- 1973: Nixon orders ceasefire in Vietnam
- 1953: East German purge begins
- 2001: DR Congo President Kabila shot
- 1979: Shah of Iran flees into exile
- 1995: Earthquake devastates Kobe
- 1991: 'Mother of all Battles' begins
- 1991: Iraqi Scud missiles hit Israel
- 1967: 'Boston Strangler' sentenced to life
- 1966: Indira Gandhi takes charge in India
- 1973: Super tug to defend fishing fleet
- 2002: Camp X-Ray pictures spark outrage
- 1961: John F Kennedy sworn in as US president
- 1981: Tehran frees US hostages after 444 days
- 1992: UN threatens Libya with sanctions
- 1990: Gorbachev explains crackdown in Azerbaijan
- 1962: 'A6 murder' trial begins
- 1989: Many killed in Tajik earthquake
- 1973: Nixon announces Vietnam peace deal
- 1966: 117 die in Air India tragedy
- 1986: Leon Brittan quits over Westland
- 1971: Idi Amin ousts Uganda president
- 1999: Colombia quake leaves hundreds dead
- 1950: India becomes a republic
- 2001: Thousands die in Gujarat quake
- 1945: Auschwitz death camp liberated
- 1967: Three astronauts die in Apollo 1 tragedy
- 1986: Seven dead in space shuttle disaster
- 1953: Derek Bentley hanged for murder
- 1996: France halts nuclear testing
- 1976: Explosions rock London's West End
- 1972: Army kills 13 in civil rights protest
- 1965: Last farewell to Churchill
- 1953: 130 die in ferry disaster
- 2000: Life for serial killer Shipman
- 1979: Exiled Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran
- 2003: Columbia shuttle disintegrates killing seven
- 1943: Germans surrender at Stalingrad
- 1990: De Klerk dismantles apartheid in South Africa
- 1959: Buddy Holly killed in air crash
- 1960: Macmillan speaks of 'wind of change' in Africa
- 1998: 4,000 feared dead in Afghan earthquake
- 1974: Soldiers and children killed in coach bombing
- 1994: Market massacre in Sarajevo
- 1996: First GM food goes on sale in UK
- 1958: United players killed in air disaster
- 1952: King George VI dies in his sleep
- 1964: Beatlemania arrives in the US
- 1945: Black Sea talks plan defeat of Germany
- 1952: New Queen proclaimed for UK
- 1994: Police probe MP's suspicious death
- 1950: McCarthy launches anti-red crusade
- 1979: Forest break football transfer record
- 1983: British police on trail of mass murderer
- 1996: Docklands bomb ends IRA ceasefire
- 1990: Freedom for Nelson Mandela
- 1956: 'Cambridge spies' surface in Moscow
- 1989: Belfast lawyer Finucane murdered
- 1964: Deaths follow Cyprus truce breach
- 1961: Ex-Congo PM declared dead
- 1991: US bombers strike civilians in Baghdad
- 1945: Thousands of bombs destroy Dresden
- 1993: Missing two-year-old found dead
- 1961: Belgian jet crashes seconds before landing
- 1971: D-Day delivers new UK currency
- 2001: Serbs killed in Kosovo pilgrimage
- 1959: Castro sworn in as Cuban PM
- 1979: China invades Vietnam
- 1987: Tamils strip off at Heathrow
- 1978: Belfast bomb suspects rounded up
- 1996: Bomb blast destroys London bus
- 2001: Foot-and-mouth scare at UK abbatoir
- 1997: China's reformist Deng Xiaoping dies
- 1993: Two boys charged with toddler's murder
- 1986: Soviets launch space station Mir
- 1972: Nixon makes historic visit to China
- 1965: Black nationalist leader shot dead
- 1991: Bush threatens Iraq with land war
- 1972: IRA bomb kills six at Aldershot barracks
- 1945: US flag raised over Iwo Jima
- 1981: Rebel army seizes control in Spain
- 1955: Britain's big freeze
- 1968: South Vietnamese recapture Hue
- 1964: Cassius Clay crowned world champion
- 1986: Corazon Aquino is Philippines president
- 1991: Iraqi troops flee Kuwait City
- 1984: US troops withdraw from Beirut
- 2002: Hindus die in train fire
- 1975: PC murder linked to IRA bomb factory
- 1986: Swedish prime minister assassinated
- Puffbox - SINGLE moorgate
- 1950: Communist spy jailed for 14 years
- 1954: US tests hydrogen bomb in Bikini
- 1970: Ian Smith declares Rhodesia a republic
- 1991: Sri Lankan hardliner among 19 killed in blast
- 1974: Turkish jet crashes killing 345
- 1985: Miners call off year-long strike
- 1976: Guilty verdict for 'Maguire Seven'
- 1989: Six die in Purley rail crash
- 1953: Soviet leader 'on brink of death'
- 1966: Passenger jet crashes into Mount Fuji
- Puffbox - SINGLE Osborne
- 1987: Hundreds trapped as car ferry capsizes
- 1965: Police attack Alabama marchers
- 1975: Kidnapped heiress found strangled
- 1972: TWA jet explodes at Las Vegas airport
- 1985: Beirut car bomb kills dozens
- 1967: Stalin's daughter defects to the West
- 1973: Northern Ireland votes for union
- 1969: Martin Luther King's killer gets life
- 1988: Avalanche hits royal ski party
- 1985: Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader
- 2004: Many die as bombs destroy Madrid trains
- 1993: Bombay hit by devastating bombs
- 1984: Miners strike over threatened pit closures
- 1996: Massacre in Dunblane school gym
- 1961: Five Britons accused of spying for Moscow
- 1984: Sinn Fein leader shot in street attack
- 1991: Birmingham Six freed after 16 years
- 1990: Observer journalist executed in Iraq
- 1976: Tube driver shot dead
- 1988: Three shot dead at Milltown Cemetery
- 1988: Thousands die in Halabja gas attack
- 1957: BEA withdraws Viscount aircraft
- 1978: Civilians flee southern Lebanon
- 1967: Supertanker Torrey Canyon hits rocks
- 1979: Three die in Golborne mine blast
- 1982: Argentine flag hoisted on S Georgia
- 1976: Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon to split
- 1993: Child killed in Warrington bomb attack
- 2003: US launches missiles against Saddam
- 1960: Scores die in Sharpeville shoot-out
- 1991: Heseltine unveils new property tax
- 1956: King convicted for bus boycott
- 1979: British ambassador assassinated in Holland
- 1983: Reagan launches Cold War into space
- 1987: 30 hurt as car bomb hits Army base
- 1989: Exxon Valdez creates oil slick disaster
- 1978: Tanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two
- 1975: National Front rallies against Europe
- 1975: Saudi's King Faisal assassinated
- 1979: Israel and Egypt shake hands on peace deal
- 2000: Pope prays for Holocaust forgiveness
- 1977: Hundreds dead in Tenerife plane crash
- 1980: North Sea platform collapses
- 1991: Family anger at Hillsborough verdict
- 1979: Nuclear leak causes alarm in America
- 1971: Calley guilty of My Lai massacre
- 1981: Triumph at first London Marathon
- 1981: President Reagan is shot
- 1979: Car bomb kills Airey Neave
- 1986: Greater London Council abolished
- 1966: Harold Wilson wins sweeping victory
- 1957: BBC fools the nation
- 1990: Rioting inmates take over Strangeways
- 1982: Argentina invades Falklands
- 2005: Pope John Paul II dies
- 1993: Grand National ends in 'shambles'
- 1996: 'Unabomber' suspect arrested
- 1968: Martin Luther King shot dead
- 1979: Deposed Pakistani PM is executed
- 1986: Berlin disco bombed
- 1976: Billionaire Howard Hughes dies
- 1994: Rwanda presidents' plane 'shot down'
- 1968: United States erupts in race violence
- 1978: Carter delays N-bomb production
- 1976: Government crisis as Stonehouse quits
- 1953: Seven years' hard labour for Kenyatta
- 1994: Rock musician Kurt Cobain 'shoots himself'
- 2003: Saddam statue topples with regime
- 1976: Young Liberal leader cleared of robbery
- 1998: Northern Ireland peace deal reached
- 1972: Earthquake kills thousands in Iran
- 1981: Brixton ablaze after riot
- 1961: Nazi war crimes trial begins
- 1975: US pulls out of Cambodia
- 1961: Soviets win space race
- 1975: Beirut street battle leaves 17 dead
- 1992: Labour's Neil Kinnock resigns
- 1970: Critical explosion cripples Apollo 13
- 1988: USSR pledges to leave Afghanistan
- 1986: US launches air strikes on Libya
- 1945: British troops liberate Bergen-Belsen
- 1964: 'Great Train Robbers' get 300 years
- 1993: UN makes Srebrenica 'safe haven'
- 1984: Libyan embassy shots kill policewoman
- 1986: British journalist McCarthy kidnapped
- 1956: Macmillan unveils premium bond scheme
- 1955: Albert Einstein dies
- 1995: Many feared dead in Oklahoma bombing
- 2005: Ratzinger is elected as new Pope
- 1968: Powell slates immigration policy
- 1999: Students 'kill dozens' at Denver school
- 1945: Red Army enters outskirts of Berlin
- 1987: Tamil Tigers blamed for bus garage blast
- 2000: Swat team grabs tug-of-love Cuban boy
- 1959: Dame Margot Fonteyn released from jail
- 1984: Scientist finds Aids virus
- 1979: Teacher dies in Southall race riots
- 1993: IRA bomb devastates City of London
- 1967: Russian cosmonaut dies in space crash
- 1980: Tehran hostage rescue mission fails
- 1974: Rebels seize control of Portugal
- 2005: Syrian troops leave Lebanon
- 1962: First US rocket lands on Moon
- 1945: Russians and Americans link at Elbe
- 1984: Libyan embassy siege ends
- 1986: Soviets admit nuclear accident
- 1996: Gunman runs amok in Tasmania
- 1993: Queen to open Palace doors
- 1992: LA in flames after 'not guilty' verdict
- 1975: Saigon surrenders
- 1973: Nixon takes rap for Watergate scandal
- Puffbox - SINGLE senna
- 1945: Germany announces Hitler is dead
- 1982: British sub sinks Argentine cruiser
- 1997: Labour routs Tories in historic election
- 1986: Bomb kills 21 in Sri Lanka
- 1968: Surgeons conduct UK's first heart transplant
- 1979: Election victory for Margaret Thatcher
- 1982: Argentines destroy HMS Sheffield
- 1981: Bobby Sands dies in prison
- 1980: SAS rescue ends Iran embassy siege
- 1966: Moors murderers jailed for life
- 1976: Huge earthquake rocks Italy
- 1945: Germany signs unconditional surrender
- 1976: More bodies found after Italy quake
- 1984: Moscow pulls out of US Olympics
- 1945: Rejoicing at end of war in Europe
- 1956: Mystery of missing frogman deepens
- 1972: Israeli commandos storm hijacked jet
- 1940: Churchill takes helm as Germans advance
- 1994: Mandela becomes SA's first black president
- 1985: Fans killed in Bradford stadium fire
- 1998: India explodes nuclear controversy
- 1994: Labour leader John Smith dies at 55
- 1981: Second IRA protester dies in jail
- 1989: British war hero 'seized' in Beirut
- 1981: Thousands see Pope shot in Rome
- 1955: Communist states sign Warsaw Pact
- 1991: Mandela's wife jailed for kidnaps
- 1957: Britain drops its first H-bomb
- 1974: Teenagers die in Israeli school attack
- 1974: Dozens die as Israel retaliates for Ma'alot
- 1943: Germans crush Jewish uprising
- 1943: RAF raid smashes German dams
- 1974: Bombs devastate Dublin and Monaghan
- 1944: Monte Cassino falls to the Allies
- 1991: Sharman becomes first Briton in space
- 2004: Angry dads hit Blair with purple flour
- 1980: Nine dead after Mount St Helens eruption