21st DECEMBER
Thomas à Beckett (b. 1118)
Masaccio (b. 1401)
Jean Racine (b. 1639)
Benjamin Disraeli (b. 1804)
Maud Gonne (b. 1866)
Dame Rebecca West (b. 1892)
Anthony Powell (b. 1905)
Heinrich Böll (b. 1917)
Frank Hampson (b. 1918)
Kurt Waldheim (b. 1918)
Peter Tinniswood (b. 1936)
Frank Zappa (b. 1940)
Carl Wilson (b. 1946)
Florence Griffith-Joyner (b. 1959)
Giovanni Boccaccio (d. 1375)
Margaret of Angouleme (d. 1549)
James Parkinson (d. 1824)
F Scott Fitzgerald (d. 1940)
George Patton (d. 1945)
Eric Coates (d. 1957)
Sir Jack Hobbs (d. 1963)
Karl Denver (d. 1998)
Duke of Austria captures Richard Coeur de Lion, 1192
Boston Gazette 1st issued, 1719
1st Co-op store, Rochdale Pioneers, opened, Toad Lane, 1844
Anaesthetics 1st used in surgery, UK, 1846
Ibsen's The Doll's House 1st performed, 1879
Charlie's Aunt 1st performed, 1892
Hitler's mother dies, 1907
Port of London Authority inaugurated, 1908
344 die in colliery disaster, Pretoria Pit, Bolton, 1910
1st newspaper crossword published, New York World, 1913
Human blood serum 1st prepared, 1933
Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs, 1st full-colour cartoon feature, premiered, US, 1935
1068 die in earthquake, Japan, 1946
Gen Charles de Gaulle elected President of French 5th Republic, 1958
Bob Dylan makes 1st UK public appearance, King And Queen, Foley St, London, 1962
Apollo 8 launched for 1st manned orbit around Moon, US, 1968
276 die in worst UK air crash when jumbo jet exploded by terrorists, Lockerbie, 1988
Bethlehem passes from Israeli to Palestinian control, 1995
Skye Bridge toll abolished, Isle of Skye, 2004

22nd DECEMBER
John Crome (b. 1768)
Jean Henri Fabre (b. 1823)
John Nevil Maskelyn (b. 1839)
Giacomo Puccini (b. 1858)
Edgar Varèse (b. 1883)
Lord (J Arthur) Rank (b. 1888)
Pierre Brasseur (b. 1905)
Kenneth Rexroth (b. 1905)
Dame Peggy Ashcroft (b. 1907)
Patricia Hayes (b. 1909)
Lady Bird Johnson (b. 1912)
Hawkshaw Hawkins (b. 1921)
John Ebdon (b. 1923)
Alvin Robinson (b. 1937)
Pamela Morrison (b. 1946)
Maurice Gibb (b. 1949)
Aulus Vitellius (d. 69)
François Clouet (d. 1572)
Il Guercino (d. 1666)
Théodore Rousseau (d. 1867)
George Eliot (d. 1880)
Baron Richard von Krafft-Ebing (d. 1902)
Ma Rainey (d. 1939)
Nathanael West (d. 1940)
Beatrix Potter (d. 1943)
Harry Langdon (d. 1944)
Richard Dimbleby (d. 1965)
Joseph von Sternberg (d. 1979)
Darryl F Zanuck (d. 1979)
David Penhaligon (d. 1986)
Samuel Beckett (d. 1989)
Lord (Ted) Willis (d. 1992)
Lord (Donald) Soper of Kingsway (d. 1998)
Joe Strummer (d. 2002)
Coronation of Stephen, 1135
Gregorian calendar introduced, Germany & Switzerland, 1583
James Stuart, the Old Pretender, lands, Peterhead, 1715
1st pantomime, Harlequin Executed, staged, Lincoln's Inn Theatre, 1716
Beethoven's 5th and 6th Symphonies premiered, Vienna, 1808
Alfred Dreyfus imprisoned on false espionage charge, Devil's Island, 1894
Wilhelm Röntgen makes 1st x-ray, of his wife's hand, 1895
Ministry of Pensions set up, UK, 1916
Lincoln Tunnel opened to traffic, New York NY, 1937
Coelacanth, thought to be extinct, discovered, S Africa, 1938
Gloria Jacobs becomes 1st girl to hold world pistol record, 1939
Dylan plays at the Pindar of Wakefield, London, 1962
Last UK and French forces leave Port Said, 1965
70 mph road speed limit imposed, UK, 1965
South Rhodesia leaves Commonwealth, 1966
Kurt Waldheim becomes Secretary-General of United Nations, 1971
400 die in earthquake, Guinea, 1983
Morrissey makes 1st solo appearance, Wolverhampton Civic Hall, 1988
Julian Cope has revelatory experience, Boston MA, 1989
158 die when Libyan Boeing 727 crashes near Souk al-Sabt, Tripoli, 1992
Hourly day-return car-carrying service through Channel Tunnel begins, 1994
Madonna and Guy Ritchie marry, Scotland, 2000
End of the universe, according to ancient Mayan predictions, 2012

23rd DECEMBER
James Gibbs (b. 1682)
Sir Richard Arkwright (b. 1732)
Jean François Champollion (b. 1790)
Sara Coleridge (b. 1802)
Joseph Smith (b. 1805)
Samuel Smiles (b. 1812)
Eric Blore (b. 1887)
Yousuf Karsh (b. 1908)
Chet Baker (b. 1929)
Esther Phillips (b. 1935)
Johnny Kidd (b. 1939)
Eugene Record (b. 1940)
Tim Hardin (b. 1941)
Will Sinnott (b. 1960)
Michael Drayton (d. 1631)
Abbé Prévost (d. 1763)
Thomas Malthus (d. 1834)
Laurence Oliphant (d. 1888)
Sepharial (d. 1929)
Anthony Fokker (d. 1939)
Charles Gibson (d. 1944)
Hideki Tojo (d. 1948)
Louis de Rochemont (d. 1978)
Peggy Guggenheim (d. 1979)
Ronnie Scott (d. 1996)
Victor Borge (d. 2000)
Sir Jimmy Shand (d. 2000)
Charlie Drake (d. 2006)
Oscar Peterson (d. 2007)
Bounty under William Bligh sets sail for South Seas, 1787
Asiatic cholera 1st appears, Scotland, 1831
Hansom cab patented by Joseph Hansom, 1834
Woodland Tunnel, longest UK rail tunnel, opened, Penines, 1845
Vincent van Gogh cuts off right ear with razor, Arles, 1888
60 vessels lost during heavy storms, North Atlantic, 1890
Aldwych Theatre opened, London, 1905
1st beauty contest finals held, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1905
Federal Reserve Bank established, US, 1913
BBC inaugurate daily news broadcasts, 1922
Marinus Van der Lubbe sentenced to death for starting Reichstag Fire, 1933
Transistor invented, Bell Laboratories, US, 1947
Final edition of Ready Steady Go! broadcast, UK, 1966
The Mousetrap begins world's longest theatrical run, London, 1970
12,000 lives lost when Managua destroyed by earthquake, Nicaragua, 1972
Endangered Species Act passed, US, 1973
Ray Bellknap commits suicide after listening to Judas Priest backwards, Reno NV, 1978
Voyager flies around world without refuelling, 1986
Woody Allen marries Soon-Yi Previn, Venice, 1997

24th DECEMBER
Galba (b. BC 3)
Genghis Khan (b. 1162)
John Lackland, King of England (b. 1167)
St Ignatius of Loyola (b. 1491)
George Crabbe (b. 1754)
Kit Carson (b. 1809)
James Joule (b. 1818)
Eliza Cook (b. 1818)
Matthew Arnold (b. 1822)
Emanuel Lasker (b. 1868)
Juan Ramon Jiménez (b. 1881)
Michael Curtiz (b. 1888)
Harry Warren (b. 1893)
Howard Hughes (b. 1905)
James Hadley Chase (b. 1906)
Ava Gardner (b. 1922)
David Kelly (b. 1923)
Lee Dorsey (b. 1926)
John Glashan (d. 1927)
Robert Joffrey (b. 1930)
Jill Bennett (b. 1931)
Lord (Colin) Cowdrey of Tonbridge (b. 1932)
Sir Nicholas Fairbairn (b. 1933)
Anthony Clare (b. 1942)
Woody Shaw (b. 1944)
John Dunstable (d. 1453)
Vasco da Gama (d. 1524)
William Makepeace Thackeray (d. 1863)
John Muir (d. 1913)
Alban Berg (d. 1935)
Norma Talmadge (d. 1957)
Frank Richards (d. 1961)
Charles Atlas (d. 1972)
Bernard Herrmann (d. 1975)
Karl Dönitz (d. 1980)
Louis Aragon (d. 1982)
Peter Lawford (d. 1984)
Ian Hendry (d. 1984)
John Osborne (d. 1994)
Toshiro Mifune (d. 1997)
Water 1st piped to private houses, London British Waterworks, 1582
Attempt made to assassinate Napoleon, 1800
Trevithick tests 1st self-propelled UK vehicle, 1801
Treaty of Ghent signed ending America-UK War of 1812, 1814
Stille Nacht written by J Möhr, Hallein, Austria, 1818
Burke and Hare trial begins, 1828
Fire devastates Library of Congress and 35,000 books, Washington DC, 1851
Veterans of Confederate Army form Ku Klux Klan, Pulaski TN, 1865
Verdi's Aida premiered, Cairo, 1871
London Coliseum opened, with 1st revolving stage, 1904
1st advertised radio broadcast takes place, Brant Rock MA, 1906
1st air-raid on UK soil, St James's Refectory, Dover, 1914
Enrico Caruso gives last public performance, Metropolitan Opera, New York NY, 1920
Albania proclaimed a republic, 1924
Codex Sinaiticus arrives in London, 1933
Eisenhower named Supreme Commander, 1943
Solar heating 1st installed in a house, Dover MA, 1948
Libya proclaimed an independent monarchy, 1951
Heaviest known UK meteorite of 102 lbs falls, Banwell, 1965
Apollo 8 makes 1st manned orbit of Moon, 1968
Beatles partnership legally dissolved, 1974
Liv Arneson becomes 1st woman to reach South Pole alone, 1994

25th DECEMBER
Orlando Gibbons (b. OS 1583)
Sir Isaac Newton (b. OS 1642)
William Collins (b. OS 1721)
Dorothy Wordsworth (b. 1771)
Charles Pathé (b. 1863)
Alexander Scriabin (b. OS 1872)
Louis Chevrolet (b. 1878)
Kid Ory (b. 1886)
Conrad Hilton (b. 1887)
Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (b. 1901)
Lord (Lew) Grade of Elstree (b. 1906)
Andrew Cruickshank (b. 1907)
Cab Calloway (b. 1907)
Alton Delmore (b. 1908)
Quentin Crisp (b. 1908)
Gert Fröbe (b. 1912)
Anwar Sadat (b. 1918)
Noele Gordon (b. 1923)
Carlos Castaneda (b. 1925)
Ismail Merchant (b. 1936)
O'Kelley Isley (b. 1937)
Trevor Lucas (b. 1943)
Kenny Everett (b. 1944)
Henry Vestine (b. 1944)
Noel Redding (b. 1945)
Laura Sadler (b. 1980)
Heinrich Schliemann (d. 1890)
Karel Cäpek (d. 1938)
WC Fields (d. 1946)
Johnny Ace (d. 1954)
Sir Charles Chaplin (d. 1977)
Joan Blondell (d. 1979)
Fred Emney (d. 1980)
Joan Miró (d. 1983)
Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu (d. 1989)
Monica Dickens (d. 1992)
Dean Martin (d. 1995)
Bryan MacLean (d. 1998)
Peter Jeffrey (d. 1999)
Derek Bailey (d. 2005)
Birgit Nilsson (d. 2005)
James Brown (d. 2006)
Pat Kirkwood (d. 2007)
Temple of Sol Invictus Deus dedicated, Rome, 274
Charlemagne crowned 1st Holy Roman Emperor, 800
William the Conqueror crowned, 1066
1st Eisteddfod, Cardigan Castle, 1174
Natal discovered by da Gama, 1497
Great Frost of London begins, 1730
Celsius introduces Centigrade scale, 1741
Capt James Cook lands at and names Christmas Island, 1777
Charlotte puts up 1st Christmas tree, Queen's Lodge, Windsor, 1800
Christmas Day dip in the Serpentine inaugurated, Hyde Park, 1864
Unconditional pardon granted to all involved in Southern rebellion, US, 1868
Arsenal Football Club founded, Plumstead, 1886
Day of Peace, World War I, 1914
Hirohito accedes to throne, Japan, 1926
George V makes 1st Royal Christmas broadcast, 1932
Hong Kong surrenders to Japan, 1941
3,700 die of hunger, Leningrad, 1941
Stone of Scone stolen from Westminster Abbey, 1950
Queen makes 1st Christmas TV broadcast, 1957
New island appears following undersea volcanic eruption, Caspian Sea, 1959
Sony launches 1st transistor TV set, 1959
George Harrison proposes to Patti Boyd, 1965
Kenny Everett makes 1st broadcast on Radio One, 1967
Frank Borman delivers Christmas message while orbiting Moon, Apollo 8, 1968
Darwin devastated by cyclone Tracy, Australia, 1974
Sex Pistols play final UK gig, Ivanhoe's, Huddersfield, 1977
USSR begins 2-day airlift of troops into Afghanistan, 1979
Fossilised Nothofagus beech leaves found 250 miles from S Pole, 1990

26th DECEMBER
Thomas Gray (b. 1716)
Lord (George) Gordon (b. 1751)
Charles Babbage (b. 1792)
Dion Boucicault (b. 1822)
Maurice Utrillo (b. 1883)
Henry Miller (b. 1891)
Mao Tse-tung (b. 1893)
Bob Arnold (b. 1910)
Elizabeth David (b. 1913)
Richard Widmark (b. 1914)
Dennis Quilley (b. 1927)
Simon Marius (d. 1624)
Claude Helvétius (d. 1771)
John Wilkes (d. 1797)
Perdita Robinson (d. 1800)
Melvil Dewey (d. 1931)
HW Fowler (d. 1933)
Ivor Gurney (d. 1937)
James Stephens (d. 1950)
Charles Pathé (d. 1957)
Harry S Truman (d. 1972)
Jack Benny (d. 1974)
Howard Hawks (d. 1977)
Violet Carson (d. 1983)
Dian Fossey (d. 1985)
Elsa Lanchester (d. 1986)
Sir Lennox Berkeley (d. 1989)
Sylva Koscina (d. 1994)
Curtis Mayfield (d. 1999)
Jason Robards (d. 2000)
Sir Nigel Hawthorne (d. 2001)
Kerry Packer (d. 2005)
Gerald Ford (d. 2006)
1st concerts open to public announced, London Gazette, 1672
Battle of Trenton, 1776
Sebastian le Normand makes 1st parachute jump, Montpellier Observatory, 1783
Stille Nacht 1st performed, Church of St Nikolaus, Oberndorff, Austria, 1818
Decembrist army revolt crushed, Russia, 1825
1st coffee percolator invented, by James Mason, US, 1865
1st Boxing Day Holiday, UK, 1874
Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium, 1898
1st feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, shown, Melbourne, 1906
Jack Johnson becomes 1st black world heavyweight champion, 1908
Royal Navy sinks German battleship Scharnhorst, N Sea, 1943
Castro lands in Cuba, starting revolution against Batista regime, 1956
Magical Mystery Tour 1st shown, BBC1, 1967
Steps announce split, 2001
150,000 die following underwater earthquakes and tsunamis, Indonesia, 2004

27th DECEMBER
Johannes Kepler (b. OS 1571)
Louis Pasteur (b. 1822)
Sydney Greenstreet (b. 1878)
Carl Zuckmayer (b. 1896)
Marlene Dietrich (b. 1901)
Irene Handl (b. 1901)
Oscar Levant (b. 1906)
William Masters (b. 1915)
Dave Rowberry (b. 1943)
Pierre de Ronsard (d. 1585)
George Barrington (d. 1804)
Charles Lamb (d. 1834)
Lord (William) Armstrong (d. 1900)
Osip Mandelstam (d. 1938)
Max Beckmann (d. 1950)
Chris Bell (d. 1978)
Bob Luman (d. 1978)
Hoagy Carmichael (d. 1981)
Hal Ashby (d. 1988)
Cardew Robinson (d. 1992)
Fanny Craddock (d. 1994)
Shura Cherkassky (d. 1995)
Jake Thackray (d. 2002)
George Roy Hill (d. 2002)
Sir Alan Bates (d. 2003)
Lord (Marmaduke) Hussey of North Bradley (d. 2006)
Benazir Bhutto (d. 2007)
St Helena chartered to East India Co, 1673
Darwin begins world voyage, HMS Beagle, Plymouth, 1831
Crawford Williamson Long 1st uses anaesthesia for childbirth, Jefferson GA, 1845
Foundation stone of Cathedral of St John the Divine laid, New York NY, 1892
Carry Nation conducts her 1st public smashing of a bar, Carey Hotel, Wichita KS, 1900
1st performance of Peter Pan, Duke of York's Th, London, 1904
Abbey Theatre opened, Dublin, 1904
Globe Theatre (as Hicks Theatre) opened, London, 1906
Woodrow Wilson becomes 1st US president to visit UK, 1918
Trotsky expelled from Communist Party, 1927
Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat opened, Ziegfeld Theater, New York NY, 1927
Radio City Music Hall, largest cinema in world, opened, New York NY, 1932
1st youth hostel opened, Northfield MA, 1934
50,000 die in earthquakes, Anatolia, 1939
International Monetary Fund established, Washington, 1945
Howdy Doody premieres on NBC TV, US, 1947
Clearance of Suez canal begins, 1956
13 die when Sea Gem oil rig collapses, North Sea, 1965
Grateful Dead play at Ken Kesey's 1st Acid Test, San Francisco CA, 1965
Hello Dolly closes after 2,844 performances, Broadway, New York NY, 1970
400 miners die following an explosion and flooding, Chasnala Colliery, 1975
Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Acts come into effect, UK, 1975
Spain becomes a democracy after 40 years dictatorship, 1978
Hafizullah Amin deposed when Soviet troops invade Afghanistan, 1979
Puff Daddy and Jennifer Lopez arrested on firearms changes, New York NY, 1999

28th DECEMBER
Woodrow Wilson (b. 1856)
Philip Wilson Steer (b. 1860)
Henri de Regnier (b. 1864)
Earl Hines (b. 1905)
Pop Staples (b. 1911)
Richard Whiteley (b. 1943)
Christine Norden (b. 1924)
Brian Redhead (b. 1929)
Guy Debord (b. 1931)
Dorsey Burnette (b. 1932)
King Birendra of Nepal (b. 1945)
Guy Debord (b. 1931)
Dorsey Burnette (b. 1932)
St Francis de Sales (d. 1622)
Mary II, Queen of England (d. 1694)
Rob Roy (d. 1734)
Lord (Thomas Babington) Macauley (d. 1859)
Thomas Creswick (d. 1869)
Gustave Eiffel (d. 1923)
Léon Bakst (d. 1924)
Maurice Ravel (d. 1937)
Theodore Dreiser (d. 1945)
Paul Hindemith (d. 1963)
Freddie King (d. 1976)
Dennis Wilson (d. 1983)
William Demarest (d. 1983)
Sam Peckinpah (d. 1984)
Susan Sontag (d. 2004)
Herod orders slaughter of all infants to ensure Christ's death, Bethlehem, 0001
Westminster Abbey dedicated, 1065
Mexico becomes independant of Spain, 1836
Iowa, the Hawkeye State, becomes 29th state of the Union, 1846
Chewing gum 1st patented, by William Semple, 1869
90 die when Tay Railway Bridge collapses, Scotland, 1879
World's 1st public film show takes place, Hotel Scribe, Paris, 1895
150,000 die when Messina devastated by earthquake, Sicily, 1908
Estonia proclaimed independent, 1917
Moldavian Republic (Bessarabia) proclaimed independent, 1917
1st women's Test cricket match (Australia v. England) takes place, Brisbane, 1934
Irish Free State becomes Republic of Ireland, 1937
Republic of Ireland becomes Eire as new constitution imposed, 1937
Peak District designated as 1st National Park in UK, 1950
The Daleks 1st appear in Dr Who, BBC TV, 1963
4000 die in earthquake, Pakistan, 1975

29th DECEMBER
Madame de Pompadour (b. 1721)
Charles Macintosh (b. 1766)
Charles Goodyear (b. 1800)
Andrew Johnson (b. 1808)
William Gladstone (b. 1809)
Pablo Casals (b. 1876)
Aleksei Tolstoy (b. OS 1882)
Vera Brittain (b. 1893)
Magnus Pyke (b. 1908)
Cozy Powell (b. 1947)
Errol Thompson (b. 1948)
St Thomas à Beckett (d. 1170)
Thomas Sydenham (d. 1689)
Jacques Louis David (d. 1825)
Christina Rosetti (d. 1894)
Rainer Maria Rilke (d. 1926)
Paul Whiteman (d. 1967)
Tim Hardin (d. 1980)
Harold Macmillan, Lord Stockton (d. 1986)
Andrei Tarkovsky (d. 1986)
Florian Fricke (d. 2001)
Bob Monkhouse (d. 2003)
Dinsdale Landen (d. 2003)
Theatre Royal, Haymarket, opened, 1720
Sarah Siddons makes stage début, London, 1775
British burn Buffalo NY, War Of 1812, 1813
Battle of Maharajpur, 1843
Texas, the Lone Star State, becomes 28th state of the US, 1845
HMS Warrior, 1st seagoing iron clad warship, launched, 1860
200 Sioux Indians massacred, Wounded Knee SD, 1890
1st Zeppelin appeared over UK coast, 1914
Radio Luxembourg starts operating, 1930
HC Urey announces discovery of heavy water, 1931
City of London heavily fire-bombed, 1940
1st UHF TV service begins regular service, Bridgeport CT, 1949
1st transistor hearing aid, made by Sonotone Corps, goes on sale, New York NY, 1951
Coelacanth caught, 1952
Jimi Hendrix 1st appears on Top Of The Pops, playing Hey Joe, 1966
Prof John A Wheeler coins the term "black hole", New York NY, 1967
Dave Mason leaves Traffic, 1967
Life ceases publication, 1972
Sex Discrimination & Equal Pay Act comes into force, UK, 1975
30 die when the Marine de Equa sinks, Land's End, 1981
Bob Marley commemorative stamp issued, Jamaica, 1982
Yuri Romanenko returns from a record 326 days in space, Kazakhstan, 1987
Vaclev Havel elected president, Czechoslovakia, 1989
Emma Nicholson defects from Conservative to Liberal Democrat Party, UK, 1995

30th DECEMBER
Titus (b. 39)
Asa Griggs Candler (b. 1851)
Stephen Leacock (b. 1861)
Rudyard Kipling (b. 1865)
Hideki Tojo (b. 1884)
Sir Carol Reed (b. 1906)
Paul Bowles (b. 1910)
Jack Lord (b. 1920)
Bo Diddley (b. 1928)
Skeeter Davis (b. 1931)
Andy Stewart (b. 1933)
John Hartford (b. 1937)
Del Shannon (b. 1939)
Felix Pappalardi (b. 1939)
Robert Quine (b. 1942)
Richard, Duke of York (d. 1460)
Robert Boyle (d. 1691)
Amelia Bloomer (d. 1894)
Josephine Butler (d. 1906)
Grigory Rasputin (d. NS 1916)
Romain Rolland (d. 1944)
Ruth Draper (d. 1956)
Sonny Liston (d. 1970)
Richard Rodgers (d. 1979)
Johnny Moore (d. 1998)
Saddam Hussein (d. 2006)
Battle of Wakefield, 1460
1st public concert held in London, 1672
US takes possession of Louisiana, 1803
45,000 square miles of land purchased from Mexico, Gadsden Purchase, US, 1853
The Pirates of Penzance 1st performed, Paignton, 1879
Transvaal declared a Republic, 1880
Franz Lehar's Merry Widow opened, Vienna, 1905
Sun Yat-sen elected 1st president of Republic of China, 1911
Lenin proclaims the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1922
London-Brighton line electrification completed, 1932
1st California freeway, Arroyo Seco Parkway, officially opened, 1940
King Michael agreed to abdicate, Romania, 1947
Kiss Me Kate 1st performed, US, 1948
France transfers sovereignty of Vietnam, 1949
Last passenger train runs on Liverpool Overhead Railway, 1956
Emerson, Lake and Palmer announce split, 1978
Rajiv Gandhi elected in India, 1984
George Harrison stabbed by intruder at his home, 1999

31st DECEMBER
Jacques Cartier (b. 1494)
Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie (b. 1720)
Villeneuve (b. 1763)
Sir William Gull (b. 1816)
Henri Matisse (b. 1869)
Elizabeth Arden (b. 1884)
Pola Negri (b. 1894)
Jule Styne (b. 1905)
Simon Wiesenthal (b. 1908)
Nino Rota (b. 1911)
Odetta (b. 1930)
John Denver (b. 1941)
John Wycliffe (d. 1384)
Jacopo da Pontormo (d. 1556)
Thomas Erastus (d. 1583)
Giovanni Borelli (d. 1679)
Catherine of Braganza (d. NS 1705)
John Flamsteed (d. OS 1719)
Gustave Courbet (d. 1877)
Sir Malcolm Campbell (d. 1948)
Bert Berns (d. 1967)
Marshall McLuhan (d. 1980)
Robert Pete Williams (d. 1980)
Charles A Jayne (d. 1985)
Rick Nelson (d. 1985)
Sam Spiegel (d. 1985)
Leigh Bowery (d. 1994)
DJ Enright (d. 2002)
Elizabeth I charters Honourable East India Company, 1600
1st Huguenots leave for South Africa, France, 1687
American attack on Quebec fails, 1775
Napoleon abolishes Revolutionary Calendar, 1805
On hearing Wagner's Tannhauser overture, Verdi declares, "He's mad!", 1865
Edison demonstrates incandescent lamp, 1879
Newgate Jail ceases to be used as a prison, 1881
Ellis Island opened as Immigration Depot, upper New York Bay, 1890
Military Cross instituted, 1914
Prohibition comes into force, Canada, 1917
Big Ben's chimes 1st broadcast, 1923
1st shortwave radio broadcast received in UK, KDKA, Pittsburgh-BBC, Manchester, 1923
British Army abolishes use of lance, except for ceremonial uses, 1927
70 die in worst UK cinema fire, Paisley, Scotland, 1929
Monopoly patented, by Charles Barrow, 1935
"Drunkometer" breath tests for motorists 1st introduced, Indianapolis, 1938
Maiden flight of Boeing 307 Stratoliner, 1st with pressurised passenger cabin, 1938
Fire watching becomes compulsory, UK, 1940
Home Guard disbanded, 1945
Beach Boys make 1st public appearance, Long Beach CA, 1961
Central African Federation dissolved, 1963
TU144 makes 1st supersonic airliner flight, Russia, 1968
Lion discontinued from eggs, UK, 1968
3-day working week introduced to conserve fuel, UK, 1973
Rick Allen of Def Leppard loses arm in Corvette Stingray crash, Sheffield, 1984
Princess of Wales and James Gilbey "Dianagate" carphone conversation recorded, 1989
¼d ceases to be legal currency, 1961
2/6d ceases to be legal currency, 1970
½p ceases to be legal currency, 1985
old 1/- ceases to be legal currency, 1990
TV AM, Thames TV, TVS & TSW cease to broadcast, 1992
Single Europe market begins, 1992
Czech & Slovakia become independent republics, 1992
Barbra Streisand performs 1st paid concert in 22 years, Las Vegas NE, 1993
Bryant & May, last UK match-making factory, closes, Garston, Liverpool, 1994
Helen Mirren and Taylor Hackford marry, Ardersier, near Inverness, 1997
Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, Moscow, 1999
Cézanne painting stolen from Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1999

Updated: July 20, 2009