Elvis Presley's TV special 1st broadcast, US, 1968
Montreux Casino burns to ground during Frank Zappa concert, Switzerland, 1971
Bob Marley & Rita Marley injured by gunshots, Jamaica, 1976
1st date of Sex Pistols Anarchy Tour cancelled, Norwich, 1976
11 die at Who concert, Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinatti OH, 1979
BT shares begin trading, 1984
John Major and Albert Reynolds begin peace talks, N Ireland, 1993
Princess of Wales announces partial withdrawal from public life, UK, 1993
Government announces ban of sale of beef on the bone, UK, 1997
Scientists lose contact with Mars Polar Lander as it descends toward Mars, 1999

4th DECEMBER
Thomas Carlyle (b. 1795)
Samuel Butler (b. 1835)
Crazy Horse (b. 1849)
Edith Cavell (b. 1865)
Wassily Kandinsky (b. OS 1866)
Rainer Maria Rilke (b. 1875)
Francisco Franco (b. 1892)
Sir Herbert Read (b. 1893)
Aaron Siskind (b. 1903)
AL Rowse (b. 1903)
Jimmy Jewel (b. 1912)
Claude Renoir (b. 1914)
Gary Gilmore (b. 1940)
Dennis Wilson (b. 1944)
Omar Khayyam (d. 1131)
William I, King of Scotland (d. 1214)
Cardinal Richelieu (d. 1642)
William Drummond of Hawthornden (d. 1649)
Thomas Hobbes (d. 1679)
John Gay (d. 1732)
Luigi Galvani (d. 1798)
Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (d. 1828)
John Tyndall (d. 1893)
Charles Henry Dow (d. 1902)
Rabon Delmore (d. 1952)
Jack Payne (d. 1969)
Benjamin Britten (d. 1976)
Rouben Mamoulian (d. 1987)
Frank Zappa (d. 1993)
Richard Vernon (d. 1997)
Nicholas Breakspear elected as Adrian IV, only English Pope, 1154
Council of Trent dissolved, 1563
The Observer, oldest UK Sunday paper, 1st published, 1791
Napoleon abolishes Spanish Inquisition, 1808
Suttee abolished in India, 1829
Colony of Queensland established, 1859
Royal Courts of Justice opened, The Strand, 1882
Chain Pier at Brighton destroyed in gales, 1896
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes proclaimed, 1918
Fatty Arbuckle cleared of rape and manslaughter, 1921
Cosmo Lang appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, 1928
Desperate Dan 1st appears in The Dandy, 1st published by DC Thomson, 1937
Christopher Craig and Derek Bentley tried for PC Sidney Miles murder, 1952
Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins & Jerry Lee Lewis record together, Sun, 1956
Contraceptive pill 1st available on National Health, 1961
4-day smog begins, London, 1962
Gemini 7 launched, 1965
Harold Wilson meets Ian Smith aboard HMS Tiger, 1966
Ariane, 1st rocket of European Space Agency, launched, 1979
2000 die in Union Carbide gas leak, Bhopal, Central India, 1984
Edwina Currie claims most egg production is infected with salmonella, UK, 1988
Lorin Maazel conducts all 9 Beethoven symphonies in 1 day, US, 1988
National Weekend Rate introduced by British Telecom, 1993
Pathfinder launched on journey to Mars, Cape Canaveral FL, 1996

5th DECEMBER
Martin van Buren (b. 1782)
Christina Rosetti (b. 1830)
George Custer (b. 1839)
Flora Thompson (b. 1876)
Clyde Cessna (b. 1879)
Fritz Lang (b. 1890)
Nunnally Johnson (b. 1897)
Grace Moore (b. 1898)
Walt Disney (b. 1901)
Werner Heisenberg (b. 1901)
Emeric Pressburger (b. 1902)
Lord (Francis) Longford (b. 1905)
Otto Preminger (b. 1906)
Sonny Boy Williamson (Aleck Miller) (b. 1912)
Sir John Pritchard (b. 1918)
Lucie Clayton (b. 1928)
Sheridan Morley (b. 1941)
Francis II, King of France (d. 1560)
Sir Henry Wotton (d. 1639)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (d. 1791)
Alexandre Dumas the Elder (d. 1870)
Sir Henry Tate (d. 1899)
Hans Richter (d. 1916)
Claude Monet (d. 1926)
Jan Kubelik (d. 1940)
Lord (Cosmo) Lang (d. 1945)
Sri Aurobindo (d. 1950)
Princess Andrew of Greece (d. 1969)
Robert Aldrich (d. 1983)
Ethel Mannin (d. 1984)
Lord (Colin) Cowdrey of Tonbridge (d. 2000)
Karlheinz Stockhausen (d. 2007)
1000s die in great Neapolitan earthquake, 1456
Columbus discovers Santo Domingo, 1492
1st Sunday service held in new St Paul's, London, 1697
Battle of Leuthen, 1757
James Christie, founder of Christie's, holds 1st auction sale, London, 1766
Trial of Louis XVI begins, France, 1792
Weight replaces mileage in postal charges, UK, 1839
Christmas cards 1st made and sent, 1844
Marie Celeste found abandoned, Atlantic, 1872
Repeal of prohibition, US, 1933
UK declares war on Finland, Hungaria and Romania, 1941
1st 5 US Navy bombers, from Fort Lauderdale FL, lost within "Bermuda Triangle", 1945
Dragnet premiered, 1951
Queen dials lord provost in Edinburgh to inaugurate 1st STD service, Bristol, 1958
1st UK motorway section opened by Harold MacMillan, Preston Bypass, M6, 1958
1st UK woman priest ordained, New Jersey, 1981
UK withdraws from UNESCO, 1985
1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia officially denounced, Moscow, 1989
Train à Grande Vitesse reaches record 298 mph, Loire Valley, 1989
Astronauts undertake spacewalk to repair giroscopes on Hubble Space Telescope, 1993
Steiff teddy bear fetches record £110,000 in auction, Christie's, London, 1994
Duchess of York robbed of jewellery worth £250,000 on flight from New York NY, 1995

6th DECEMBER
Henry VI, King of England (b. 1421)
Will Hay (b. 1888)
Sir Osbert Sitwell (b. 1892)
Sylvia Townsend Warner (b. 1893)
Ira Gershwin (b. 1896)
Leonid Brezhnev (b. OS 1906)
Agnes Moorehead (b. 1906)
Eric Newby (b. 1919)
Randy Rhoads (b. 1956)
St Nicholas (d. 342)
Jean-Baptiste Chardin (d. 1779)
Anthony Trollope (d. 1882)
Jefferson Davis (d. 1889)
Leadbelly (d. 1949)
Roy Orbison (d. 1988)
Mimi Smith (John Lennon's Aunt Mimi) (d. 1991)
Don Ameche (d. 1993)
Gian Maria Volonté (d. 1994)
Alun Owen (d. 1994)
George Chisholm (d. 1997)
Columbus discovers Hispaniola (Haiti), 1492
Pride's Purge of Parliament, 1648
Austria introduces 1st state system of education, 1774
Battle of Cawnpore, 1857
Edison 1st demonstrates recording of human voice, 1877
Treaty of Constantinople signed, 1897
Transvaal & Orange River colonies achieve self government, 1906
361 die in worst US mining disaster, Mononga WV, 1907
Finland proclaimed independent, 1917
1654 die when Mont Blanc explodes on collision, Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia, 1917
Irish Free State declared by George V, 1922
Libyan frontier agreement between Italy & Egypt signed, 1925
Christine Keeler jailed for perjury, Profumo Affair, 1963
Meredith Hunter murdered at Rolling Stones concert, Altamont CA, 1969
War breaks out between India and Pakistan, 1971
India recognizes Bangladesh (East Pakistan) as an independent republic, 1971
Gerald Ford sworn in as Vice-President, 1973
1st non-cancelled date of Sex Pistols Anarchy Tour, Leeds Polytechnic, 1976
Water industry privatised, UK, 1989
Durham admitted to 1st class cricket, 1st new side for 90 years, 1990
Photographs of galaxies in their infancies, from Hubble telescope, published, 1994

7th DECEMBER
Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (b. OS 1542)
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (b. OS 1545)
Gian Bernini (b. OS 1598)
Joyce Cary (b. 1888)
Stuart Davis (b. 1894)
Louis Prima (b. 1910)
Harry Chapin (b. 1942)
Damilola Taylor (b. 1989)
Marcus Tullius Cicero (d. BC 43)
Sir Peter Lely (d. 1680)
William Bligh (d. 1817)
John Flaxman (d. 1826)
Kirsten Flagstad (d. 1962)
Thornton Wilder (d. 1975)
Peter Goldmark (d. 1977)
Robert Graves (d. 1985)
Joan Bennett (d. 1990)
Kathleen Harrison (d. 1995)
Billy Bremner (d. 1997)
Kenny Baker (d. 1999)
Jay McShann (d. 2006)
Henry VI of England crowned King of France, 1431
Theatre Royal (now Royal Opera House), opened, Covent Gdn, 1732
Pitt the Younger, 24, becomes youngest prime minister, UK, 1783
Delaware, the Diamond State, becomes 1st state of the Union, 1787
Martin Van Buren elected 8th president of United States, 1836
5 Franciscan nuns drown as Deutschland is wrecked, 1875
Union of South Africa created by Royal proclamation, 1909
Imperial edict orders all Chinese to cut off their pigtails, 1911
David Lloyd George becomes prime minister of coalition government, UK, 1916
US declares war on Austria-Hungary, 1917
N Ireland parliament votes against inclusion in Irish Free State, 1922
1st parliament of Irish Free State elects William Cosgrave as president, 1922
Weissmuller sets world record 1:25.4 min in 150-yard freestyle, Pittsburgh PA, 1925
Household refrigerator, operating on gas, patented by Electrolux-Servel, 1926
2,500 die when Japanese aircraft attack Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 1941
Ivory Coast becomes an independent republic, 1960
All 4 Beatles appear on Juke Box Jury, Empire Th, Liverpool, 1963
Instant replay 1st used during the Army-Navy game, CBS-TV, US, 1963
Brian Wilson and Marilyn Rovell marry, Los Angeles CA, 1964
Apple Boutique opened, Baker St, 1967
Otis Redding records (Sittin' On the Dock) Of The Bay, US, 1967
Apollo 17 launched to make 6th Moon landing, Cape Canaveral FL, 1972
Charles Brooks 1st to be executed by lethal injection, Ft Worth, Huntsville TX, 1982
25,000 die in major earthquake destroying Spitak & Leninakan, North Armenia, 1988
Galileo photographs Earth and Moon together, 1992
A probe from Galileo successfully enters the atmosphere of Jupiter, 1995
Gates announces intention for Microsoft to adopt the Internet, US, 1995
Taliban militia forces surrender, Afghanistan, 2001
Fire destroys part of Old Town, Cowgate, Edinburgh, 2002

8th DECEMBER
Horace (b. BC 65)
Christina, Queen of Sweden (b. OS 1626)
Eli Whitney (b. 1765)
Aristide Maillol (b. 1861)
Georges Méliès (b. 1861)
Georges Feydeau (b. 1862)
Jean Sibelius (b. 1865)
Diego Rivera (b. 1886)
Bohuslav Martin_ (b. 1890)
Elzie Segar (b. 1894)
James Thurber (b. 1894)
Lee J Cobb (b. 1911)
Delmore Schwartz (b. 1913)
Sammy Davis Jr (b. 1925)
Jimmy Smith (b. 1925)
Sir Julian Critchley (b. 1930)
Jim Morrison (b. 1943)
John Pym (d. 1643)
Thomas De Quincey (d. 1859)
Herbert Spencer (d. 1903)
Gertrude Jekyll (d. 1932)
Lord (Simon) Marks (d. 1964)
Golda Meir (d. 1978)
John Lennon (d. 1980)
Shakey Horton (d. 1981)
Marty Robbins (d. 1982)
Antonio Carlos Jobim (d. 1994)
Rubén González (d. 2003)
Lord (Leslie) Scarman of Quatt (d. 2004)
Darrell (Dimebag) Abbott (d. 2004)
1st actress appears on an English stage, 1660
Prince Albert Edward created Prince of Wales, 1841
Pope Pius IX promulgates dogma of Immaculate Conception, 1854
Hitler's mother born, 1860
Tom King becomes 1st world heavyweight champion, Wodhurst, Kent, 1863
Clifton Suspension Bridge opened, 1864
1st traffic lights inaugurated, Westminster, 1868
German fleet sunk in Battle of the Falkland Islands, 1914
Coaxial cable patented, 1931
London-Australia airmail service begins, 1934
Graf Zeppelin launched, Kiel, 1938
UK, Australia & USA declare war on Japan, 1941
Construction of M1 begins, UK, 1957
Frank Sinatra Jr kidnapped, Lake Tahoe CA, 1963
Arthur Scargill elected president, National Union of Mineworkers, 1981
British Gas shares begin trading, UK, 1986
Reagan and Gorbachev sign INF Treaty, Washington DC, 1987
Palestine/Israel intifada begins after road accident, Gaza Strip, 1987
Russia, Belarus and Ukraine form Commonwealth Of Independent States, 1991
Kimberly Bergalis, who contracted AIDS from her dentist, died, Fort Pierce FL, 1991
Grateful Dead announces break up following death of Jerry Garcia, US, 1995
Chris Evans takes over Virgin Radio from Richard Branson, 1997

9th DECEMBER
John Milton (b. 1608)
James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd (bapt. 1770)
Prince Peter Kropotkin (b. 1842)
George Grossmith (b. 1847)
Joel Chandler Harris (b. 1848)
Joseph Stalin (b. OS 1879)
Clarence Birdseye (b. 1886)
Mark Gertler (b. 1892)
Dame Whina Cooper (b. 1895)
Hermione Gingold (b. 1897)
Margaret Hamilton (b. 1902)
Lord (Rab) Butler (b. 1902)
Douglas Fairbanks Jr (b. 1909)
Broderick Crawford (b. 1911)
Jill Summers (b. 1911)
Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (b. 1915)
Benny Green (b. 1927)
John Cassavettes (b. 1929)
Jessie Hill (b. 1932)
Junior Wells (b. 1934)
Billy Bremner (b. 1942)
Rick Danko (b. 1942)
Malcolm IV, King of Scotland (d. 1165)
Sir Anthony van Dyck (d. 1641)
Edward Hyde, Lord Clarendon (d. 1674)
Dame Edith Sitwell (d. 1964)
Sonny Til (d. 1981)
Vincent Gardenia (d. 1992)
Danny Blanchflower (d. 1993)
1st execution takes place, Newgate Prison, 1783
Macquare River discovered by George Evans, Australia, 1813
William Gladstone becomes Prime Minister for 1st of 4 terms of office, UK, 1868
Auguste Vailland explodes bomb, Chamber of Deputies, Paris, 1893
Jerusalem surrenders to UK, 1917
London-Singapore airline service inaugurated, 1933
Conscription introduced for women, 20-30, and lowered to men of 18, UK, 1941
China declares war on Japan, Germany and Italy, 1941
Tito forms own government, Yugoslavia, 1943
Republic of Indonesia established, 1949
1st Coronation Street broadcast, ITV, 1960
Tanganyika becomes independent, 1961
Tanganyika becomes a republic, 1962
Pioneer Venus 2 reaches Venus and separates into 5 probes, 1978
Lech Walesa wins Polish presidential election, 1990
£420 million revealed to be missing from Mirror Group pension fund, 1991
John Major announces separation of Prince & Princess of Wales, 1992
Government and Sinn Fein begin exploratory talks, London, 1994
India immunises all 75m children against polio, 1995
Statutory 50 mph speed limit lifted on roads, US, 1995
Meteor of density crashes into southern tip of Greenland, 1997
Birmingham Northern Relief Road, opened to traffic, M6 Toll, 2003
Routemaster withdrawn from regular service, London, 2005

10th DECEMBER
Giovanni Guarini (b. 1538)
Ada, Countess of Lovelace (b. 1815)
César Franck (b. 1822)
George Macdonald (b. 1824)
Emily Dickinson (b. 1830)
Melvil Dewey (b. 1851)
Adolph Loos (b. 1870)
EH Shepard (b. 1879)
Mary Norton (b. 1903)
Rumer Godden (b. 1907)
Oliver Messiaen (b. 1908)
Morton Gould (b. 1913)
Ray Nance (b. 1913)
Dorothy Lamour (b. 1914)
Gerald Thomas (b. 1920)
Michael Manley (b. 1924)
Eddie (Guitar Slim) Johnson (b. 1926)
Shuji Terayami (b. 1935)
Paolo Uccello (d. 1475)
Henry Wells (d. 1878)
Alfred Nobel (d. 1896)
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (d. 1928)
Luigi Pirandello (d. 1936)
Ken Campbell (b. 1941)
Damon Runyon (d. 1946)
Otis Redding (d. 1967)
Ed Wood Jr (d. 1978)
Kate Wolf (d. 1986)
Slam Stewart (d. 1987)
Armand Hammer (d. 1990)
Dan Maskell (d. 1992)
Lord (Keith) Joseph (d. 1994)
Faron Young (d. 1996)
Rick Danko (d. 1999)
Richard Pryor (d. 2005)
Eugene McCarthy (d. 2005)
Augusto Pinochet (d. 2006)
Martin Luther burns Papal Bull of excommunicated, 1520
Gregorian calendar adopted, France, 1582
Royal Academy of Arts founded, 1768
Mississippi, the Magnolia State, becomes 20th state of the Union, 1817
1st pneumatic tyres patented by Robert Thomson, Scotland, 1845
1st Whitaker's Almanac published, 1868
1st London traffic lights come into use, Bridge St, 1868
Women granted right to vote, Wyoming Territory, US, 1869
Cuba becomes a state, independent from Spain, 1898
Marie Curie receives chemistry prize when 1st Nobel prizes awarded, 1901
Aswan Dam opened, the Nile, Egypt, 1902
National Farmers' Union founded, London, 1908
1st postmark slogan, Buy British War Bonds Now, appears on mail, UK, 1917
Keith & Ross Macpherson Smith make 1st flight from London-Australia, 1919
New Piccadilly Circus underground station opened, 1928
Edward VIII abdicates and becomes Duke of Windsor, 1936
HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse sunk off Malaya, 1941
Declaration of Human Rights issued by UN General Assembly, 1948
Mao Tse-tung relinquishes post as head of state, China, 1958
National Airlines makes 1st domestic passenger jet flight, New York NY-Miami FL, 1958
Zanzibar becomes independent, 1963
Fillmore Auditorium opened, with Jefferson Airplane, San Francisco CA, 1965
Grateful Dead play their 1st concert, Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco CA, 1965
Beatles record Strawberry Fields Forever, 1966
Frank Zappa injured in fall from stage, Rainbow Th, Finsbury Park, 1971
Generation X make debut, Central College of Art & Design, London, 1976
Concorde makes 1st scheduled flight, London-Singapore, 1977
Non-Communist government sworn in, Czechoslovakia, 1989
UK agrees to European Union treaty with opt-out options, Maastricht, 1991
1st train passes through Channel Tunnel as Eurotunnel take over, London-Calais, 1993
Rob Newman and David Baddiel announce split, 1993
Mandela signs new constitution of South Africa, Sharpesville, 1996

Last updated: July 20, 2009