Today's The Day - 1st November

1st November 2006
National Day of Algeria.

Religious events today...
Feast day of All Saints,
St Benignus of Dijon,
Saints Caesarius and Julian,
St Austremonius or Stremoine,
St Cadfan,
St Mary, martyr,
St Vigor,
St Marcellus of Paris,
and Saint Mathurin or Maturinus.

History Test for November 1st

Born today in 1887, who was the subject of the 1978 UK chart hit `Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs'? -The painter L.S. Lowry - the song was sung by Brian and Michael

Name the last remaining member of Margaret Thatcher's original cabinet, who resigned today in 1990. -Sir Geoffrey Howe

The TV station S4C began transmissions today in 1982 - in what principal language? -Welsh

Comedy actor Phil Silvers died today in 1985. In which film did he star with the `Carry on' team? -`Carry On Follow that Camel'

Born in Johannesburg today in 1935, which golfer won both the British Open Championship and the US Masters in 1974? -Gary Player

QUOTE “A lie can be half way round the world before the truth has got its boots on.” - James Callaghan, British prime minister, 1976.

QUOTE “The nuclear power station needs electronic devices such as those used at airports, but there is not even a machine to make passes for the staff.” - Yanlzo Yanev, Bulgarian Atomic Energy Committee chairman, 1991.

Events today...

1512 Michaelangelo unveiled his painting of the ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel.

1604 "Othello" by William Shakespeare was performed for the first time in London.

1755 Severe earth tremors devastated the Portuguese city of Lisbon on the Feast of All Saints. Within 15 minutes two-thirds of the city was in ruins. Those unfortunates who fled towards the sea to escape the falling buildings were drowned by a huge tsunami, or tidal wave. Because it was a Sunday the cathedrals and churches were packed with worshippers, and many thousands lost their lives when the buildings collapsed. As if this were not enough, towards evening the remains were engulfed by fire. The estimated death toll stood somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000, but the true figure will probably never be known.

1793 The British anti-Catholic Lord George Gordon died in Newgate Prison convicted of libelling Marie Antoinette - he stirred up the so-called Gordon Riots in 1790.

1814 Following Napoleon's defeat, the European Congress opened in Vienna.

1848 The first W. H. Smith railway bookstall opened, at Euston. Station.

1858 The East India Company's long reign over India came to an end as the administration of the country passed to Queen Victoria. Her Majesty announced a policy of non-interference with religious expression and the opening of higher administrative office to qualified Indians. Lord Canning, already Governor General, was to be her Viceroy. The East India Company, was formed in 1600 to exploit trade with the East, and had acted as an agent of British imperialism since the early 18th century, though abuses of power by shareholders were curbed by the Regulating Act (1773) and Pitt's India Act (1784). The Company's influence was finally broken by the violent and bloody events of the Indian Mutiny, which developed from a revolt of Indian sepoys in Bengal into a widespread uprising against British rule in India. Although British reconquest was completed with the relief of Lucknow earlier in the year, reform was inevitable.

1895 "The Horseless Age" was the first magazine devoted to the motor vehicle.

1895 The first motoring organisation, the American Motor League, was founded.

1911 Woman's Weekly was first published.

1914 The bra was invented by Mary Jacobs.

1914 The British ships Good Hope and Monmouth were sunk by the Germans, at the Battle of Coronel.

1922 The first radio licences went on sale in Britain - they cost 10s.

1940 A prehistoric painting was discovered in a cave in Lascaux in the Dordogne, France.

1946 The premiere of A Matter of Life and Death with David Niven was held at the Empire, Leicester Square - it was Britain's first Royal Command Performance.

1947 The racehorse "Man of War" died. Whilst in the stud farm more than 2 million people signed the visitors book. More than two and half thousand people attended his funeral.

1950 Two Puerto Rican nationalists, Oscar Collazo and Girsel Torresola, made an attempt on the President's life in Washington DC. Mr Truman was unharmed, but one of his guards was killed and two seriously injured. Truman was in his private residence, Blair House, just over the street from the White House, when the two men made a foolhardy attempt to shoot their way in. The guard on the steps, Private Donald T. Birdsell, was shot by both men, but managed to return fire, killing Collazo. Torresola and Private Leslie Coffelt, who was on duty inside the house, shot and killed each other simultaneously. Twenty-seven shots were fired in the battle, which the president observed from an upstairs window until a security man shouted at him to take cover. It is believed that the would-be assassins were from the Independence party, dedicated to self-determination for Puerto Rico. "A President should expect these things," Mr Truman commented later.

1951 Frank Sinatra married Nancy Barbato.

1954 Algerian nationalists began a war of independence against the French.

1955 A bomb planted in the suitcase of a passenger exploded aboard a United Airlines DC-6 above Colorado killing all of the passengers and crew. Jack Graham was subsequently arrested and executed for the crime. He had taken out huge insurance policies on his mother's life. It was her suitcase that carried the bomb.

1955 Death of Dale Carnegie, (aged 66) Author of 'How to Win Friends and Influence People'.

1956 Ernie was born as Premium Bonds first went on sale in Britain.

1959 The first stretch of the M1 motorway was opened.

1961 The Soviet Communist Party Congress's "de-Stalinisation" theme had a dramatic result during the night Stalin's body was removed from the mausoleum in Red Square where it had lain next to Lenin's since his death in 1953. Even Stalingrad, one of the most resonant names from Russia's struggle against the Nazis, was renamed Volgagrad.

1966 Three albums by Elvis Presley went gold.

1967 Rolling Stone magazine made its debut - the first national rock 'n' roll periodical in the US.

1972 American poet Ezra Pound died in Venice aged 87.

1972 Orissa, India, was struck by a tidal wave which killed 10,000 people and left 5 million homeless.

1982 Death of King Vidor, (aged 88) US film director.

1982 Channel 4 began transmitting.

1984 Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as India's premier.

1985 Comedian Phil Silvers died, aged 73. His showbiz career started on the vaudeville stage, and his many films include Cover Girl, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Buona Sera, Mrs Campbell. He will be remembered world-wide for his role as Sergeant Bilko in the TV series You’ll Never Get Rich (later re-titled The Phil Silvers Show) between 1955 and 1958. The adventures of the crooked but loveable King of the Motor Pool and his sidekicks as they sought ever-more ingenious ways of subverting military authority (and making a buck) endeared him to millions, and are still popular today.

1988 Actors Jeff Goldblum and Gena Davis married in Las Vegas.

1988 Batman's faithful sidekick Robin was dynamited to death by the Joker in edition No.428 of DC Comics' Batman following a readers' poll which voted that he should go.

1988 Death of Louis Johnson, New Zealand poet.

1990 Geoffrey Howe resigned from Margaret Thatcher's cabinet. He was the last of the original members and with his resignation it lead to his scathing attack on the Prime Minister in the House of Commons.

1990 Sandra Miller was awarded $100 after Mike Tyson fondled her breasts.

1994 Death of Noah Beery Jr. (aged 81) Actor 'Rockford Files' (dad).

1996 There was widespread condemnation of Glenn Hoddle's decision to include Paul Gascoigne in the England squad after the player had been involved in wife-beating allegations.

2000 On-the-spot speeding fines in Britain were raised to £60.

2003 A German MP apologised for remarks appearing to link Jews to atrocities committed during the Russian Revolution.

2003 It was announced that Spain's Crown Prince, Prince Felipe was to marry 31-year-old television presenter Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano the following year.

2003 Talks to end strikes causing chaos in the postal service were stepped up a gear, as Royal Mail's chief executive joined the fray.

2003 Thousands gathered around England and Wales in protest against moves to outlaw hunting with dogs.

2003 Sir Ranulph Fiennes was one race away from completing seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.

2003 Tim Henman beat world number one Andy Roddick to reach the Paris Masters final.

2003 Diego Forlan, Cristiano Ronaldo and Roy Keane helped Man Utd beat Portsmouth 3-0. And Thierry Henry scored twice as Arsenal brush aside beleaguered Leeds 4-1 at Elland Road.

2004 At least four people died as a teenager suicide bomber attacked a market in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

2004 Several firearms officers handed in their weapons in protest at the suspension of two colleagues.

2004 It was announced that the controversial modern artist Damien Hirst was to design the CD sleeve for the new Band Aid single.

2004 A pilot episode of an Only Fools and Horses spin-off began filming, featuring Boycie and Marlene.

BIRTHDAYS (for 01 November 2006)

Benvenuto Cellini, 506 (born 01 November 1500)
Italian sculptor and goldsmith who killed a rival goldsmith and was absolved by Pope Paul III.

Spencer Perceval, 244 (born 01 November 1762)
British prime minister from 1809 who was assassinated in the House of Commons.

Stephen Crane, 135 (born 01 November 1871)
American author of The Red Badge of Courage, a remarkably realistic account of the American Civil War.

L. S. Lowry, 119 (born 01 November 1887)
Died 1976. English painter of distinctive matchstick figures.

Naomi Mitchison, 109 (born 01 November 1897)
author

Michael Denison, 91 (born 01 November 1915)
(Died 1998) English actor.

Victoria de los Angeles, 83 (born 01 November 1923)
soprano

Lou Donaldson, 80 (born 01 November 1926)
jazz saxophonist

Gary Player, 71 (born 01 November 1935)
South African golfer who has won all four of the world's major golfing championships.

Ron Liebman, 69 (born 01 November 1937)
Actor.

Nigel Dempster, 65 (born 01 November 1941)
society columnist

Larry Flynt, 64 (born 01 November 1942)
publisher

Keith Emerson, 62 (born 01 November 1944)
rock musician (The Nice / ELP)

Nick Owen, 59 (born 01 November 1947)
TV presenter.

Dan Peek, 56 (born 01 November 1950)
Member of 'America'.

Lee Ritenour, 55 (born 01 November 1951)
jazz guitarist

Lyle Lovett, 49 (born 01 November 1957)
Country singer.

Eddie MacDonald, 47 (born 01 November 1959)
Bassist with The Alarm.

Fernando Valenzuela, 46 (born 01 November 1960)
professional baseball pitcher.

Anthony Kiedis, 44 (born 01 November 1962)
Member of Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

Sharon Davies MBE, 44 (born 01 November 1962)
Swimmer and TV presenter.

Rick Allen, 43 (born 01 November 1963)
Drummer with Def Leppard.

Mark Hughes, 43 (born 01 November 1963)
Manchester United Great

Sophie B Hawkins, 40 (born 01 November 1966)
Singer.

Today's The Day - 31st October

31st October 2006
All Hallows' Eve (Halloween).

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Quentin or Quintinus,
St Bee or Bega,
St Wolfgang,
and St Foillan of Fosses.

History Test for October 31st

Which London theatre closed down today in 1964, despite its once famous boast: 'We never closed'? -The Windmill

John Keats was born today in 1795. Which of his poems has the line: "Thou wast not born for death, immortal bird!"? -`Ode to a Nightingale'

Escapologist Houdini died today in 1926. What was his first name? -Harry

Born today in 1632, who painted `A View of Delft' and died there in 1675? -Jan Vermeer

Today in 1922, Mussolini became the youngest Prime Minister in Italian History. What was his first name? -Benito

QUOTE “Gentlemen, it was necessary to abolish the fez, which sat on the heads of our nation as an emblem of ignorance, negligence, fanaticism and hatred of progress and civilisation, to accept in its place the hat, the headgear worn by the whole civilised world.” - Kemal Ataturk, Founder of the Turkish Republic, 1927.

Events today...

1517 Martin Luther nailed his theses on indulgences to the church door at Wittenberg, Germany.

1815 The miner's safety lamp was patented by Sir Humphrey Davy.

1864 Nevada became the 36th state of the Union.

1888 A Scottish veterinary surgeon's efforts to reduce the vibration emanating from the solid rubber wheels of his son's tricycle resulted in him being awarded a patent for a new type of tyre. John Boyd Dunlop's pneumatic tyre consisted of an all-rubber inner tube covered by canvas with a rubber tread. The flaps of the canvas jacket were affixed to the wheel of the vehicle by means of rubber cement. The idea was not new - some 40 years ago Robert William Thomson was given a British patent for his pneumatic tyre. However, such was Dunlop's determination to find applications for his tyre that he intended to start commercial production very soon after.

1902 The first telegraph cable across the Pacific Ocean was completed.

1904 Death of Dan Leno, British comedian.

1926 Escapologist and conjuror Harry Houdini died in a Detroit hospital aged 52. The man who delighted in cheating death in his daring stage act succumbed to peritonitis after suffering a punch in the stomach (a seemingly minor injury). The Hungarian-born master magician began his career as a trapeze artist. He changed his name from Erik Weiss to Houdini, after the famous French conjuror Jean-Eugene Robert Houdin. By the early 1900s his stage act had earned him an international reputation. Time and again he would enthral audiences by escaping from all manner of straitjackets, handcuffs, prison cells and locked, weighted and submerged containers. He attributed his success to his immense strength and (tongue in cheek) to his bow legs.

1940 The Battle of Britain ended: the Royal Air Force has lost 915 aircraft, the Luftwaffe 1733.

1943 Death of Max Reinhardt Austrian producer and director.

1951 Zebra crossings came into effect in Britain.

1952 At Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific, the USA detonated the first hydrogen bomb.

1955 Princess Margaret ended rumours about her relationship with RAF Captain Peter Townsend by saying that they would never marry.

1956 A bitter row erupted between Washington and London and Paris over the bombing of Egypt by Anglo-French aircraft. The attack followed an ultimatum by Britain and France that Israel and Egypt should withdraw their forces from the Canal zone. Two days earlier Israeli forces moved into the Sinai Peninsula, ostensibly in retaliation for Egyptian attacks on Israel. The alacrity with which the British and French produced the 12-hour ultimatum and then brought their military forces into play suggested that the timing of the Israeli action came as no surprise. It came as a great surprise to President Eisenhower, who found himself in the Soviet camp on this issue. Anglo-French thinking was that the Suez Canal - nationalized by Nasser in July - had to be kept open to international traffic, thereby securing Europe's supply of oil. President Eisenhower regarded the action as a threat to world peace and wanted an immediate ceasefire.

1956 British and French troops bombed Egyptian airfields at Suez.

1958 Nobel prize-winning author Boris Pasternak was expelled from the Soviet Writers' Union and was likely to be exiled for his Dr Zhivago.

1958 The first internal heart pacemaker was implanted by Dr Ake Senning in Stockholm.

1959 A former U.S. marine said in Moscow that he would never return to the United States again. In 1963 he assassinated President John F Kennedy. His name was Lee Harvery Oswald.

1961 Death of Welsh portrait painter and graphic artist Augustus John, renowned for his outstanding draughtsmanship.

1968 Linda Eastman moved to the UK to live with Paul McCartney.

1968 The American bombing of Vietnam ceased on orders from President Lyndon B Johnson.

1970 Michelle Phillips, one of the members of the group the Mamas and Papas married actor Dennis Hopper. They remained together for only 8 days and later divorced.

1971 An IRA bomb exploded at the top of the Post Office Tower, London.

1975 "Bohemian Rhapsody" was released in the U.K.

1982 The Thames barrier, part of London's flood defences, was raised for the first time.

1983 Ron Grant completed his run around Australia having covered 8,316 miles in 217 days.

1984 Death of Indira Gandhi, (aged 66) Indian Prime Minister (1966-77, 80-84).

1984 The Indian prime minister Mrs Indira Gandhi was shot dead as she walked in the garden of her home in New Delhi. She was 67. Ironically her killers were the men detailed to protect her, constable Satwant Singh and sub-inspector Beant Singh. The two men, both Sikhs, had riddled Mrs Gandhi with bullets before police loyal to the prime minister intervened, shooting dead Beant Singh. Mrs Gandhi had ignored repeated warnings about the potential danger of keeping Sikh bodyguards. Three months earlier Mrs Gandhi outraged Sikh feelings by ordering the Army to storm the holy Golden Temple of Amritsar. Her assassination was almost certainly linked to that act. Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as his mother's successor later in the day.

1987 Two young people were said to have committed double suicide near Canberra, Australia, when they were found beheaded and strapped in the front seat of their car with their heads mysteriously placed in the back.

1987 The world's longest tennis match took place in Coventry. It lasted 80 hours and 21 minutes.

1988 Death of John Houseman, (aged 86) Actor producer director 'The Paper Chase'.

1993 Death of Federico Fellini, (aged 73) Producer/director 'La Dolce Vita' 'Amacord'.

1993 Death of River Phoenix, (aged 23) Actor.

2000 Swede, Sven Goran Eriksson signed a five year contract as manager of The England football squad.

2002 It was announced that a professional footballer tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone for the first time in England. The Football Association were currently investigating the positive test, which occurred less than three months earlier, and were keeping the identity of the player secret until the inquiry had been completed. The FA refused even to reveal which division he played in or whether he was British or not.

2002 Women across the south-east of England were being warned of a serial rapist who's struck for the tenth time. Police urged women not to wear headphones in public so they could watch out for the man who always attacked from behind.

2002 New Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy met with Sinn Fein. It came just a day after the IRA's decision to pull out of arms decommissioning.

2002 It was announced that angry passengers at airports would be given a yellow card if they didn't obey rules. British Airways was to issue football-style cards in terminals after the scheme proved successful on planes.

2003 Royal Mail closed post boxes in London to help clear the backlog, as talks aimed at resolving the unofficial strike ended for the night.

2003 Former chancellor Ken Clarke said he would not challenge Michael Howard for the Conservative leadership.

2003 Passengers on the bug-hit British cruise liner the Aurora were sailing towards Gibraltar, after being refused entry into Greece.

2003 Fame Academy winner David Sneddon said he was quitting his pop career to focus on songwriting.

2003 Tim Henman defeated third seed Roger Federer in straight sets to reach the Paris Masters semi-finals.

2003 Defender Jamie Carragher and keeper Chris Kirkland extended their Anfield contracts.

2003 Howard Shore resigned from his role as non-executive director of Tottenham after a disagreement with the Spurs chairman.

BIRTHDAYS (for 31 October 2006)

Jan Vermeer, 374 (born 31 October 1632)
Dutch painter of exquisitely realistic scenes of serene and harmonious domestic life.

John Keats, 211 (born 31 October 1795)
Died 1821. English Romantic poet best-known for his "Ode to a Grecian Urn" and "Ode to a Nightingale".

Benoit Fourneyron, 204 (born 31 October 1802)
French inventor who further developed the water turbine, taking over where Claude Burdin left off.

Sir Joseph Wilson Swan, 178 (born 31 October 1828)
English chemist credited with Edison for inventing the electric lamp.

Juliette Gordon Low, 146 (born 31 October 1860)
Girl Scouts founder.

Chiang Kai-shek, 119 (born 31 October 1887)
Chinese leader of the Kuomintang (Nationalist People's Party), exiled in Taiwan after being ousted by the Communists.

Dale Evans, 94 (born 31 October 1912)
US film actress

Dick Francis, 86 (born 31 October 1920)
Author.

Sir Jimmy Saville OBE, 80 (born 31 October 1926)
Radio and TV presenter.

Eddie Charlton, 77 (born 31 October 1929)
Australian snooker champion 15 times and World Matchplay champion in 1976.

Lee Grant, 77 (born 31 October 1929)
Actress.

Michael Collins, 76 (born 31 October 1930)
US astronaut

Norman Beaton, 72 (born 31 October 1934)
(Died 1995) Comedian actor - 'Desmonds'.

Michael Landon, 70 (born 31 October 1936)
(Died 1991) Actor 'Bonanza' 'Little House on Prarie'.

Tom Paxton, 69 (born 31 October 1937)
Singer.

Tom O'Connor, 67 (born 31 October 1939)
Comedian.

David Ogden Stiers, 64 (born 31 October 1942)
Actor ('MASH') and voice of Cogsworth in 'Beauty and the Beast'.

Stephen Rea, 63 (born 31 October 1943)
Actor 'The Crying Game' 'Michael Collins'.

Russ Ballard, 59 (born 31 October 1947)
Singer, writer of solo and Argent fame.

Bob Siebenberg, 57 (born 31 October 1949)
Drummer with Supertramp.

John Candy, 56 (born 31 October 1950)
(Died 1994) Comedian actor.

Bernard Edwards, 54 (born 31 October 1952)
(Died 1996) Musician and producer of Chic fame.

Tony Bowers, 50 (born 31 October 1956)
Bass player with Simply Red.

Larry Mullen, 45 (born 31 October 1961)
Drummer with U2.

Ad Rock, 45 (born 31 October 1961)
Member of The Beastie Boys.

Johnny Marr, 43 (born 31 October 1963)
Guitarist with Electronic.

Mikkey Dee, 43 (born 31 October 1963)
Drummer of Motorhead.

Dermot Mulroney, 43 (born 31 October 1963)
Actor 'Young Guns' 'My Best Friend's Wedding'.

Denis Irwin, 41 (born 31 October 1965)
Manchester United Great

Adam Horowitz, 40 (born 31 October 1966)
Rap singer and lead of The Beastie Boys.

Vanilla Ice, 38 (born 31 October 1968)
Rap singer.

Linn Berggren, 36 (born 31 October 1970)
Lead singer of Ace of Base.

Today's The Day - 30th October

30th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Marcellus the Centurion,
St Alphonsus Rodriguez,
St Germanus of Capua,
St Serapion of Antioch,
St Asterius of Amasea,
and St Ethelnoth.

History Test for October 30th

Born today in 1945, who played the Fonz in the TV series `Happy Days'? -Henry Winkler

Traditionally the sovereign's bodyguards, which ancient corps was established by Henry VII at his Coronation today in 1485? -The Yeomen of the Guard - not to be confused with the Yeomen Warders of the Tower, popularly known as 'Beefeaters'

Born today in 1935, who directed three `Death Wish' films? -Michael Winner

Presented by Ralph Reader, which famous concert event for scouts took place for the first time today in 1932? -The Gang Show

Born today in 1960, which Argentinian footballer led his country to victory in the 1986 World Cup? -Diego Maradona

QUOTE “Tragedy is if I cut my finger. Comedy is if I walk into an open sewer and die.” - Mel Brooks, US film director, 1978.

Events today...

1485 The Yeomen of the Guard were established by King Henry VlI.

1650 `Quakers', the more common name for the Society of Friends, came into being during a court case, at which George Fox, the founder, told the magistrate to `quake and tremble at the word of God'.

1757 Death of Edward Vernon, English admiral.

1823 Death of Edmund Cartwright, whose invention of the power loom contributed to the Industrial Revolution.

1838 Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Lorain County, Ohio, became the first college in the United States to open its doors to women students. The Institute trained both ministers and teachers for work in the West. The town and college of Oberlin were founded in 1835 by the Rev. John L. Shipherd, a Presbyterian minister, and Philo P. Steward, a former missionary to the Choctaw Indians. They chose the name Oberlin to honour the Lutheran pastor, educator and philanthropist Johann Friedrich Oberlin, who died 12 years earlier after a life dedicated to improving the standards of living and education among his Alsatian parishioners.

1888 The ball point pen was patented by John L Loud.

1894 The clock with which workers were required to punch in their starting and finishing times was patented in New York.

1905 Under pressure from striking workers and oppressed peasants and hoping to avoid a revolution, the Tsar of Russia agreed in his October manifesto to grant civil liberties and elections.

1911 Advised by the regent Prince Chun, China’s five-year-old boy emperor Pu Yi granted a constitution to combat growing support for the rebel republican army of Sun Yatsen.

1918 Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") shocked King George V by refusing to receive from him the Order of the Bath and the Distinguished Service Order. Lawrence, 28, was deeply disillusioned with the outcome of the recently ended hostilities in Palestine, where instead of realising his dream of an Arab nation, he witnessed the Arabs' seemingly incurable factionalism and a carve-up of the region by the French and British.

1918 The Republic of Czechoslovakia was proclaimed.

1922 Italy's government was taken over by Benito Mussolini.

1923 Death of Andrew Bonar Law British Statesman.

1925 Death of Max Linder (aged 41). Silent comedian influenced Chaplin.

1925 Fifteen-year-old office boy William Taynton was the first person to be captured on television, by John Logie Baird at his workshop in London.

1938 A 23-year-old actor-director succeeded in taking millions of Americans across the narrow line that divides fact from fiction with his gripping radio dramatisation of H. G. Wells' sci-fi thriller, The War of the Worlds. Despite several reminders that the CBS presentation by Orson Welles and the Mercury Players was pure fantasy and that New Jersey was not really being invaded by giant green men from Mars, thousands of New Yorkers panicked. Police switchboards were packed with anxious callers seeking information and advice, and roads and churches were jammed by people desperate to escape the clutches of the menacing Martians.

1939 Winston Churchill was aboard the battleship "Nelson" when it was attacked by a German U-Boat. It failed to sink the battleship.

1955 In a broadcast to the British people, Princess Margaret said that she had decided not to marry divorced Group Captain Peter Townsend. There had been intense speculation in the press about the possibility of the marriage since Townsend's (her late father's equerry) recent return from an enforced two-year posting to Brussels. Had the princess married him she would have lost her income from the Civil List and her place in line to the throne.

1956 Death of Pio Baroja, Spanish novelist.

1959 Death of Jim Mollison, Scottish pioneer aviator.

1965 Fifty people were killed in Columbia after fireworks factory exploded.

1965 Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones was jailed for drug offences.

1974 Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in the eighth round in Kinshasa to regain his title as world heavyweight boxing champion.

1975 Prince Juan Carlos assumed power in Spain as dictator General Franco was dying.

1979 Death of British aircraft designer Sir Barnes Neville Wallis, whose invention of "bouncing bombs" played a key part in World War Two.

1982 Paul Weller announced that The Jam were splitting up.

1984 Rock singer Linda Ronstadt made her debut in the opera "La Boheme" in New York.

1984 The body of the kidnapped pro-Solidarity priest, Father Jerzy Popieluszko, was found by police frogmen in Wloclawek Reservoir in northern Poland. Father Popieluszko, who was famed for his outspoken criticism of Communism, disappeared 12 days earlier while driving between his parish in Warsaw and the city of Torun. Three secret police officers had already been charged with abducting the popular 37-year-old priest, but the Polish government had admitted that other, more important people must have ordered the killing. Hardline opponents of Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski were thought to be the most likely culprits.

1988 The head of the Unification Church, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, presided over one of the biggest mass wedding ceremonies in history at Yongin in South Korea. In the appropriate setting of a production-line factory, the identically clothed brides and grooms paraded before their Moonie master. The 6516 couples had all been personally matched by the controversial cult leader. In some cases the two sides of Moon's ready-matched equation were meeting for the first time. The newly-weds were to spend the next 40 days getting to know each other - and, in a few instances, each other's language - before being allowed to consummate their vows.

1990 The Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) between England and France was completed.

1997 Death of Samuel Fuller (aged 86). Film director.

1997 A Boston court found Cheshire nanny Louise Woodward guilty of second degree murder following the death of 18-month-old Matthew Eappen who died whilst in her care.

2000 The final stretch of the M60 was opened. Manchester now had its own orbital motorway, the equivalent of London’s M25.

2002 Liverpool's Champions League future was in the balance. A single goal in the first half condemned an out of sorts Liverpool to a one-nil defeat at the hands of Valencia (the reds' first defeat in 23 matches at Anfield). The result meant if Basle won in Moscow the following week, Gerard Houllier's men would have to beat the Swiss club away in their final group match to qualify. But there was better news for Arsenal fans as their side was through to the second phase despite losing two-one at Borussia Dortmund. Arsene Wenger's men qualified thanks to PSV Eindhoven's three-nil win over French side Auxerre. Goalkeeper David Seaman had another nightmare night. He was beaten by an own-goal from Gilberto, and saw a penalty controversially awarded against him. Thierry Henry gave the Gunners the lead earlier with a delightful free kick.

2003 The United Nations ordered a temporary withdrawal from Baghdad of its staff for consultations on security.

2003 Italy's former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti was cleared of charges that he ordered a Mafia killing.

2003 Michael Howard made his pitch to succeed Iain Duncan Smith as leader of the Conservative Party.

2003 Wildcat strikes by Royal Mail workers spread to more areas of the UK, seriously disrupting postal services.

2003 Sir Paul McCartney and wife Heather Mills said they "could not be prouder" after birth of their baby Beatrice.

2003 Digital TV service Freeview, launched after the collapse of ITV Digital, celebrated its first year.

2003 The FA suspended four Arsenal players and handed out fines totalling £275,000 in one of the biggest crackdowns in English football.

2003 The English FA and its Turkish counterpart were both fined over the player punch-up in October's Euro qualifier.

2003 Tim Henman reached the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters with a clinical 6-4 6-2 win over Gustavo Kuerten.

2003 Fifa declined to authorise a loan move by out-of-favour Manchester United goalkeeper Fabien Barthez to Marseille.

2004 The Queen paid tribute to her aunt, Princess Alice, the Duchess of Gloucester, who died aged 102.

2004 A tribute programme of Radio 4's “Home Truths” was broadcast in memory of presenter John Peel who died earlier that week.

2004 More than 900 friends and family of the late Christopher Reeve gathered in New York to celebrate his life.

BIRTHDAYS (for 30 October 2006)

Christopher Columbus, 555 (born 30 October 1451)
Died 1506. Explorer.

John Adams, 271 (born 30 October 1735)
American statesman and second president who signed the Declaration of Independence and negotiated the end of the War of American Independence.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 255 (born 30 October 1751)
Irish-born dramatist whose plays include School for Scandal and The Critic.

Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoevski, 185 (born 30 October 1821)
Russian novelist and short-story writer.

Alfred Sisley, 166 (born 30 October 1840)
French Impressionist painter of English parentage who was described by Renoir as `a delightful human being who could never resist a petticoat'.

Charles Atlas, 112 (born 30 October 1894)
Died 1972. Body builder.

Louis Malle, 74 (born 30 October 1932)
Died 1995. French director whose films include The Lovers and Souffle au Coeur.

Michael Winner, 71 (born 30 October 1935)
Film director 'Death Wish'.

Eddie Holland, 67 (born 30 October 1939)
Singer composer of Holland-Dozier-Holland fame.

Grace Slick, 67 (born 30 October 1939)
Singer of Jefferson Airplane and Starship fame - biggest UK hit 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now'.

Otis Williams, 67 (born 30 October 1939)
Member of Temptations.

Henry Winkler, 61 (born 30 October 1945)
Actor - The Fonz in 'Happy Days'.

Timothy B Schmidt, 59 (born 30 October 1947)
Singer of Eagles and Poco.

Harry Hamlin, 55 (born 30 October 1951)
Actor.

Juliet Stephenson, 50 (born 30 October 1956)
Actress 'Truly Madly Deeply'.

Kevin Pollack, 48 (born 30 October 1958)
Comedian and actor 'Few Good Men'.

Diego Maradona, 46 (born 30 October 1960)
Argentinean footballer.

Halloween Trivia - Reference

"Phasmophobia" is the fear of ghosts.

It's illegal to sell a haunted house in New York without informing the buyer.

Eighty-two percent of children take part in Halloween festivities, as do 67% of adults.

The first jack-o'-lanterns were made of turnips.

"Samhainophobia" is the morbid fear of Halloween.

The word witch comes from the Saxon word wicca, which means "wise one."

Pumpkins also come in white, blue and green.

In France, more than 30,000 werewolf cases were tried between 1520 and 1630.

Dracula is the most filmed story of all time.

The largest pumpkin ever grown weighed 1,469 pounds. It was weighed in on October 1, 2005 at the Pennsylvania Giant Pumpkin Growers Weigh-Off.

Trick-or-treating is an Irish tradition, based on a custom where wealthy landowners would give food to the poor on Halloween night, believing ghosts would look favorably on them for doing so and spare them from mischief.

In Romanian, Dracula means "Son of the Devil."

The Scots believed in "Samhanach," a goblin who came out only on Halloween and stole children.

Halloween costume sales are estimated at $1.5 billion.

Pumpkins are fruits, not vegetables.

Pennslyvania was the first colony to legalize witchcraft.

There is a poisonous mushroom called a jack-o'-lantern. These mushrooms are a bright orange-yellow in color and on rainy nights they appears to glow in the dark.

Fifty-one percent of all American adults believe in ghosts. Nine percent of Americans claim to have been in the presence of a ghost during their lifetime.

The Count Dracula Society was founded in 1962.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, people in costumes and masks would go from house to house, singing and dancing to keep evil at bay. These people were known as "guisers."

Americans spend about $50 million on Halloween greetings.

According to studies, the smell of pumpkin pie is the most arousing to women, followed by lavender, cucumbers, baby powder and Good & Plenty candy.

At one time, there were public trials and convictions of animals for witchcraft.

In Lewis, Scotland, Halloween was once celebrated by designating one man to wade into the evening sea and offer a cup of ale to Shoney, a sea god.

In the North of England, Halloween was called "nut-crack" and "snap-apple night."

Ninety-nine percent of pumpkins sold in the U.S. are used to make jack-o'-lanterns.

The first Frankenstein film was produced by Thomas Edison in 1910.

There is a Transylvania County in North Carolina.

According to superstition, you will see your future spouse over your left shoulder in the mirror at midnight on Halloween.

"Wiccaphobia" is the fear of witches and witchcraft.

A popular Halloween drink in 18th century Ireland was "lambs-wool," which consisted of roasted, crushed apples mixed into milk.

Celts believed black cats were once people who had been turned into animals with evil magic.

Celtic folklore
The Samhain celebration survived in several guises as a festival dedicated to the dead. In Ireland and Scotland, the Féile na Marbh, the "festival of the dead" took place on Samhain.

Samhain Eve, in Irish and Scots Gaelic, Oidhche Shamhna, is one of the principal festivals of the Celtic calendar, and is thought to fall on or around the 31st of October. It represents the final harvest. In modern Ireland and Scotland, the name by which Halloween is known in the Gaelic language is still "Oíche/Oidhche Shamhna".

Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. Even into Christian times, villagers cast the bones of the slaughtered cattle upon the flames, cattle having a prominent place in the pre-Christian Gaelic world. The English word 'bonfire' derives from these "bone fires," but the Gaelic has no such parallel. With the bonfire ablaze, the villagers extinguished all other fires. Each family then solemnly lit its hearth from the common flame, thus bonding the families of the village together.

According to Irish mythology, during that night the great shield of Scathach was lowered, allowing the barriers between the worlds to fade and the forces of chaos to invade the realms of order, the material world conjoining with the world of the dead. At this time the spirits of the dead and those yet to be born walked amongst the living. The dead could return to the places where they had lived and food and entertainment were provided in their honour. In the three days preceding Samhain, the Sun God Lugh, maimed at Lughnassadh (August 1), dies by the hand of his Tánaiste (counterpart or heir), the Lord of Misrule. Lugh traverses the boundaries of the worlds on the first day of Samhain. His Tanist is a miser and, though shining brightly in the winter skies, he gives no warmth and does not temper the breath of the Crone, Cailleach Bheare, the north wind.

In parts of western Brittany Samhain is still heralded by the baking of kornigou, cakes baked in the shape of antlers to commemorate the god of winter shedding his "cuckold" horns as he returns to his kingdom in the Otherworld.

The Romans identified Samhain with their own feast of the dead, the Lemuria. This, however, was observed in the days leading up to May 13.

With Christianization, the festival in November (not the Roman festival in May) became All Hallows' Day on November 1st followed by All Souls' Day, on November 2nd, after which the night of October 31 was called All Hallow's Eve, and the remnants festival dedicated to the dead eventually morphed into the secular holiday known as Halloween .

10 things we didn't know last week

1. Pelicans can swallow pigeons whole.
More details

2. Pelicans were first introduced into London's St James's Park as a gift from the Russian ambassador.
More details

3. Sex workers in Roman times charged the equivalent price of eight glasses of red wine.
More details

4. Only 12% of the adult male population had more than one sexual partner in the past year, says the Office for National Statistics.

5. Finland is the only country in the world which broadcasts the news in Latin.
More details

6. The 100-million-year-old bee fossil found in Burma is so well preserved scientists can see individual hairs.
More details

7. English is now the only "traditional" academic subject in the top 10 most popular university courses.
More details

8. The number of people committing suicide in the UK has fallen to its lowest recorded level.
More details

9. A very small front garden can hold up to 700 different species of insect.
More details

10. Kellogg's Special K in the UK has 31% more sugar than Special K in the US.

Today's The Day - 29th October

29th October 2006
National Day of Turkey.

Religious events today...
Feast day of The Martyrs of Douay,
St Theuderius or Chef,
St Colman of Kilmacduagh,
and St Narcissus of Jerusalem.

History Test for October 29th

Today in 1964, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form which East African republic? -Tanzania

Which American author wrote the stories 'Little Lord Fauntleroy' and 'The Secret Garden' and died today in 1924? -Frances Hodgson Burnett

Actor Jack Shepherd was born today in 1940. Name the detective superintendent he plays in a TV series. -Charles Wycliffe

Born today in 1897, who became Hitler's Minister of Propaganda? -Josef Goebbels

Who wrote his 'History of the World' and was beheaded today in 1618? -Sir Walter Raleigh

Events today...

1618 Sir Walter Raleigh, English navigator, courtier, and once favourite of Elizabeth I, was beheaded at Whitehall for treason.

1787 Mozart's opera Don Giovanni was first performed in Prague.

1863 The International Red Cross was founded by Swiss philanthropist Henri Dunant.

1886 Champion English Jockey Fred Archer rode the last of his races at Newmarket, retiring after 16 years and 2746 wins.

1911 Death of Joseph Pulitzer, US newspaper publisher.

1914 Prince Louis Alexander of Battenberg, Britain's first sea lord, announced his resignation on this day. The 60-year-old Admiral had been forced to resign, because of his German birth.

1924 Death of Frances Hodgson Burnett, English novelist.

1927 The tomb of Genghis Khan was discovered by Russian archeologist Peter Kozlov.

1929 The crisis of confidence which had hit the New York stock market during the previous few days reached epic proportions on this day. By the end of trading 16,410,030 sales had taken place, driving the Dow Jones index down rapidly a further 43 points and wiping out the unprecedented stock market gains of the previous year.

1945 The first ball point pen went on sale. It had been patented 57 years previously.

1950 Death of Gustav V, King of Sweden.

1956 Marilyn Monroe was presented to HM The Queen at the Royal Command Performance.

1957 Death of Louis Burt Mayer (aged 72). Film producer of Metro Goldwyn Mayer fame.

1960 Cassius Clay made his professional boxing debut in a fight against Tunney Hunsaker.

1964 The Star of India and other jewels were stolen from the American Museum of Natural History in New York and were recovered several months later. They had not been insured.

1964 The union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar was announced, adopting the name of Tanzania.

1967 Expo-67, an international exhibition, opened in Montreal.

1970 "Cracklin' Rose" by Neil Diamond went gold.

1971 Death of Duane Allman (aged 24). Guitarist of Allman Brothers fame died in motorcycle accident.

1973 "Quadrophenia" by The Who went gold.

1976 Elvis Presley recorded his last song "Way Down" at Graceland.

1982 Lindy Chamberlain, the mother who claimed that her baby daughter had been run off with by a dingo, was found guilty of murder by a court in Darwin. Mrs. Chamberlain was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour.

1983 "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd broke the record for the longest time on the U.S. album chart. It entered its 491st week on the chart.

1985 Nine-times Derby Winner Lester Piggot ended his horse career at Nottingham.

1987 Multi-adaptable boxer Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns won the World middle-heavyweight title, meaning, he had now won a world title at four different weights.

1987 Death of Woody Herman (aged 74). Jazz performer and bandleader.

1988 Britain's Olympic middle-distance runners Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram ran the circuit around the Great Court at Trinity College, Cambridge, first attempted by Lord Burghley and Harold Abraham's; the course had to be completed between the first and last strokes of twelve. Coe won.

1989 Death of Henry Hall (aged 91). Dance orchestra leader.

1991 Vietnam formally approved a plan to repatriate forcibly tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees living in camps in Hong Kong.

1994 Shots were fired on The White House by Francisco Martin Duran who used a semi-automatic rifle. He was arrested and sentenced to 40 years for the attempted assassination of President Clinton.

1998 Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, died of cancer at the age of 68. He was hailed as "one of the great poets of this century".

1998 BSkyB's bid to takeover Manchester United was referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission by Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Mandelson. The Independent Manchester United Supporters Association hailed the decision “a victory for the ordinary fan”.

1998 With many parts of England and Wales under water since the weekend, forecasters confirmed that the UK had suffered the wettest October since the storms of 1987. And for Manchester, the wettest October since records began in 1942.

1998 Ex-Page Three model Samantha Fox was been fined £1,000 and banned for 18 months for drink-driving. She was more than three times the alcohol limit when she was caught by police who had followed her for three miles in a car with flashing lights.

1998 Manchester City record signing Lee Bradbury completed his £1.5million move to Crystal Palace. Bradbury, who cost Manchester City nearly £3.5million when he was signed from Portsmouth just 15 months earlier had been targeted by Palace chief Terry Venables.

1998 More than sixty teenagers were killed as fire swept through a nightclub in Gothenburg, Sweden.

2002 The Government was forced into a major climb-down over the amount of cut-price tobacco people could bring into Britain from Europe. Travellers were now allowed to bring more than three-thousand cigarettes into Britain (previously just eight-hundred were allowed).

2002 Hundreds of thousands of commuters faced another day of chaos on the trains, two days after heavy gales battered Britain. Rail companies blamed severe damage caused by the storms, and widespread debris on the tracks, ranging from leaves to fallen power lines. Meanwhile, thousands of Eurostar travellers on both sides of the Channel were left stranded after the bad weather halted its service. Sea salt blown up during the weekend gales caused circuits to short.

2002 TV host Angus Deayton was summoned to a meeting with BBC bosses over his future on the programme "Have I Got News For You". Despite previously receiving the backing of producers, the presenter was now given the sack from the hit show after further allegations about his private life.

2003 The International Committee of the Red Cross scaled back foreign staff after its Baghdad HQ was bombed.

2003 The Earth's magnetic field wavered as it was struck by a cloud of gas from the Sun.

2003 The Russian president warned that accidents at coal mines were becoming routine after two occur in a row.

2003 Iain Duncan Smith lost his job as Tory leader in a vote of confidence, with senior figures rallying behind Michael Howard.

2003 Rio Ferdinand was charged with misconduct after missing a drugs test and faced the possibility of a lengthy ban.

2003 Napster, which became synonymous with online music piracy, launched its paid-for service in the US.

2003 Channel 4 bosses admitted Big Brother 4 was disappointing, but promised a "fresh start" for the next series.

2003 Tim Henman came from a set down to beat Sebastien Grosjean at the Paris Masters.

2003 Sir Paul McCartney’s wife Heather Mills gave birth to a baby daughter which they named Beatrice.

2004 Ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat underwent urgent medical treatment in France for a mystery illness.

2004 A law firm boss and some of his former staff were convicted after claiming millions of pounds in bogus Legal Aid work.

2004 A former British assistant to Salvador Dali was convicted of doctoring one of the surrealist's paintings.

2004 Leicester City officially announced the former Hearts head coach Craig Levein as their new manager.

BIRTHDAYS (for 29 October 2006)

Sir Edmund Haley, 350 (born 29 October 1656)
Died 1742. Astronomer - of Haley's Comet fame.

James Boswell, 266 (born 29 October 1740)
Died 1795. Samuel Johnson's biographer.

Fanny Brice, 115 (born 29 October 1891)
Died 1951. American Broadway star whose life story was immortalised in the musical `Funny Girl'.

Joseph Goebbels, 109 (born 29 October 1897)
German Nazi propaganda chief who poisoned himself when the Allies entered Berlin.

Neil Hefti, 84 (born 29 October 1922)
Composer 'The Odd Couple' 'Batman'.

Robert Hardy CBE, 81 (born 29 October 1925)
Actor 'All Creatures Great and Small'.

Michael Jayston, 71 (born 29 October 1935)
Actor 'Darling Buds of May'.

Jack Shepherd, 66 (born 29 October 1940)
Actor 'Wycliffe'.

Denny Laine, 62 (born 29 October 1944)
Musician - member of Wings.

Melba Moore, 61 (born 29 October 1945)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'This is It'.

Peter Green, 60 (born 29 October 1946)
Co-founder musician of original Fleetwood Mac - 'Albatross'.

Kate Jackson, 58 (born 29 October 1948)
Actress 'Charlie's Angels'.

Richard Dreyfus, 57 (born 29 October 1949)
American film star who won an Oscar for his part in `The Goodbye Girl', and whose other films include `American Graffiti' and `Jaws'.

Dave Paton, 55 (born 29 October 1951)
Member of Pilot - biggest UK hit 'January'.

Stephen Luscombe, 52 (born 29 October 1954)
Member of Blancmange.

Randy Jackson, 45 (born 29 October 1961)
Singer - a Jackson brother.

Roni Size, 37 (born 29 October 1969)
Drum 'n Bass artist.

Toby Smith, 36 (born 29 October 1970)
Member of Jamiroquai.

Winona Ryder, 35 (born 29 October 1971)
Actress 'Edward Scissorhands' 'Dracula'.

Today's The Day - 28th October

28th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of Saints Anascasia and Cyril,
St Faro,
St Ahraham of Ephesus,
St Salvius or Saire,
St Simon,
St Jude or Thaddeus,
and St Fidelis of Como.

History Test for October 28th

Born today in 1846, which French cook was known as `The King of Chefs' and `The Chef of Kings'? -Auguste Escoffier

Founded today in 1636, which is the oldest educational institution in America? -Harvard University

Born today in 1945, who had sixties hits with `Um Um Um Um Um Um' and 'Game of Love' with his backing group The Mindbenders? -Wayne Fontana

Today in 1958, which historic annual event was televised for the first time? -The State Opening of Parliament

Born today in 1903, who wrote the novel `Brideshead Revisited'? -Evelyn Waugh

Events today...

1636 Harvard University, the first in the USA, was founded.

1704 Death of John Locke, English philosopher.

1746 An earthquake completely destroyed Lima and Callao in Peru.

1792 Death of John Smeaton, English civil engineer.

1831 Physicist and chemist Michael Faraday succeeded in inventing a device that converted mechanical energy into electrical energy. After discovering that a current of electricity could be generated by plunging a magnet into a coil of wire, he set about trying to generate a steady current. He achieved this by spinning a copper disc between the poles of a magnet. The 40-year-old Englishman left school at 14 and was offered a job by Humphrey Davy, director of the Royal Institution's laboratory.

1886 The Statue of Liberty was given a ticker tape parade in New York Harbour after it had been donated by France. The largest present ever sent to the American people was inaugurated on Liberty Island in the Upper Bay of New York Harbour by President Grover Cleveland. Weighing 225 tons and measuring over 151ft (49m) high without its pedestal, the gift - a statue called Liberty Enlightening the World - commemorated the friendship of the people of France and the US. French historian Edouard de Laboulaye suggested the idea at the end of the American Civil War. Funds were raised from public donations in France and work began under the sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi. The bright beacon would also make a useful navigation aid.

1893 HMS Havelock, the Royal Navy's first destroyer went on trials.

1899 Death of Otto Morgenthaler, German inventor of the Linotype machine.

1914 George Eastman announced a colour photographic process, following his invention in 1888 of the Kodak camera, containing wind-on celluloid film replacing the paper-based film he patented in 1884.

1927 Pan Am launched its first international flight (from Key West to Havana).

1941 The movie "How Green Was My Valley" directed by John Ford received its premiere and went on to win five Oscars. It starred Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Donald Crisp and Roddy McDowall.

1948 The flag of Israel was adopted.

1951 Ernest Hemingway won the Nobel prize for literature.

1958 The state opening of British parliament was televised for the first time.

1961 Brian Epstein, a record shop owner received a request for a single called "My Bonnie" from a local group. He set out to check them out and was so impressed that he signed them up. The group of course was The Beatles.

1962 The world breathed a collective sigh of relief when it was confirmed that the Soviet leader, Nikita Krushchev, had informed President Kennedy that work on the missile sites under construction in Cuba would be halted and that the missiles already delivered would be shipped back to the USSR. Krushchev also offered to allow the UN to carry out on-the-spot inspections to check that the installations had been removed. The US, however, relied on its own U-2 spy planes for such confirmation. The US had been on a war footing for almost a week, underlining Kennedy's determination not to allow alien missiles on America's doorstep.

1968 Cynthia Lennon sued husband John for divorce. He had been living with Yoko Ono who was pregnant.

1971 Great Britain became the fifth nation to have a satellite when Prospero (a Black Knight 1 satellite) carried by a Black Arrow rocket was launched from Woomera in Australia.

1971 By a margin of 112 votes, the House of Commons backed Prime Minister Heath's decision to apply for EEC membership.

1975 Death of French boxer Georges Carpentier, world light heavyweight champion from 1920 to 1922.

1977 Yorkshire police announced that a multiple murderer was on the loose in Britain.

1982 Forty-year-old Felipe Gonzalez became Spain's first Socialist prime minister with a landslide victory.

1987 Death of Woody Herman, US bandleader.

1988 Death of Pietro Annigoni, Italian painter.

1988 The Prince of Wales renewed his attack on modern architectural thinking and planning in a BBC television programme broadcast. The film took the form of a royal tour of Britain's architectural black and white spots. Two examples of the "terrible damage" that had been done to the inner-city landscape were Birmingham's Bullring and Convention Centre and London's Paternoster Square. A spokesman for Birmingham Council called the Prince's criticism of his city as a "stab in the back from someone in an ivory tower". Among the white spots were Kirkgate Old Market in Leeds and the Ministry of Health in Whitehall. The president elect of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Max Hutchinson, said that the Prince's thinking was "strangely nostalgic and. . . out of time with current architectural thought and criticism".

1990 Jennifer Capriati won her first professional tennis tournament. She was 14 years old at the time. (The Puerto Rican Open she beat Zina Garrison in the final).

1996 Death of Morey Amsterdam (aged 87). Actor 'Dick van Dyke Show'.

1997 Manchester City’s Georgian star, Georgi Kinkladze crashed his Ferrari, on the A538 at Hale Barnes in Cheshire. (proving he’s no good at taking corners) !

2000 During a night of storms and gales, a Tornado hit Bognor Regis ruining at least 150 houses and leaving a trail of devastation.

2002 Forty arrests were made after six people-trafficking rings were smashed at Sangatte. Those detained were thought to be Kurds, Iraqis and Afghans.

2003 Two US nationals working for the CIA were killed in an ambush in Afghanistan.

2003 A key ally of arrested Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky had his own period of detention extended until the end of the year.

2003 Iain Duncan Smith was fighting for his political life after Tory MPs forced a confidence vote in his leadership of the party.

2003 A BBC programme alleged that several UK mortgage advice groups encouraged customers to exaggerate their salaries when applying for mortgages.

2003 Former army Major and quiz show cheat Charles Ingram was convicted of insurance fraud.

2003 EastEnders led the winners at the National TV Awards, while Sir Trevor McDonald was given a special prize by Tony Blair.

2003 Artworks by this year's Turner Prize nominees went on show - amid controversy over their shock value.

2003 Eric Djemba-Djemba scored late on in extra-time as Man Utd dumped Leeds out of the Carling Cup.

2003 Man Utd's Paul Scholes faced a month out of action after surgery on a groin problem.

2003 Rugby League: World champions Australia were given a mighty scare on their way to a 26-22 win in London.

2004 Yasser Arafat was preparing to be flown to Paris the following morning for urgent medical attention.

2004 The US postal service were hunting 58,000 postal ballot papers that disappeared in the key marginal state of Florida.

2004 An autistic teenager was jailed for killing a 10-year-old girl at a family Christmas party.

2004 The BBC revealed that a million people had listened to internet repeats of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

2004 Actor Graham Roberts, who played gamekeeper George Barford in The Archers, died at the age of 75.

2004 Soft Cell singer Marc Almond left intensive care after he was injured in a motorcycle crash.

BIRTHDAYS (for 28 October 2006)

Eliphalet Remington, 213 (born 28 October 1793)
riflemaker.

Robert Liston, 212 (born 28 October 1794)
Scottish doctor who performed the first operation in Britain on an anaesthetized patient.

Auguste Escoffier, 160 (born 28 October 1846)
French chef de cuisine of the Carlton and Savoy hotels in London who was made a member of the Lhgion d'Honneur.

Elsa Lanchester, 104 (born 28 October 1902)
Died 1986. Actress.

Evelyn Waugh, 103 (born 28 October 1903)
British journalist and satirical novelist, author of Decline and Fall, Brideshead Revisited and The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold.

Edith Head, 99 (born 28 October 1907)
Died 1981. Costume designer.

Francis Bacon, 97 (born 28 October 1909)
Died 1992. British painter who began his career as an interior decorator in London and had no formal art training.

Sir Richard Doll, 94 (born 28 October 1912)
British cancer researcher who proved the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer.

Jonas Salk, 92 (born 28 October 1914)
American microbiologist who developed an anti-polio vaccine.

Cleo Laine, 79 (born 28 October 1927)
British singer and actress who became internationally famous following a series of US tours.

Joan Plowright, 77 (born 28 October 1929)
Actress 'Brimstone and Treacle' '101 Dalmatians'.

Charlie Daniels, 70 (born 28 October 1936)
Country singer.

Ted Hawkins, 70 (born 28 October 1936)
Died 1995. Blues singer.

David Dimbleby, 68 (born 28 October 1938)
Broadcaster.

Hank Marvin, 65 (born 28 October 1941)
Member of The Shadows - biggest UK hit 'Apache'.

Curtis Lee, 65 (born 28 October 1941)
Singer songwriter.

Michael Crichton, 64 (born 28 October 1942)
Author and director 'Jurassic Park' Westworld' 'E.R.'.

Dennis Franz, 62 (born 28 October 1944)
Actor 'NYPD Blue'.

Wayne Fontana, 61 (born 28 October 1945)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Game of Love'.

Dennis Taylor, 57 (born 28 October 1949)
Snooker player.

Bill Gates, 51 (born 28 October 1955)
The Microsoft man.

Stephen Morris, 49 (born 28 October 1957)
Member of Joy Division New Order and The Other Two.

Julia Roberts, 39 (born 28 October 1967)
Actress 'My Best Friends Wedding' 'Pretty Woman'.

Today's The Day - 27th October

27th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Otteran or Odhran of Iona,
and St Frumentius of Ethiopia.

History Test for October 27th

Today in 1966, which group reached the top of the UK pop charts with `Reach Out I'll Be There'? -The Four Tops

John Cleese was born today in 1939. In which film does he play a headmaster obsessed with time? -`Clockwise'

What was the Congo River renamed today in 1971? -The Zaire River

Born today in 1728, Captain Cook discovered the Sandwich Islands. What are these islands now called? -Hawaii (or the Hawaiian Islands)

Born today in 1782, Niccolo Paganini is principally associated with which instrument? -The violin

QUOTE “Christ in this country would quite likely have been arrested under the Suppression of Communism Act.” - Joost de Blank, South African churchman, 1963.

QUOTE “I want to take this occasion to say that the United States will never again seek one additional foot of territory by conquest.” - Woodrow Wilson, US president, 1913.

Events today...

1492 Lead pencils were used for the first time in the U.K.

1505 Death of Ivan the Great (Ivan III), the first Tsar of Russia.

1659 If the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers as they are more commonly called, hoped to find respite from persecution in the New World, they must have been deeply disappointed. The latest arrivals were flogged from settlement to settlement and refused admittance wherever they have tried to establish homes. Four Quakers, including a woman, Mary Dyer, were hanged in Boston. So deep was the antipathy towards the sect's non-conformist religious beliefs and social customs that the only answer seemed to be for them to live in their own separate part of the country.

1662 Charles II of England sold Dunkirk to Louis XIV for 2.5million livres.

1764 The engraver and caricaturist William Hogarth died at his house in Leicester Fields, London, aged 67. A Londoner born and bred, Hogarth was from an early age a keen observer of city life and human behaviour. He placed little value on formal training in art and instead trained his visual memory. For fun he produced a series of engravings about contemporary life, moral yet amusing tales about the follies and nastiness of Hanoverian society. These were an instant hit with the public. Aware that his work would become a target for "art pirates", Hogarth pushed for legislation to protect artists' copyright - the so-called Hogarth Act, passed by Parliament in 1735. Hogarth also supported worthwhile causes, such as St Bartholomew's Hospital, of which he was a governor, and the Foundling Hospital.

1792 French troops invaded the Austrian Netherlands.

1804 Death of George Morland, English painter.

1810 President Madison took a direct hand in deciding at least one of the boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase, sold to the US by France. Unbeknown to Congress, which was in recess, he decided that West Florida was also part of the Purchase and ordered troops to annexe it forthwith. The Spanish were keeping a weather eye open in Texas for similar moves there.

1871 Britain annexed the diamond region of Griqualand West in South Africa.

1901 In Paris, a `getaway car' was used for the first time, when thieves robbed a shop and sped away.

1904 New York, usually a trend-setter, fell behind Boston in its attempts to develop a successful subway transport system. Things may change, though, with the inauguration of a new subway line from City Hall to Broadway and 145th Street.

1916 An article in Variety magazine made what is believed to be the earliest published reference to "jazz" when an article talked about the formation of "jazz bands" in Chicago.

1917 US troops entered the war in France.

1936 Mrs Wallis Simpson was granted a divorce from her second husband, leaving her free to marry King Edward VIII.

1938 Du Pont announced the name for its new synthetic fibre yarn. They called it "nylon", taken from the names of two cities, New York and London.

1953 British gunboats foiled a leftist coup in British Guiana.

1954 Marilyn Monroe divorced Joe DiMaggio.

1960 Ben E King recorded "Stand By Me" and "Spanish Harlem".

1964 Sony Bono married Cher LaPierre.

1968 Death of Lise Meitner, Austrian nuclear physicist.

1969 Death of Eric Maschwitz, English lyricist.

1971 Ten years of campaigning to persuade his own Conservative Party and the country that Britain's future prosperity lay within the European Economic Community were beginning to bear fruit for Prime Minister Edward Heath. In an historic vote, the House of Commons backed the Heath Cabinet's decision to apply for membership of the Community by a margin of 132 votes. The EEC aimed to promote the social and economic integration of Western Europe by working towards the gradual elimination of all trade and customs barriers and the establishment of common price levels and monetary union.

1971 The Republic of the Congo changed its name to the Republic of Zaire.

1975 Death of Georges Carpentier (aged 81). French boxer.

1978 The movie "Halloween" premiered.

1982 China estimated its population was one billion people.

1983 US President Ronald Reagan defended his decision to send a 2000-strong force of Marines and Army Rangers into the Caribbean island of Grenada. The invasion, he said, had saved the country from becoming a "Soviet-Cuban colony". The seven-nation expeditionary force was now in control. A spokesperson for the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States said that concern about the military build-up in Grenada prompted the member states to ask the US for help. The further destabilisation caused by the over-throw of Grenada's PM Maurice Bishop earlier in the month was the final straw. Beyond the Caribbean the invasion was seen as a violation of international law.

1986 The City of London experienced 'Big Bang' day, due to the deregulation of the money market.

1990 Death of Jacques Demy (aged 59). French director.

1990 Michael Waite of the group Musical Youth was jailed for four years for robbery.

1995 Gloria Estefan performed in a concert for Pope John Paul II.

1999 Armenia’s Prime Minister was shot dead by gunmen in the country’s Parliament.

2002 Three children were among seven people killed after trees fell on them in heavy winds. Much of Britain was being battered by winds of up to ninety miles an hour. Dozens of flights were cancelled because of the weather, including a number of services from Heathrow and Gatwick. Virgin and GNER also suspended some rail services.

2003 At least 34 people die as suicide bombers strike at the Red Cross headquarters and four Iraqi police stations in Baghdad.

2003 Prince William announced he would meet Paul Burrell to explain why he was so upset about the former butler's book on Princess Diana.

2003 Iain Duncan Smith said Tory MPs should either force a leadership challenge in the next couple of days or stop talk of plots against him.

2003 It was announced that some 500 UK hair salons would be showing short British-made films to their customers by the end of the year.

2003 The English and Turkish Football Associations were charged by UEFA over the half-time fracas in Istanbul.

2004 Doctors attended Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at his Ramallah compound as aides confirmed he was 'very, very sick'.

2004 British troops led by the Black Watch began the move north to take over operations from US troops in central Iraq.

2004 Kidnapped aid worker Margaret Hassan was seen in a new video asking for British troops to leave Iraq.

2004 Flooding caused chaos for homeowners all along Cornwall's south coast as 80mph winds hit land.

2004 It was announced that Glastonbury Festival's new bands tent was to be renamed the "John Peel Stage" to honour the Radio 1 DJ.

2005 Harriet Miers, the White House lawyer nominated to the US Supreme Court, withdrew, in a blow to President Bush.

2005 Tony Blair expressed "revulsion" at the president of Iran saying he wanted Israel "wiped off the map".

2005 Football legend George Best remained "seriously ill" despite his internal bleeding easing.

BIRTHDAYS (for 27 October 2006)

Captain James Cook, 278 (born 27 October 1728)
Died 1779. English navigator whose voyages of discovery in the ship Endeavour led to the European discovery of Australia, New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands.

Niccolo Paganini, 224 (born 27 October 1782)
Italian virtuoso violinist and composer.

Theodore Roosevelt, 148 (born 27 October 1858)
Died 1919. American statesman and president who won the Nobel Peace prize for his efforts in ending the Russo-Japanese war.

Leif Erickson, 95 (born 27 October 1911)
Died 1986. Actor - 'High Chapparal'.

Dylan Thomas, 92 (born 27 October 1914)
Died 1953. British poet whose first work, Under Milk Wood, spoken in the Welsh idiom, began as a radio play and has since been staged and filmed as well.

Roy Lichtenstein, 83 (born 27 October 1923)
American painter and pioneer of Pop Art with his magnified comic strip pictures.

Sylvia Plath, 74 (born 27 October 1932)
American poet and novelist who wrote the autobiographical The Bell Jar and was married to British poet Ted Hughes, committing suicide a year after their separation.

Jean Pierre Cassel, 74 (born 27 October 1932)
French actor.

Floyd Cramer, 73 (born 27 October 1933)
Died 1997. Country singer.

John Cleese, 67 (born 27 October 1939)
British comedian who established himself as a cult figure with the Monty Python team on British television, and gained wider fame in the film A Fish Called Wanda.

Ted Wass, 55 (born 27 October 1951)
Musician.

Peter Firth, 53 (born 27 October 1953)
Actor.

Hazel Dean, 50 (born 27 October 1956)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Whatever I Do'.

Glen Hoddle, 49 (born 27 October 1957)
England football team coach since 1996.

Simon LeBon, 48 (born 27 October 1958)
Member of Duran Duran - biggest UK hit 'The Reflex'.

Ivana Trump, 43 (born 27 October 1963)
Model

Today's The Day - 26th October

26th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Cedd.

History Test for October 26th

Born today in 1879, by which name is Russian Jewish revolutionary Lev Davidovich Bronstein better known? -Leon Trotsky

Today in 1965, the Beatles received their MBEs. What was their first British Number One hit single? -`From Me To You' (in 1963)

Bob Hoskins was born today in 1942. Name the character he played in the TV series `Pennies From Heaven'. -Arthur Parker

Today in 1881, which legendary confrontation took place between Wyatt Earp and the Clanton Gang at Tombstone, Arizona? -The Gunfight at the OK Corral

Which Russian-born engineer, famous for designing the first successful helicopter, died today in 1972? -Igor Sikorsky

Events today...

1529 Thomas More became Lord Chancellor.

1825 The Erie Canal, linking the Niagara River with the Hudson River, was opened to traffic.

1858 Hamilton E Smith patented the rotary washing machine.

1860 Guiseppe Garibaldi, Italian soldier and hero of the Italian movement for unification, proclaimed Victor Emanuel King of Italy.

1861 The Pony Express in the U.S. stopped after the first transcontinental telegraph was sent.

1881 The gunmen’s cemetery of Boot Hill in Tombstone, Arizona, received three more inmates, courtesy of the Earp brothers, Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil, and their sidekick, the tubercular gambler and gunslinger John H. “Doc” Holliday. The streets were clear as the Earps and the “Deadly Dentist” began their walk to the OK Corral. Waiting, lined up against the adobe wall of the Assay Office backing on to the Corral, were Ike and Billy Clanton, the two McLowery brothers, Tom and Frank, and Billy Claiborne. The fight was short and bloody. Within a minute the McLowerys and Billy Clanton fell, fatally wounded, and Virgil and Morgan Earp were wounded. Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne survived the carnage.

1902 Death of Elizabeth Stanton, US feminist.

1905 Sweden ended their union with Norway and Oscar II, the Norwegian king, abdicated.

Prince Charles of Denmark was elected by the people of Norway, to take throne of Norway.

1927 Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded the jazz classic, Creole Love Song.

1929 T. W. Evans of Miami, Florida became the first woman to give birth aboard an aircraft.

1934 Cole Porter recorded his song "You're The Top" for Liberty Records. It was one of the songs in his show "Anything Goes".

1950 Mother Theresa of Calcutta founded her first Mission of Charity. There are now over 450 such missions around the world.

1954 An assassination attempt on Egyptian prime minister Gamal Abdel Nasser failed.

1955 The underground American newspaper Village Voice was first published, backed by Norman Mailer.

1956 The Hungarian rebellion against Soviet rule was crushed.

1956 The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency was formed.

1958 Pan American Boeing 707 jets and BOAC Comet airliners started flying regular jet services across the Atlantic.

1965 HM The Queen presented the MBE to The Beatles. They later claimed to have smoked a "joint" in the toilets at Buckingham Palace.

1968 Death of Erich von Stroheim (aged 52). Director and actor 'Sunset Boulevard'.

1972 Death of Igor Sikorsky, US aeronautical engineer.

1973 Death of Roger Hollis, British civil servant and alleged double agent.

1973 President Nixon prepared to launch World War II after hearing that the Russians were sending arms to the Middle East War.

1975 President Anwar Sadat became the first Egyptian president to visit the U.S.A.

1981 David Bowie and rock group Queen recorded "Under Pressure" in an overnight session in Montreux, Switzerland.

1982 The weird and wacky and sensitive "St Elsewhere" debuted on television.

1984 Surgeons at the Loma Linda University Medical Center in California made history by replacing the mal-formed heart in a two-week-old baby, known as “Baby Fae”, with the healthy heart of a baboon.

1986 Donald Duck was seen for the first time on television in China.

1986 Jeffrey Archer resigned as deputy chairman of the Conservative Party following allegations that he had paid a prostitute to make her leave the country in order to avoid a scandal.

1988 Mikhail Gorbachev promised to free all political prisoners by the end of the year.

1997 Aoife and Niamh McDonnell, the seperated co-joined twins from Manchester, were christened at St Mary’s Church in Levenshulme.

2002 The Moscow theatre seige was brought to an end as troops stormed the building where gunmen had been holding seven-hundred people captive for three days. It was confirmed the Britons who were being held were safe and well, but sixty seven other hostages had been killed.

2002 Leaders of the UK's Fire Brigades Union were holding talks to discuss whether strikes should go ahead. Green Goddess vehicles would provide cover if there wasn't a last-minute breakthrough.

2002 Tributes were being paid to the actor Richard Harris, who died at the age of seventy-two. He won many awards during a distinguished career on stage and screen; he also had a reputation as a hell-raiser.

2003 As a well-guarded hotel came under fire, Colin Powell admitted the US did not expect to face so many attacks in Iraq.

2003 The US ambassador in Moscow raised questions over the arrest of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

2003 Calls were mounting for a confidence vote on Iain Duncan Smith's leadership, as two Tory MPs insisted that he was not up to the job.

2003 Thousands of students protested in Trafalgar Square against plans for university "top-up" fees.

2003 A poll revealed that scenes from "Alien" and horror film "The Exorcist" were among the scariest ever screen moments.

2003 Rod Stewart showed his lasting appeal with two albums entering the top 20 charts in the same week.

2003 Arsenal returned to the top of the Premiership table with a hard-fought 1-1 draw at Charlton.

2003 Rugby Union: England reached the World Cup quarter-finals with a 35-22 victory over Samoa.

2003 Cricket: India beat Australia by 37 runs in the one-day international in Gwalior.

2004 Israeli legislators approved Ariel Sharon's controversial plan to move Jewish settlers out of the Gaza Strip.

2004 John Kerry accused President George W Bush of keeping secrets from American voters, one week before election day.

2004 A militant group in Iraq said it would kill a Japanese hostage if Tokyo failed to withdraw troops in 48 hours.

2004 Coronation Street took the top prize at the National Television Awards, beating rival soap EastEnders.

2004 Singer Robbie Williams confirmed he would appear on a new Band Aid charity Christmas single.

2005 Ministers agreed terms for a widespread ban on smoking in England - with exemptions for clubs and food-free pubs.

2005 Margaret Becket revealed that Ministers were to introduce rules to prevent an outbreak of a bird flu pandemic.

2005 Passengers were led to safety after a Liverpool train was derailed, trapping 119 commuters.

2005 Oscar-winning actress Dame Judi Dench was made a Companion of Honour by the Queen.

BIRTHDAYS (for 26 October 2006)

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, 321 (born 26 October 1685)
Died 1757. Italian composer and harpsichordist who composed more than 600 sonatas.

Leon Trotsky, 127 (born 26 October 1879)
Died 1940. Russian communist leader who, with Lenin, organised the October Revolution, was forced into exile by Stalin, sentenced to death in a Soviet court and murdered in Mexico, where he had found political asylum.

Don Siegel, 94 (born 26 October 1912)
Died 1991. Producer/director - Clint Eastwood films.

Jackie Coogan, 92 (born 26 October 1914)
Died 1984. American child actor whose case against his parents, who withheld his earnings from him as a child and would not allow him access to them after he came of age, led to a law known as the Coogan act, which protects child stars in America.

François Mitterand, 87 (born 26 October 1919)
(Died 1996) Former French president and founder of the French Socialist Party.

Ralph Bakshi, 68 (born 26 October 1938)
Animator 'Fritz the Cat' 'Lord of the Rings'.

Bob Hoskins, 64 (born 26 October 1942)
Actor - 'Mona Lisa' 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'.

Hillary Clinton, 59 (born 26 October 1947)
US First Lady

Jaclyn Smith, 59 (born 26 October 1947)
Actress.

William "Bootsy" Collins, 55 (born 26 October 1951)
Singer of Booty's Rubber Band and Funkadelic.

Julie Dawn Cole, 49 (born 26 October 1957)
Actress - Lyn in 'The Upper Hand'.

Cary Elwes, 44 (born 26 October 1962)
Actor - 'Princess Bride' 'Twister'.

Steve Howey, 35 (born 26 October 1971)
Newcastle and England striker

Today's The Day - 25th October

25th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of Saints Crispin and Crispinian,
Saints Fronto and George,
The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales,
Saints Chrysanthus and Daria,
St Richard Gwyn,
and St Gaudentius of Brescia.

History Test for October 25th

Which battle of the Hundred Years' War was fought today in 1415 in a village south of Calais? -Agincourt

Born today in 1942, which singer had a UK chart hit with `Angie Baby'? -Helen Reddy

Which three theatres make up the National Theatre complex on London's South Bank, opened by the Queen today in 1976? -Olivier, Cottesloe, Lyttelton

Which king became the last British monarch to take part in a battle 17 years before his death today in 1760? -George II (the battle was fought at Dettingen in 1743)

Georges Bizet was born today in 1838. In his famous opera, where does the gipsy Carmen work? -In a cigarette factory

QUOTE “Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.” - Alfred, Lord Tennyson, British poet, on the Charge of the Light Brigade, which took place today, 1854.

Events today...

1400 Geoffrey Chaucer, the courtier, diplomat, civil servant and poet, died at his home in the gardens of Westminster Abbey. He found little time for writing until the 1380s when the pressures of the unsettled political situation in England seem to have encouraged him to seek relief in that direction. The much-praised love poem Troylus and Cryseyde dates from that period. At the time of his death Chaucer was working on a poem about a group of pilgrims journeying to the shrine of Thomas à Becket at Canterbury who passed the time by telling stories.

1415 The defeat of France's finest at the hands of an invading English army under King Henry V brought to a violent end the lull in hostilities between the two countries. Henry landed in France two months earlier with the intention of reclaiming lost English lands. The English magnates accompanying him on this new adventure were indulging to the full their love of fighting. The English were close to exhaustion when the French caught up with them at Agincourt, but had the advantage of being lightly armoured and more mobile than the opposition. Knee-deep in mud and weighed down by heavy armour the French were cut to ribbons. By the end of the day they had lost a dozen high-ranking noblemen, some 1500 knights and about 4500 men-at-arms. English losses were by comparison negligible.

1510 Death of Giorgione, Italian painter.

1556 Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, retired to a Spanish monastery, dividing his possessions between his son and his brother.

1616 The first European to land in Australia was Dirk Hartog, a Dutchman.

1647 Death of Evangelista Torricelli, Italian physicist and inventor of the barometer.

1760 Death of King George II of England.

1839 Bradshaw's Railway Guide, the world's first railway timetable was published in Manchester.

1854 The charge of the Light Brigade took place during the Crimean War. A misunderstanding resulted in heavy British losses for no strategic gain in the Crimea. The incident occurred at Balaclava where the Russians were attempting to disrupt the siege on Sebastopol by attacking the British lines of communication. After the British had repulsed the move, their commander, Lord Raglan, noted that the Russians were trying to evacuate some British-made Turkish guns. He sent instructions for the Light Brigade to capture them. Visibility was very poor and the only guns that Lucan, the divisional cavalry commander, could see were in the main Russian battery at the end of the North Valley. Believing this to be the objective, he ordered his brother-in-law, Lord Cardigan, to lead the Light Brigade in the charge against it. Despite suffering high casualties - 247 men killed or wounded and 475 horses lost - the Brigade succeeded in reaching the battery and scattering the Russian gunners. The cavalrymen's gallant but futile action was summed up neatly by General Bosquet: "C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre".

1881 The Gunfight at the O.K Corral took place with Wyatt Earp, his two brothers and "Doc" Holliday taking on the Clanton gang.

1893 Death of Peter IlytchTchaikovsky (aged 53). Russian composer.

1900 The Transvaal, a region in South Africa which is rich in minerals, especially gold, was annexed by the British.

1902 Death of Frank Norris, US novelist.

1906 American professor Lee de Forest patented the three-diode amplification valve.

1913 Death of Frederick Rolfe, English writer.

1936 A radio station in Berlin broadcast the first radio request programme called You Ask - We Play.

1952 The US blocked Communist China's entry to the UN for the third year running.

1960 Martin Luther King was sentenced to four months in prison for a sit in protest.

1960 The world's first electronic watch went on sale. It was made by Bulova and was called "The Accutron".

1961 The British satirical magazine Private Eye was first published.

1964 The Beatles won five Ivor Novello music awards.

1971 Taiwan was expelled from the UN to allow the admission of the People's Republic of China.

1976 The Queen officially opened the National Theatre on London's South Bank.

1983 President Ronald Reagan ordered troops into Grenada to protect U.S. citizens. 19 Americans died.

1984 The Hepatitis virus was identified for the first time.

1986 The British satirical fortnightly magazine Private Eye celebrated its 25th birthday. Originally a magazine filled with jokes and parodies, it broadened its content two years after its launch in 1961. Editor Richard Ingrams decided to unearth and print the scandal and gossip that other papers would no doubt love to, but dare not. This decision had won the magazine mixed reactions from victims and critics.

1992 Death of Roger Miller (aged 56). Singer 'King of the Road'.

1993 Death of Vincent Price (aged 82). American film Actor.

1995 Sir Cliff Richard received his Knighthood.

1999 Death of Payne Stewart, american golfer. His light aircraft had been flying from New York to Dallas-Fort Worth with five people on board. It was picked up be radar heading towards South Dakota. Two military jets intercepted it and discovered that its windows were frosted over, suggesting depressurisation, and the death of all those on board. They were prepared to shoot it down should it look like like crashing in a built up area, however, it ran out of fuel just outside South Dakota.

2002 Talks to free the foreign hostages held in a Moscow theatre broke down. Two Britons were among the seventy-five foreigners being held captive.

2002 Police in Washington confirmed that a rifle seized in a raid on a car was the murder weapon of the sniper who had killed ten members of the public in the previous weeks. They also confirmed that the two men arrested in the same raid were suspects in the case.

2002 There were hopes that the impending strike action by firefighters could be averted. The Fire Brigades Union was demanding a 40% pay increase. Talks between the Union, and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, were described as 'constructive'.

2002 A man described as Osama bin Laden's ambassador in Europe was reported to be under arrest in Britain. Islamic radical, Abu Qatada was said to have been detained in south-east London.

2002 Arsenal skipper Patrick Vieira and his club were considering whether or not to appeal against the player's two match ban and 25 thousand pound fine. The fiery Frenchman was being punished for bad-mouthing the ref during his side's match against Chelsea earlier in the season. Vieira was found guilty of insulting language (he told ref Andy D'Urso he had "no personality") but the FA agreed he did not actually swear at the official.

2002 Former Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar had a big hole in his pocket after a hollow victory against The Sun. The Law Lords (the final frontier of British legal action) decided the newspaper had proved the player accepted bribes, although they failed to show he deliberately tried to throw matches. As a result they cut his damages award from 85 thousand Pounds to just one Pound. Grobellar also faced legal bills of over a million Pounds.

2003 The Basque regional authority approved a proposal to change the region's relationship with the rest of Spain.

2003 Former TV presenter Esther McVey was selected as Tory candidate for Wirral West in the coming general election.

2003 Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink scored the only goal as Chelsea beat Man City 1-0.

2003 Goals from Michael Owen, Danny Murphy and Florent Sinama-Pongolle gave Liverpool a 3-1 win over Leeds.

2004 Former US President Bill Clinton spoke alongside John Kerry in a bid to boost the Democrat's campaign.

2004 A vehicle registration official who looked up motorists' addresses for animal rights activists was jailed.

2004 Scooby-Doo beat The Simpsons to a world record for the most episodes of a cartoon comedy series.

2004 One of Africa's biggest stars, Papa Wemba, appeared before a French court on people-smuggling charges.

2004 Man Utd's Ruud van Nistelrooy was charged with serious foul play while Arsene Wenger was asked to explain his criticism of referee Mike Riley.

2004 Veteran BBC broadcaster John Peel died from a heart attack at the age of 65 while on holiday in Peru.

2005 The BBC series Doctor Who won three prizes at the National Television Awards, voted for by the public.

2005 The BBC World Service confirmed it was setting up an Arabic television news channel and cutting 218 jobs.

BIRTHDAYS (for 25 October 2006)

Lord Macaulay, 206 (born 25 October 1800)
English Liberal MP and a member of the supreme council of India from 1834 to 1838 who pressed for parliamentary reform and the abolition of slavery.

Johann Strauss the Younger, 181 (born 25 October 1825)
Died 1899. Austrian composer best known for his waltzes such as the ever-popular `The Blue Danube', and for operettas such as Die Fledermaus.

Georges Bizet, 168 (born 25 October 1838)
Died 1875. French composer of the internationally famous opera Carmen, which he completed shortly before dying from heart disease.

Pablo Picasso, 125 (born 25 October 1881)
Died 1973. Spanish painter, sculptor, graphic artist, ceramicist and designer, one of the greatest and most versatile 20th-century artists.

Minnie Pearl, 94 (born 25 October 1912)
Died 1996. Country singer.

Tony Franciosa, 78 (born 25 October 1928)
Actor.

Helen Reddy, 65 (born 25 October 1941)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Angie Baby'.

Jon Anderson, 62 (born 25 October 1944)
Member of Yes and of 'Jon and Vangelis' fame - biggest UK hit 'I'll Find My Way Home'.

Glenn Tipton, 58 (born 25 October 1948)
Member of Judas Priest.

Chad Smith, 44 (born 25 October 1962)
Member of Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

Today's The Day - 24th October

24th October 2006
National Day of Zambia and United Nations Day.

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Martin or Mark,
St Martin of Vertou,
St Elesbaan,
St Felix of Thibiuca,
St Antony Claret,
St Evergislus,
St Aretas,
St Senoch,
St Maglorius or Maelor,
St Proclus of Constantinople,
and The Martyrs of Najran.

History Test for October 24th

Today in 1980, the BBC announced that Tom Baker would step down as Dr. Who. Name his successor. -Peter Davison

Born today in 1895 Jack Warner first played policeman George Dixon in which film? -`The Blue Lamp'

Which French couturier found fame with his `New Look' and died today in 1957? -Christian Dior

Who was leader of the British Liberal Party from 1956 to 1967 and died today in 1993? -Lord Grimond

Born today in 1923, which former newscaster and interviewer published a volume of memoirs called 'Grand Inquisitor'? -Sir Robin Day

Events today...

1537 Jane Seymour, wife of King Henry VIII died 12 days after giving birth to Prince Edward. She did not suffer the same fate as Henry's previous wives ie execution.

1648 The Treaty of Westphalia was signed, ending the Thirty Years' War.

1836 The match was patented by A. Phillips.

1857 The first football club was formed by a group of Cambridge University Old Boys meeting in Sheffield.

1861 The successful completion of the first transcontinental electric telegraph forced the closure of the Pony Express service between St Joseph and Sacramento. The telegraph would be a boon to all citizens and business people east and west. The military were also said to be interested in its uses at a tactical level in the battlefield.

1882 The tuberculosis germ (often referred to as TB) was discovered by Dr Robert Koch.

1901 Mrs Ann Edison Taylor remained unhurt after going over Niagara Falls in a padded barrel to help pay the mortgage. All previous attempts were disasters.

1925 On the eve of the British parliamentary elections, a letter urging socialists in all countries to revolt was leaked to the British press; it was thought to be from Soviet politician Grigori Zinoviev.

1929 Better known as "Black Thursday" when the stock market crashed and this lead to the start of "The Great Depression".

1931 The American legal system proved that there was more than one way of skinning a cat. The cat in question was the notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone. The 32-year-old New Yorker had dominated organised crime for the past six years. The famous St Valentine's Day massacre in 1929 was one of many inter-mob killings masterminded by Capone. The law had finally managed to make a charge against Capone stick. He received an 11-year sentence and an $80,000 (£43,000) fine for tax evasion.

1937 New Zealand aviator Jean Batten broke the record, flying from Australia to England in just five days, 18 hours and 18 minutes.

1945 The United Nations charter came into force.

1945 Vidkun Quisling, the former head of the "puppet" government established in Norway by the Germans in 1940, was executed at Akershus Fortress, Oslo. An ex-army officer, he joined the fascist Nasjonal Samlung (National Union) Party in 1933. He encouraged Hitler to invade Norway. Once a pro-German government had been installed, he embarked on a campaign of converting the Church, schools and youth to National Socialism, a move which made him deeply unpopular with his fellow Norwegians. Quisling was arrested after the liberation of Norway in May and charged with treason. He was also held responsible for sending nearly 1000 Jews to die in concentration camps.

1948 Death of Franz Lehár, Hungarian composer.

1957 Death of French fashion designer Christian Dior (aged 52). He was responsible for the "New Look" after World War Two.

1960 Russian missile expert Nedelin and his team were killed when there was a disaster at the Balkoner launch pad. The Russians claimed they had died in a plane crash.

1969 Actor Richard Burton splashed out $1 million for the world's most expensive diamond (69.42 carat) for his wife Elizabeth Taylor.

1973 Telly Savalas debuted in his role of Theo Kojak on television.

1976 Qiang Qing was finding the going tough now that her late husband Mao Tse-tung was no longer around to protect her. Earlier this month she was dragged from her bedroom by armed guards acting under the orders of new Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping. He was one of the many "reactionaries" she tried to eliminate during her 10-year stint at the helm of Mao's Cultural Revolution. By the end of her cultural reign of terror she had succeeded in reducing an already limited performing arts repertoire to five revolutionary operas and two revolutionary ballets. Her motto was: "Make it revolutionary or ban it".

1977 Saudi Arabia purchased the transatlantic liner France for use as a floating luxury hotel.

1984 Steffi Graf played in her first professional tennis match.

1987 The album "Rumours" by Fleetwood Mac broke the records for the most number of weeks for an album to be on the British charts. It was its 397th week.

1987 Heavyweight boxing champion Frank Bruno knocked out Joe Bugner at White Hart Lane stadium in London and wins £750,000 ($1,380,000).

1989 Death of Mary McCarthy, US author.

1989 Fake American television preacher Jim Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in jail and fined $500,000 (£272,000) for swindling his followers to the tune of millions.

1991 Death of Gene Roddenberry (aged 70). Creator of Star Trek.

1993 Death of Jiri Hajek, Czech human-rights campaigner.

1993 Death of Jo Grimond, Scottish politician and writer.

1994 Death of Raul Julia (aged 54). Actor 'Addams Family'.

2002 Detectives trying to track down the Washington sniper made a number of arrests. Two people were taken into custody in the state of Maryland.

2002 Tony Blair faced a hasty cabinet reshuffle after the shock resignation of Education Secretary Estelle Morris. She'd been under pressure in after a series of problems, including the A-Level grades fiasco.

2002 Inmates went on the rampage at Lincoln jail during an eight-hour riot. Prison officers regained control and there were no serious injuries, though parts of the jail were badly damaged.

2002 Boris Becker was found guilty of tax evasion. The German tennis star was given a two-year suspended sentence and fined around two-hundred-thousand pounds.

2002 Gary Lineker asked Dennis Wise to drop his legal action against Leicester City following his sacking from the division one club. Lineker put a six-figure sum in to the struggling club and wanted Wise to reconsider his two-point-three million pound action.

2003 Three Concordes landed at Heathrow airport as the supersonic jets went into retirement.

2003 Italy's transport system, schools and hospitals were hit by strikes as workers from the biggest unions protested at proposed pension reforms.

2003 Former royal butler Paul Burrell said he would not apologise for writing a book on Princess Diana, despite criticism from Princes William and Harry.

2003 Tim Henman's hopes of a third Swiss Indoors title were cut short in the quarter-finals by David Nalbandian.

2003 Leeds footballer Jody Morris began a 10-day leave of absence following two arrests over sex allegations.

2004 New measures were being drawn up to protect people who felt too intimidated to complain about nuisance neighbours.

2004 Former Prime Minister John Major said the government used lottery money as a tax substitute for public services.

2004 Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wayne Rooney scored to give Man Utd a 2-0 win and end Arsenal's 49-game unbeaten run.

2004 Juan Pablo Montoya won his final race for Williams at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

2005 Hurricane Wilma strucke Florida with winds of up to 125mph (200km/h) before moving out over the Atlantic.

2005 President Bush nominatec Ben Bernanke as the replacement for US Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan.

2005 Lawyers for Phil Spector saic statements he made to police after an actress died should not be used in his murder trial.

BIRTHDAYS (for 24 October 2006)

Anton van Leeuwenhoek, 374 (born 24 October 1632)
Dutch microscopist who was the first man to see bacteria.

Jacques Lafitte, 239 (born 24 October 1767)
French banker and politician

Dame Sybil Thorndyke, 124 (born 24 October 1882)
Died 1976. English actress who gave her finest performance as George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan.

Jack Warner, 110 (born 24 October 1896)
Died 1981. English actor.

Moss Hart, 102 (born 24 October 1904)
American playwright and lyricist who wrote comedy hits, usually with George S. Kaufman, such as The Man who Came to Dinner.

Sir Fred Pontin, 100 (born 24 October 1906)
Holiday camp founder.

Tito Gobbi, 91 (born 24 October 1915)
Italian baritone whose most famous roles were as Mozart's Don Giovanni and as Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca.

Sir Robin Day, 83 (born 24 October 1923)
English TV presenter

Big Bopper, 76 (born 24 October 1930)
Died 1959. Singer - biggest UK hit 'Chantilly Lace'.

Bill Wyman, 70 (born 24 October 1936)
British bass guitarist and founder member of the Rolling Stones.

F Murray Abraham, 67 (born 24 October 1939)
Actor - 'Amadeus'.

Ted Templeman, 62 (born 24 October 1944)
Producer of Doobie Brothers and others.

Kevin Kline, 59 (born 24 October 1947)
Actor - 'Fish Called Wanda' 'Dave'.

Jimmy Wagg, 53 (born 24 October 1953)
Sports Presenter (BBC GMR).

Alonza Bevan, 36 (born 24 October 1970)
Member of Kula Shaker.

Monica, 26 (born 24 October 1980)
Soul singer.

Today's The Day - 23rd October

23rd October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Severino Boechius,
St Severinus or Seurin of Bordeaux,
St Elfleda of Ethelfled,
St Allucio,
St Ignatius of Constantinople,
St Theodore,
St Romanus of Rouen,
and St John of Capistrano.

History Test for October 23rd

Which battle, fought today in 1642, was the first of the English Civil War? -Edgehill

Born today in 1931, which actress made her film debut in `The Shop at Sly Corner'? -Diana Dors

Cricketer W.G. Grace died today in 1915. What was his profession? -He was a doctor

American novelist Zane Grey died today in 1939. He was best known for writing what type of book? -Westerns

Sportsman Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born today in 1940. Known by a less tongue-twisting name, who is he? -Pele

QUOTE “It's a funny kind of month, October. For the really keen cricket fan it's when you discover that your wife left you in May.” - Denis Norden, British humorist, 1977.

Events today...

42BC Death of Marcus Junius Brutus, Roman soldier.

1642 Charles I's Cavaliers clashed with Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentary Roundheads in fierce fighting at the Battle of Edgehill in the Cotswolds. - the first major conflict of the English Civil War.

1812 An anti-Napoleonic faction in Paris tried to mount a coup d'état, believing Napoleon to be dead in Russia. The coup failed.

1814 The first modern plastic surgery was carried out in Britain.

1872 Death of Theophile Gaurier, French poet.

1906 The Brazilian aviator and inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont won the Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize for making the first officially observed powered flight in Europe. Santos-Dumont performed the feat in an aircraft of his own design, a biplane called the 14-bis. The next project on his agenda was a design for a new monoplane. He first won the Deutsch Prize five years beforehand, flying his airship from St Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back again in 30 minutes to collect a handsome prize and an award from the Brazilian government.

1915 Death of legendary English cricketer W. G. Grace.

1921 Death of John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish veterinary surgeon who invented the pneumatic bicycle tyre.

1922 Andrew Bonar Law took office as British prime minister; he was replaced 22 May 1923, making his the shortest term of office in the twentieth century.

1926 Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.

1939 Death of Zane Grey, US novelist.

1941 That loveable elephant "Dumbo" was released in cinemas.

1942 The British Eighth Army opened a massive offensive against Field Marshall Rommel's Afrika Korps at El Alamein. British field commander General Bernard Montgomery had targeted Rommel's gun emplacements, which had been pounded with air and artillery fire. Since the inconclusive first battle of Alamein in July, the British had been resupplied and brought up to strength (230,000). The Axis forces numbered just 80,000.

1946 The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly took place in New York.

1947 Julie Andrews made her debut in Starlight Roof, aged 12.

1950 Death of Al Jolson, aged 64. Film actor/singer 'The Jazz Singer'.

1952 The Ukrainian-born microbiologist Selman A. Waksman was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology for discovering the antibiotic streptomycin, an agent effective in the treatment of tuberculosis. A naturalised US citizen, Waksman, 64, had spent most of his career at Rutgers University. He and his team succeeded in extracting streptomycin from soil cultures in 1944. Subsequent clinical trials confirmed their belief that it would be effective against the micro-organism that caused tuberculosis.

1954 Britain, the US, France and the USSR agreed to end the occupation of Germany and allow West Germany to enter NATO.

1956 The Hungarian revolt against Soviet leadership began, in which thousands of demonstrators called for the withdrawal of Soviet forces.

1962 Steveland Morris Judkins recorded his first single "Thank you for Loving Me all the Way" for Motown Records aged 12. He was later billed as Little Stevie Wonder.

1970 American dare-devil Gary Gavelich broke the world land speed record in his rocket-propelled car "Blue Flame", driving at 631.367 mph (approximately 1010 kph) on Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.

1977 One-celled fossils were found by palaeontologist Elso Barghoon and they were part of Earth's earliest life forms being over 3.4 billion years old.

1987 Former champion flat race jockey Lester Piggott was jailed for three years by Ipswich Crown Court after pleading guilty to charges of tax evasion. Piggott, 51, had amassed a fortune of some £20million ($37million) during his 30-year career as a jockey while at the same time evading HM tax inspectors to the tune of £3.1million ($5.7million). His magic touch on the turf brought him more than 4000 winners and the jockeys' championship 11 times. He was one of the few jockeys to make a successful transition to race horse training. His wife ran the stables during his absence.

1989 Sixty-two members of the Lebanese parliament signed an agreement to distribute power equally between the Muslims and Christians.

1989 Hungary ended 40 years of Communist rule and became a republic.

1990 Iraq released 330 French and 64 British hostages.

1991 A husband's immunity from a charge of rape under British law was consigned to the dustbin of history. Five Law Lords ruled that the statement by 18th-century Chief Justice Sir Matthew Hale that "by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract the wife hath given herself in this kind unto her husband which she cannot retract", forms no part of English law. The decision upholds a Court of Appeal ruling in March that the marital exemption from prosecution was an "anachronistic and offensive fiction". Women Against Rape, the pressure group that had campaigned for reform since 1977, said the decision overturned "250 years of legal sexual slavery".

1992 The violent movie "Reservoir Dogs" saw the debut of Quentin Tarantino as a director.

1998 Greater Manchester woke up to flooding following torrential rain the night before. Road in Oldham, Stockport and Wythenshawe were worst hit.

2002 Newcastle beat Juventus one-nil at St. James' Park in the Champion's League and Manchester United made through to the second group phase thanks to a late Paul Scholes goal in Greece. A first half header from Laurent Blanc and a Juan Veron strike looked to have secured the win, before Olympiakos fought back to get level. But Scholes fired the winner in the eighty-fourth minute giving United their maximum twelve points from their four matches.

2003 Iran handed over documents on its disputed nuclear programme to the UN just days before a deadline.

2003 A British woman was jailed for four years after being found guilty in Paris of running a Europe-wide prostitution ring.

2003 Network Rail announced it was to stop using private contractors to maintain Britain's railways after major criticism.

2003 George Galloway MP - who was outspoken in his criticism of the Iraq war - was expelled from the Labour Party.

2003 Liza Minnelli filed for divorce from her fourth husband, David Gest, after he accused her of beating him.

2003 Soap actress Elaine Lordan was convicted of drink driving, disqualified for a year, and fined.

2003 Actor Jim Caviezel was hit by lightning while filming controversial Mel Gibson drama "The Passion Of Christ".

2003 Aston Villa cancel Turkey defender Alpay's contract with immediate effect.

2003 UK Sport launched a telephone hotline for tip-offs about suspected use of illegal drugs.

2004 At least seven people, including three peacekeepers, were hurt in a blast in a popular Kabul shopping area.

2004 At least 13 people died and more than 700 were injured in a series of earthquakes in northern Japan.

2004 The husband of kidnapped aid worker Margaret Hassan appeared on Arabic television to beg for her release.

2004 Prince Charles' spokesman said Prince Harry would not apologise to a photographer after a scuffle outside a club.

2004 Former Spurs manager Bill Nicholson died aged 85.

2004 Actress Catherine Zeta Jones sued a US topless club which she said displayed her picture on its website.

2004 A TV appeal on stem cell research recorded by Christopher Reeve before his death began airing in the US.

2004 Rocker Lenny Kravitz is sued over a claim that one of his toilets overflowed into a neighbour's apartment.

2005 Hurricane Wilma left Mexico after pounding its Gulf coast for more than 48 hours - claiming at least six lives.

2005 Tests confirmed tha t a parrot which died in UK quarantine had the deadly H5N1 bird flu that killed 60 in Asia.

2005 A murder inquiry began after violence in Birmingham that left one man dead and more than 30 injured.

2005 TV host Ulrika Jonsson annonced that she was separating from Lance Gerrard-Wright, whom she met on reality show Mr Right.

2005 Everton ended Chelsea's 100% start to the season with a dogged display at Goodison Park.

BIRTHDAYS (for 23 October 2006)

Pierre Larousse, 189 (born 23 October 1817)
French lexicographer and encyclopaedist.

Robert Bridges, 162 (born 23 October 1844)
English poet, playwright and prose writer who was a physician in London for 13 years and eventually became Poet Laureate in 1913.

Johnny Carson, 81 (born 23 October 1925)
American entertainer and leading chat show host.

Diana Dors, 75 (born 23 October 1931)
Died 1984. British actress and post-war sex-symbol whose films include Yield to the Night and There's a Girl in my Soup.

Pele, 66 (born 23 October 1940)
Brazilian football player who began playing internationally at the age of 16 and scored more than 1000 goals during his long professional career.

Freddie Marsden, 66 (born 23 October 1940)
Drummer with Gerry and the Pacemakers.

Michael Crichton, 64 (born 23 October 1942)
Novelist and film director - 'Jurassic Park' 'Rising Sun'.

Anita Roddick, 64 (born 23 October 1942)
Founder of 'The Body Shop'.

Michael 'Wurzel' Burston, 57 (born 23 October 1949)
Guitarist with Motorhead.

Dwight Yoakam, 50 (born 23 October 1956)
Country singer.

Weird Al Yankovic, 47 (born 23 October 1959)
Singer of novelty songs - 'Eat It' 'Another One Rides the Bus'.

10 Things we didn't know last week

Snippets harvested from the week's news, chopped, sliced and diced for your weekend convenience.

1. The Australian investment group which is buying Thames Water also owns the transmitters on which the BBC is broadcast.

2. Twice as many people turn their heads to the right to kiss as to the left, say researchers.

3. Nearly one internet user in 10 has started a blog, according to Harris Research.

4. A dwarf species of hippopotamus once lived on Cyprus.

5. There are 375 people reported missing each day, on average, according to the National Missing Persons Helpline. More details

6. More than one in eight people in the United States show signs of addiction to the internet, says a study. More details

7. The warm autumn has seen North African butterflies appearing in Scotland. More details

8. One third of all the cod fished in the world is consumed in the UK. More details

9. UK customs officials intercept attempts to smuggle in 150 live birds and animals, and 6,400 animal parts, each week. More details

10. Boys’ GCSE results have improved to the level that girls had reached seven years ago. More details

[1. 10 O’Clock News, 16 October; 2. Daily Telegraph, 17 October; 3. Daily Telegraph; 4. 19 October, The Times.]

Today's The Day - 22nd October

22nd October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Philip of Heraclea and his Companions,
St Mellon or Mallonus,
St Abercius,
Saints Nunilo and Alodia,
and St Donatus of Fiesole.

History Test for October 22nd

Name New York's principal opera house, opened today in 1883. -The Metropolitan Opera House

Spanish musician Pablo Casals died today in 1973. With which instrument is he particularly associated? -The cello

Who reached the top of the UK pop charts today in 1964 with '(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me'? -Sandie Shaw

Composer Franz Liszt was born today in 1811. What was his nationality? -Hungarian

Which English furniture designer wrote `The Cabinet- Maker and Upholsterers' Drawing Book' and died today in 1806? -Thomas Sheraton

Events today...

741AD Death of Charles Martel, leader of the Franks.

1797 The first parachute jump was made by André-Jacques Gamerin from a balloon above the Parc Monceau, Paris.

1806 Death of Thomas Sheraton, English furniture maker.

1878 The first floodlit rugby match took place, Broughton v Swinton, at Broughton, Lancs.

1883 New York's Metropolitan Opera House opened.

1897 The first car dealer in London set up business.

1906 Death of the great French Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cezanne.

1909 French aviator Elise Deroche became the first woman to make a solo flight.

1910 Dr Hawley Crippen was found guilty at the Old Bailey, of poisoning his wife and was sentenced to be hanged on 23 October 1910.

1931 Gangster Al Capone was sent to prison for 11 years for tax evasion. He had been responsible for organised crime including murder but was only successfully prosecuted for tax evasion.

1934 The American gangster Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd was killed by FBI agents.

1935 Haiti was struck hy a hurricane, causing over 2,000 deaths.

1937 The Duke of Windsor, former heir to the British throne, and his wife, Wallis, rounded off their tour of Germany on this day with a visit to Adolph Hitler's mountain eyrie at Berchtesgaden in Bavaria.

1938 The photocopying machine was demonstrated by Chester F. Carlson.

1954 West Germany joined N.A.T.O.

1962 ANC leader Nelson Mandela went on trial for treason in South Africa, pleading not guilty.

1962 US president John F Kennedy made his first major move in the showdown with the USSR over the building of ballistic missile sites in Cuba. In a speech broadcast live to the American people he said that he would take whatever steps were necessary to force the removal of offensive weapons and installations on Cuban Soil.

1964 EMI rejected the group The Who, who auditioned for a record contract.

1966 "Good Vibrations" was released by the Beach Boys. The song cost $40,000 to record as it took the group 6 months to achieve their unique sound. It was the most expensive recording for a single at that time.

1966 HGB spy George Blake escaped from the maximum security wing of Wormwood Scrubs prison in West London. Blake a former MI6 officer, had spied for the Russians for 12 years, revealing Britain's spy ring in East Berlin to the KGB and also the location of the tunnel from where US and British intelligence agents tapped Warsaw Pact communications. The sentence meted out to him in 1962 was the longest-ever: 42years, one for each of the lives that Blake's treachery was estimated to have cost.

1973 Death of Pablo Casals, Spanish cellist.

1975 Death of Arnold Joseph Toynbee, historian and philosopher whose "Study of History" explored patterns of growth and decay of civilisations.

1978 Actress Judy Carne (one of the regular stars on the television series "Rowan and Martin's Laugh In") was arrested for drug possession when she arrived at Gatwick Airport.

1979 Walt Disney World logged its 100th millionth guest.

1987 A deer hunter discovered an unmanned aircraft in the branches of a tree in Star Lake, New York - its pilot had crank started its propeller 65 miles away and it had taken off without him, eventually running out of fuel.

1987 The first volume of the Gutenburg Bible fetched $5.39million (£2.26million) in New York auction rooms. - a record price for a printed book.

1992 Death of Cleavon Little, aged 53. Actor 'Blazing Saddles'.

1997 In Greater Manchester and Cheshire, new legislation came into force, allowing parked cars displaying invalid tax discs to be clamped and impounded if a valid disc could not be produced within 24 hours.

2002 A third major earth tremor in 24 hours hit Manchester. Measuring 2.9 on the Richter scale at 4:40am, this followed two larger tremors the day before. More occured during the following weeks.

2003 Delhi unveiled unexpected proposals to improve ties with Pakistan and saught direct talks with Kashmir separatists for the first time.

2003 Russian PM, Mikhail Kasyanov urged local authorities to stop building a causeway which led to a border dispute with Ukraine.

2003 Five police officers resigned and three were suspended after a BBC documentary revealed racism among recruits.

2003 Athletics: Dwain Chambers tested positive for a banned steroid but denied taking it wilfully.

2003 Liza Minnelli's estranged husband David Gest sued her for $10m, saying she attacked him while drunk.

2003 Meg Ryan's erotic thriller "In The Cut" had its UK première to launch the London Film Festival.

2003 Cult Oscar-nominated singer-songwriter Elliott Smith has died aged 34.

2003 Chelsea came from behind to beat Lazio 2-1 and top their Champions League group.

2003 Four unnamed American athletes failed drugs tests for the new steroid THG as authorities clamp down. UK Athletics chief David Moorcroft played down fears that the designer steroid could throw athletics into crisis.

2004 A new tape of hostage Margaret Hassan broadcast on al-Jazeera TV station showed her pleading for her life.

2004 Noel Gallagher, Damon Albarn and Dido were the latest stars to sign up for a new Band Aid charity single.

2004 US actor Brandon Routh was cast as the man of steel in the new Superman film, due for release two years later.

2004 A briefcase full of notes and lyrics was returned to U2 - 23 years after it was stolen from the band.

2005 Stars of the Eurovision Song Contest travelled to Denmark for a party to mark the contest's 50th anniversary.

2005 Star Wars creator George Lucas donated $1m to build a memorial to civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

BIRTHDAYS (for 22 October 2006)

Sir Francis Drake, 461 (born 22 October 1545)
Died 1596. Navigator.

Franz Liszt, 195 (born 22 October 1811)
Died 1886. Hungarian composer of Romantic music and creator of the symphonic poem, most popularly known for the `Hungarian Rhapsodies'

Sarah Bernhardt, 162 (born 22 October 1844)
French stage actress who was hugely successful and continued to perform after a stage accident caused the loss of a leg.

Joan Fontaine, 89 (born 22 October 1917)
British actress who was initially typecast as a shy English rose but later made efforts to play sophisticated roles, winning an Oscar nomination for `Rebecca' and an Oscar for her role in `The Constant Nymph'.

Colonel John Blashford-Snell, 70 (born 22 October 1936)
Explorer - 'Operation Raleigh'.

Sir Derek Jacobi CBE, 68 (born 22 October 1938)
Actor.

Christopher Lloyd, 68 (born 22 October 1938)
Actor 'Back to the Future' 'Addams Family'.

Annette Funicello, 64 (born 22 October 1942)
Actress.

Catherine Deneuve, 63 (born 22 October 1943)
French actress whose films include `Belle de Jour'.

Jeff Goldblum, 54 (born 22 October 1952)
Actor - 'Jurassic Park' 'Independence Day'.

Valeria Golino, 40 (born 22 October 1966)
Actress - 'Hot Shots'.

Michael Fishman, 25 (born 22 October 1981)
Actor - Roseanne's D J Conner.

Today's The Day - 21st October

21st October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Hilarion,
St Fintan or Munnu of Taghmon,
St Condcdus,
St Tuda,
St John of Bridlington,
and St Malchus.

History Test for October 21st

Actress Violet Carson received the OBE from the Queen today in 1965. Which character did she play in 'Coronation Street'? -Ena Sharples

The founder of the Nobel Prizes, Alfred Nobel, was born today in 1833. Prizes are awarded in six fields. Name four of them. -Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, Economics

Today in 1805, Admiral Nelson was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar. Who was his flag captain aboard HMS Victory? -Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy

Born today in 1772, who wrote the poem 'Kubla Khan: A Vision in a Dream'? -Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Born today in 1926 Leonard Rossiter is famous for playing Rigsby in TV's 'Rising Damp'. What was the name of Rigsby's cat? -Vienna

QUOTE “Now, gentlemen, let us do something today which the world may talk of hereafter.” - Lord Collingwood, British admiral, before the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805.

Events today...

1556 Death of Pietro Aretino, Italian writer.

1652 The exiled boy-king, Louis XIV, returned to Paris.

1687 Death of Edmund Waller, English poet.

1789 Martial law was imposed in France.

1805 Death of Horatio, Viscount Nelson, English admiral, killed at Trafalgar. The British defeated the Franco-Spanish fleet.

1858 The first performance of French composer Jacques Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld was given in Paris.

1915 The first transatlantic radiotelephone communication between the U.S. and France was made.

1923 The world's first planetarium opened in Munich.

1931 Death of Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian-Jewish dramatist, novelist and physician, whose works include the dramatic cycles Anatol and Reigan and his prose masterpiece Leutnant Gustt.

1934 Mao Zedong's Long March, with his 100,000-strong Communist army, began.

1945 French women are given the right to vote for the first time.

1950 Tibet was occupied by Chinese forces.

1952 President of the Kenya African movement Jomo Kenyatta was arrested as Britain crushed the Mau Mau rebels.

1958 Buddy Holly recorded his last 3 songs before he was killed in an air crash. He recorded "True Love Ways", "Raining in My Heart" and the song "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" which went on to be number one following his death.

1960 Britain launched its first nuclear submarine, the HMS Dreadnought.

1961 Bob Dylan recorded his first album which cost $400 to make and it was recorded in a day.

1964 The movie "My Fair Lady" had its world premiere. It starred Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn and Stanley Holloway.

1966 The tiny Welsh coalmining community of Aberfan was hit by disaster when a 500-ft (162-m) coal tip slipped, crushing Pantglas Junior School, a row of cottages and a farmhouse. The death toll of 144 included 116 children aged between seven and 11 years. One eyewitness described the river of coal sludge that buried the village as "a black flood with a noise like thunder". The cause of the disaster was to be established by a special tribunal. The safety procedures operated by the National Coal Board, who ran the Merthyr Vale colliery, were expected to come under close scrutiny.

1967 Egyptian missiles sank the Israeli destroyer Eilat, with the loss of over 40 lives.

1967 Norman Mailer was arrested in an anti-Vietnam peace demo.

1968 Shooting of the movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" began.

1969 The most famous spokesman for the Beat generation of writers, Jack Kerouac, died in Florida at the age of 47. Kerouac inhabited the same sub-culture as his characters in “On the Road”, his best-known work-about writers, poets, mystics and eccentrics who thrived on a footloose existence enlivened by sex, drugs and jazz. He now paid the price for his philosophy of fast living. He despised the mundane and discarded a conventional writing technique after publication of his first novel in 1950. His new method of writing prized energy and spontaneity above structure and polish - On the Road was written in just three weeks.

1969 Paul McCartney denied rumours that he had died. A disc jockey had played a Beatles song backwards and claimed that there were voices chanting "Paul is Dead".

1969 Willy Brandt was elected Chancellor of West Germany.

1973 After almost 20 years of wrangling and dispute the Sydney Opera House was officially opened by Her Majesty the Queen. The unique design of the building caused costs to soar, from an estimated $7million (£3million) to an astronomical $100million (£43million) plus. The most striking features of the house were its three sets of roof shells. These contained about 2000 panes of glass in more than 700 different sizes. The functions of the two main halls in the building remained in doubt - concerts were to be given in the larger hall, operas in the smaller. Concern was expressed about the small size of the orchestra pit in the hall designated for opera. There had even been talk of the need for a "proper" opera house.

1979 Grete Waitz, the first lady of distance running, won the New York marathon for the second consecutive year. In 1978's event - her first ever marathon - she finished the race in the world record time of 2 hours 32 minutes 30 seconds, slicing more than two minutes off the previous best time. Now, the 26-year-old Norwegian school-teacher reduced the record by nearly five minutes, finishing in 2 hours 27 minutes 33 seconds.

1979 In Britain unions agreed to suspend the Times newspaper strike.

1984 Death of Francois Truffaut, aged 52. Film director.

1984 Niki Lauda became world motor-racing champion for the third time.

1991 Jesse Turner, an American who had been held hostage in Lebanon for just under five years, was freed by his captors.

1992 Madonna's controversial book "Sex" was published.

1992 Death of Bob Todd, English comedy actor.

1997 The town of Hamilton in Scotland introduced a curfew banning children from the streets at night.

2002 Manchester was rocked by two earth tremors. The first at 9am measured 3.2 on the Richter scale, a second at 12:45 was recorded as 3.9. Both had their epicentres at Beswick. There was a third still to come the following morning. And more throughout the following weeks.

2003 The European Commission said it would not take action against France, even though France was in breach of EU financial rules for a third year running.

2003 A 10-month-old baby died after being stabbed in the neck in a bakery in Carlisle.

2003 It was announced that Beyonce, Queen and U2's Bono were to headline a concert in Cape Town to raise awareness of Aids.

2003 It was announced that Robert De Niro was suffering from prostate cancer, but prospects for full recovery were good, according to his publicist.

2003 Arsenal's Champions League hopes hung by a slender thread after a 2-1 defeat against Dynamo Kiev.

2004 US army reservist Ivan Frederick was jailed for eight years for abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

2004 Full details of MPs expenses were published for the first time, allowing voters to check up on their representatives' claims.

2004 Prince Harry was involved in a scuffle with a press photographer outside a London nightclub.

2004 Coldplay, Travis and The Darkness got behind a new version of charity single Do They Know It's Christmas?

2004 BBC Radio 1's audience rose back above the 10m mark as Chris Moyles continued to attract more listeners.

2004 BSkyB launched a free digital satellite TV service which offers 140 channels for a one-off fee of £150.

2004 Alan Shearer's late penalty earned Newcastle a 1-0 victory over Panionios in Athens. And a Stewart Downing goal got Middlesbrough off to a winning start in their UEFA Cup Group E game against Aigaleo.

2005 The government said a parrot which died in quarantine in the UK tested positive for avian flu.

2005 Hurricane Wilma was pounding the Mexican coast and was expected to linger there before reaching Florida.

2005 Charlie Hodgson kicked 17 points as the Sale Sharks got their Heineken Cup campaign off to a winning start.

BIRTHDAYS (for 21 October 2006)

Katsushka Hokusai, 246 (born 21 October 1760)
Japanese painter, engraver and printmaker whose Japanese colour prints continue to be sold world-wide.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 234 (born 21 October 1772)
English poet who maintained that the true end of poetry is to give pleasure "through medium of beauty".

Alfred Nobel, 173 (born 21 October 1833)
Swedish industrialist and chemist who invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prize to award the world's leading scientists, artists and peacemakers.

Sir Georg Solti, 94 (born 21 October 1912)
Died 1997. Conductor.

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie, 89 (born 21 October 1917)
Died 1993. American trumpet player and band leader responsible for the jazz classic "Night in Tunisia", and one of the originators of bebop.

Leonard Rossiter, 80 (born 21 October 1926)
Died 1984. Actor.

Manfred Mann, 66 (born 21 October 1940)
Leader of Manfred Mann - biggest UK hit 'Doo Wah Diddy Diddy'.

Geoffrey Boycott OBE, 66 (born 21 October 1940)
Cricketer / commentator.

Peter Mendelson MP, 53 (born 21 October 1953)
Labour member for Hartlepool - Trade and Industry Secretary.

Eric Faulkner, 51 (born 21 October 1955)
Member of Bay City Rollers - biggest UK hit 'Bye Bye Baby'.

Carrie Fisher, 50 (born 21 October 1956)
American screen actress and novelist, whose roles include that of Princess Leia in Star Wars and who wrote the books Postcards from the Edge and Surrender the Pink.

Julian Cope, 49 (born 21 October 1957)
Singer - solo and Teardrop Explodes and Echo and the Bunnymen.

Steve Lukather, 49 (born 21 October 1957)
Guitarist member of Toto - biggest UK hit 'Africa'.

Paul Ince, 39 (born 21 October 1967)
Manchester United Great

Tony Mortimer, 36 (born 21 October 1970)
Singer with East 17 - now with Sub Zero.

Today's The Day - 20th October

20th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Artemius,
St Andrew the Calybite of Crete,
St Caprasius of Agen,
St Bertilla Boscardin,
and St Acca.

History Test for October 20th

Today in 1973, the Queen opened the Sydney Opera House. Which famous Australian soprano was born Helen Porter Mitchell? -Dame Nellie Melba

Author Thomas Hughes was born today in 1822. His novel `Tom Brown's Schooldays' is based on his experiences at which school? -Rugby

Crowned today in 1714, which king succeeded to the English throne on the death of Queen Anne? -King George I

Born Marjorie Robertson today in 1904, which actress played Queen Victoria and Florence Nightingale in films? -Dame Anna Neagle

Entertainer Bud Flanagan died today in 1968. Who formed a successful double act with him? -Chesney Allen

QUOTE “One starts to get young at the age of sixty and then it's too late.” - Pablo Picaaso, 1963.

Events today...

1524 Death of Thomas Linacre English physician and humanist.

1714 The coronation of King George I took place.

1818 Britain and the USA established the 49th parallel as the boundary between Canada and the USA.

1822 The first edition of the Sunday Times was published in Britain.

1827 The Battle of Navarino, off the coast of Greece, ended with the combined British, French and Russian fleets completely destroying the Egyptian and Turkish fleets.

1854 The Victoria Cross was awarded to soldiers in the British Army fighting in the Crimerian War.

1890 Sir Richard Burton, the explorer, soldier, diplomat and scholar, died of a heart attack in Trieste. He was 69. England was the only country where Burton never felt at home and he spent much of his life abroad. He discovered Lake Tanganyika and was one of the first non-Muslims to enter the secret cities of Mecca and Medina. A gifted linguist, Burton was a writer-translator of the first rank. A posting to Trieste as British Consul in 1872 bore unexpected intellectual fruits, including the 16-volume Arabian Nights, an unexpurgated translation of the sexual wisdom of the East. This frank work ruffled many feathers in England. The abuse heaped on Burton's head caused great pain to his devoutly Catholic wife, Isabel, and it was feared that she may prevent publication of the new edition of The Perfumed Garden, which Burton was working on at the time of his death.

1911 Roald Amundsen of Norway and four companions left the Bay of Whales on the east side of Antartica's Ross Ice Shelf for the South Pole; they were on skis and had dog sleds carrying necessities.

1915 Less than three months after 30,000 women marched down Whitehall shouting the slogan "We demand the right to serve", Prime Minister David Lloyd George granted them their wish. The war now raging in Europe had left Britain with a labour shortfall and given women the opportunity to step into the breach. Most areas of employment would now receive a large influx of women. Government departments had vacancies for 200,000, private offices for about half a million, and agriculture and engineering a million between them. Trams and buses up and down the country were to team a male driver with a female conductor.

1935 Three hundred and sixty-four days earlier military pressure by the Nationalist army of Chiang Kai-Shek forced the evacuation of Kiangsi Province, where the Communists, under Mao Tse-tung had established their Chinese Soviet Republic. An estimated 90,000 people began the migration to the relative safety of Shensi Province on the Yellow river. The survivors of that long and arduous march through difficult mountain terrain, reached their destination. More than half the marchers perished during the 6000-mile (9600km) journey. The first task for Communist leader Mao Tse-tung was to organise a strong defensive position. Shensi had the potential to provide a more secure power base for the Communists, but only if its defences could thwart future Nationalist attacks.

1943 The UN War Crimes commission was formed.

1944 General MacArthur returned to the Philippines with 250,000 troops to fulfil the promise he made when his forces retreated from the Japanese.

1944 The US First Army, commanded by General Hodges, announced that the German city of Aachen was now firmly in its control after a battle lasting over a week. More than 10,000 prisoners were taken. The city was the first major German centre to fall to the Allies in its attempted push through the Siegfreid Line. Much of the ancient city had been destroyed.

1944 US troops landed at Leyte, in the Philippines.

1947 The much feared hearings of the House of UnAmerican Activities began looking at Hollywood and alleged infiltration of Communist activities. It resulted in several famous movie stars being blacklisted.

1949 Britain recognised the People's Republic of China under Chairman Mao.

1960 Writer D. H. Lawrence's last novel, Lady Chatterley's Lover, the unexpurgated version of which has been banned in England for the past 30 years, was the subject of a court case which opened in London. Penguin Books had been prosecuted for publishing Lawrence's original full text, deemed by the Crown to be obscene. To equip them for the case, the jury had been told to read the book. The nation awaited their verdict.

1964 Death of Herbert Hoover, 31st US president.

1964 The Rolling Stones played a gig in Paris and there was rioting following the show with windows being broken at the theatre. 150 fans were arrested.

1965 The song "Yesterday" by the Beatles went gold in the U.S. but was never released as a single in Britain.

1968 Death of Bud Flanagan, English comedian.

1968 Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of US president Kennedy, married Greek millionaire Aristotle Onassis.

1969 The Internet was born. The first message to be sent was LOGIN. However, when the ‘O’ key was pressed, the computer crashed.

1973 Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson resigned in connection with the Watergate Scandal.

1973 "The 6 Million Dollar Man" starring Lee Majors debuted on television.

1973 The Sydney Opera House designed by Danish architect John Utzon, was opened to the public.

1977 Three members of the group Lynyrd Skynyrd died when their light aircraft crashed in a swamp near Gillburg, Mississippi. (Ronnie Van Zant, Steven Gaines and Cassie Gaines).

1988 Death of Sheila Scott, English aviator.

1989 Death of Sir Anthony Quayle, 76. Actor 'Lawrence of Arabia'.

1990 Three members of rap group 2 Live Crew were acquitted by a Jury of violating obscenity laws at a concert.

1994 Death of Burt Lancaster 1994, aged 80. Actor 'From Here to Eternity' 'Birdman of Alcatraz'.

1995 A treaty banning atomic blasts in the South Pacific was signed by France, the U.S. and Britain.

1999 Mohamed Al Fayed lost his fight for British Citizenship.

2003 The far-right People's Party won the Swiss vote, threatening political upheaval as it demanded an extra cabinet seat.

2003 The German Government asked tourists taken hostage by Islamic militants in Algeria to pay towards their rescue.

2003 A jury convicted "Girls Aloud" singer Cheryl Tweedy of assaulting a toilet attendant in a Surrey nightclub.

2003 David Blaine was given food for the first time in 44 days as he recovered in hospital following his "Perspex Box" stunt.

2003 Carlton rejected demands by its major shareholders to remove Michael Green as head of the newly merged ITV.

2003 The FA fined Sir Alex Ferguson £10,000 and banned him from the touchline for two games.

2003 Derby County FC was bought by a consortium of businessmen fronted by barrister John Sleightholme.

2004 Tony Blair faced demands for a Commons vote on whether UK forces should provide back-up for the US in Iraq.

2004 Courtney Love was given a conditional discharge after admitting hitting a man with a microphone stand.

2004 Bookies were taking bets on a new Band Aid single being Christmas No 1.

2004 The new series of comedy "Little Britain" drew a record 1.8 million audience for digital channel BBC Three.

2004 BAR won their fight with Williams for Jenson Button to drive for them the following season.

2005 David Cameron and David Davis were through to a run-off vote of party members to choose the next Tory leader.

BIRTHDAYS (for 20 October 2006)

Sir Christopher Wren, 374 (born 20 October 1632)
Died 1723. English architect famous for many major English buildings including St Paul's Cathedral in London.

Thomas Hughes, 184 (born 20 October 1822)
English author of Tom Brown's Schooldays.

Charles Ives, 132 (born 20 October 1874)
American composer who set an American style and was to influence 20th-century music.

Bela Lugosi, 122 (born 20 October 1884)
Died 1956. Hungarian actor who settled in the US and became the master of the horror film, first appearing in the title role of Dracula.

Margaret Dumont, 117 (born 20 October 1889)
Died 1965. Marx Brothers foil.

Fanny Brice, 115 (born 20 October 1891)
actress.

Sir James Chadwick, 115 (born 20 October 1891)
English physicist who won the Nobel prize for Physics for the discovery of the neutron.

Dame Anna Neagle, 102 (born 20 October 1904)
British actress and former chorus dancer who starred in many films, including Victoria the Great and Nurse Edith Cavell.

Timothy West CBE, 72 (born 20 October 1934)
Actor - 'Brass' 'A Very Peculiar Practice'.

Clive Hornby, 62 (born 20 October 1944)
Actor - Jack Sugden in Emmerdale.

Tom Petty, 56 (born 20 October 1950)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'I Won't Back Down'.

Alan Greenwood, 55 (born 20 October 1951)
Member of Foreigner - biggest UK hit 'I Want to Know What Love Is'.

Mark King, 48 (born 20 October 1958)
Singer and member of Level 42 - biggest UK hit 'Lessons in Love'.

Ian Rush, 45 (born 20 October 1961)
Footballer.

Susan Tully, 39 (born 20 October 1967)
Actress - Michelle of Eastenders.

Dannii Minogue, 35 (born 20 October 1971)
Singer and sister of Kylie

Snoop Doggy Dogg, 35 (born 20 October 1971)
Rap singer.

Today's The Day - 19th October

19th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Paul of the Cross,
St Philip Howard,
St Ethbin,
St Aquilinus of Evreux,
St Cleopatra,
St Frideswide,
St Peter of Alcantara,
St John de Brebeuf,
St Rene Goupil,
St Varus,
and Saints Ptolemy and Lucius.

History Test for October 19th

Name the author of `Gulliver's Travels', who died today in 1745. -Jonathan Swift

Today in 1972, the first episode of the TV drama series 'Colditz' was screened. Who played the Kommandant? -Bernard Hepton

Which classic work of literature, published today in 1847, contains the line: `Reader, I married him'? -`Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Bronte

Born today in 1859, which French army officer was falsely accused of treason and later pardoned? -Alfred Dreyfus

Today in 1961, who was `Walkin' Back to Happiness' at the top of the UK pop charts? -Helen Shapiro

Events today...

1216 Death of King John of England.

1682 Death of Thomas Browne, English author and physician.

1741 The actor David Garrick gave his debut performance as Richard III at London’s Goodman’s Fields Theatre, and received an ovation.

1745 Death of Jonathan Swift, aged 77. Irish author of 'Gulliver's Travels'.

1781 Lord Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington at Yorktown, Virginia marking the end of the American War of Independence.

1812 The French started their long cold walk home. Tsar Alexander’s refusal to negotiate, and renewed Russian military activity to the south of Moscow, left Napoleon with no alternative, but to withdraw to winter quarters.

1813 The Allies defeated Napoleon at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig.

1860 The first company to manufacture internal combustion engines, designed by Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteuci, was formed in Florence.

1864 The American Civil War battle of Cedar Creek ended with the victory of General Sheridan over the Confederates.

1872 The Holtermann nugget was mined at Hill End, New South Wales; weighing 630lbs it was the largest gold- Z bearing nugget ever found.

1879 The electric light was demonstrated by Thomas Edison.

1897 Death of George Pullman, US engineer and sleeping-car manufacturer.

1901 Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos Dumont circumnavigated the Eiffel Tower in his airship to win the first aviation prize.

1935 The debut of "Looney Tunes" for Warner Bros.

1935 The League of Nations imposed sanctions on Italy, following her invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

1937 Death of Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand physicist.

1938 Actor Buddy Ebsen had to pull out of the movie "The Wizard of Oz" after he fell ill from wearing the make up of the Tin Woodsman for the movie. He was replaced by Jack Hayley.

1950 The North Korean capital of Pyongyang fell during the Korean War.

1951 British troops seized Suez Canal.

1958 British driver Mike Hawthorn became world motor racing champion.

1961 The musical West Side Story was premiered. It starred Natalie Wood, Richard Breymer, George Chakiris, Russ Tamblyn and Rita Moreno.

1963 Sir Alec Douglas-Home succeeded Harold Macmillan as Prime Minister.

1968 The New Yardbirds were renamed as Led Zeppelin.

1970 The finding of oil in the North Sea was announced by BP (British Petroleum).

1977 Concorde landed in New York for the first time.

1978 Death of Gig Young, aged 64. Actor.

1982 The announcement by the Northern Ireland Office that the De Lorean sports car plant at Dunmurry was to close brought further despondency to Belfast, which had the highest unemployment rate in the United Kingdom.

1987 At the age of 42, one of Britain’s finest cellists, Jacqueline du Pré, died (of multiple sclerosis).

1987 Wall Street experienced the worst day in its history ‘Black Monday’, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeting a record 508.32 points, wiping £270million off the value of shares.

1989 After serving 14 years in prison for the IRA Guildford and Woolwich bombings, the 'Guildford Four' had their convictions quashed.

1995 Argentinean President Carlos Menem said the casting of Madonna in the movie "Evita" was "a total and utter disgrace".

1998 The video “Titanic” went on sale following tremendous box office success the year before.

1999 27,500 Irish nurses went on strike over pay.

1999 Following YUPPIES and DINKYS, a new social class was defined DAPY, -Dine Alone and please yourself.

2003 Quarter of a million pilgrims witness an ailing Pope John Paul II bring the late Mother Teresa close to sainthood.

2003 The prime minister Tony Blair was taken to hospital with an irregular heart beat.

2003 Election analysts said the anti-immigrant People's Party is making strong gains in the Swiss parliamentary elections.

2003 Seven people were injured as an Underground train carriage came off the tracks as it entered a station.

2003 Illusionist David Blaine broke down in tears as he stepped out of his box, ending his 44-day starvation stunt.

2003 The reign of the Black Eyed Peas at the top of the UK singles chart was ended by Sugar Babes.

2003 Freddie Kanoute scored the winner as Spurs come from behind to beat Leicester 2-1.

2003 Rugby: Wales struggle to an error-strewn 27-20 victory over an impressive Tonga.

2004 A video of a senior charity worker kidnapped in Baghdad was broadcast on al-Jazeera television.

2004 Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri was charged with 16 offences including 10 of soliciting the murder of non-believers.

2004 Writer Alan Hollinghurst won the £50,000 Booker Prize for his novel The Line of Beauty.

2004 Liverpool weare held to a goalless draw by Deportivo La Coruna in their Champions League group game.

2005 Hurricane Wilma grew into the strongest storm on record, threatening Central America and the US.

2005 Manchester United footballer Cristiano Ronaldo was arrested by police investigating an allegation of rape at a central London hotel.

2005 The London Film Festival began with the film version of The Constant Gardener.

BIRTHDAYS (for 19 October 2006)

Adam Lidsay Gordon, 173 (born 19 October 1833)
Australian horsebreaker, steeplechase rider and poet, the first to write in an Australian idiom.

Alfred Dreyfus, 147 (born 19 October 1859)
French army officer who was falsely accused of treason and sent to Devil’s Island, which caused a national scandal.

Auguste Lumière, 144 (born 19 October 1862)
French moving picture pioneer who, with his brother Louis, developed and manufactured the Cinématographe - a motion-picture camera and projector.

Bernard Hepton, 81 (born 19 October 1925)
Actor.

Mavis Nicholson OBE, 76 (born 19 October 1930)
TV presenter.

John LeCarre (David John Moore Cornwell), 75 (born 19 October 1931)
British novelist whose job in the Foreign Service influenced his writing, which includes The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and The Looking Glass War.

Robert Reed, 74 (born 19 October 1932)
Died 1992. Actor.

Bill Morris, 68 (born 19 October 1938)
trade union leader

David Clark, 67 (born 19 October 1939)
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

Michael Gambon, 66 (born 19 October 1940)
Actor

Simon Ward, 65 (born 19 October 1941)
Actor.

Peter Tosh, 62 (born 19 October 1944)
Jamaican reggae musician who was with Bob Marley’s Wailers before going solo in 1975 with hits like `Don’t Look Back'.

George McCrae, 62 (born 19 October 1944)
Died 1986. Singer - 'Rock Your Baby'.

Patrick Simmons, 61 (born 19 October 1945)
Member of Doobie Brothers.

John Lithgow, 61 (born 19 October 1945)
Actor 'Cliffhanger' 'Third Rock from the Sun'.

Divine, 61 (born 19 October 1945)
Died 1988. Actor/actress!.

Charles Dance, 60 (born 19 October 1946)
Actor.

Jennifer Holliday, 46 (born 19 October 1960)
Actress and singer 'Dream Girls'.

Evander Holyfield, 44 (born 19 October 1962)
Boxer

Sinitta, 40 (born 19 October 1966)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'So Macho'.

Pras Michel, 34 (born 19 October 1972)
Member of The Fugees.

Lauryn 'L-Boogie' Hill, 31 (born 19 October 1975)
Lead singer with The Fugees.

Blackpool Illuminations FactFile

Iluminating facts...

* The Illuminations cost £2.4m to stage.
* The mountain of equipment is worth £10m
* The Lights are expected to attract in excess of 3.5 million visitors to Blackpool.

* Visitors will spend more than £275 million while visiting the resort during the Lights.
* The Illuminations will shine non-stop for 66 nights.
* The dazzling display stretches almost six miles from Starr Gate to Bispham.
* 45 staff, which include Artists, Electricians, Joiners Mechanics, Painters and Engineers, work all year round to ensure the displays are ready on time.
* Altogether 65,000 staff hours are used on maintenance, preparation, erection, operation and - finally - dismantling the features, fixtures and fittings.
* The Rigby Road workshop, resembles something of a Santa's Grotto with its network of workshops, halls, corridors and storage area.
* There are more than 100-miles of festoon strip strung between promenade poles and across the carriageway.
* Cable and wiring stretches more than 200 miles.
* There are one million lamps in various types and styles.
* The equipment weighs more than 711,000 kilograms which is equivalent to 350 Blackpool trams.
* There are more than 500 scenic designs and features.
* 40 large tableaux holding more than 5,000 square metres in surface area are included in the display.
* There are more than 5,000 floodlights and spotlights.
* Most of the display now operates on low voltage eg 12v and 24v.
* New infrastructure for the lights, street lighting and tramways cost £9m
* The lights are supported by more than 1,500 poles.
* Electricity consumed totals 960,000 units, at an approximate cost of £50,000.

Quiztime Quiz 151006

1. "Be Happy, I said, Be Happy" were which characters final words after 12 years on Coronation Street?
Fred Elliott
2. What soft toy range devised by H Ty Warner included characters such as Flash The Dolphin, Splash The Whale and Patti The Platypus?
Beanie Babies
3. What is the name of the studio band on the Jonathan Ross Show?
Four Puffs and A Piano
4. If a rugby union team scores 3 tries, 2 of which are converted, 2 penalties and a drop goal, what is their total score?
Twenty Eight (28)
5. What is the name of the US Presidential retreat, the equivalent of the Prime Minister’s Chequers?
Camp David
6. Whose voice was the first to be heard on Virgin Radio?
Richard Branson
7. Which country is home to the newly crowned Miss World?
Czech Republic
8. Today in 1971 the music of Khatchaturian’s ‘Spartacus’ introduced the first episode of which TV drama?
`The Onedin Line’
9. One point each, which two teams share the honour of being the oldest clubs in the Premiership after Reading?
Bolton & Aston Villa
10. On which Greek island was Shirley Valentine largely set?
Mykonos
11. Cancara, the black horse that featured in which TV ads, died last week at the grand old age of 31?
Lloyds TSB
12. How many players in a Canadian Football team?
Twelve
13. Which sportsman has been raising funds for charity by walking through 17 cities in 9 days?
Ian Botham
14. True or False - Married men change their underwear twice as often as single men?
True
15. Which TV personality presented the first National Lottery draw?
Noel Edmunds
16. Jafar is the name of the villain in which 1992 Disney movie?
Aladdin
17. What is the profession of OTTO in "The Simpson’s"?
School Bus Driver
18. What is the more common name for the north american ground squirrel which has alternate light and dark stripes running down the body?
Chipmunk
19. In the 1999 World Cup in Holland, why did three players take more than 18 stokes on one hole?
Playing Crazy Golf
20. Quiztime Survey Question - Name a famous animal threesome?
Little Pigs / Bears / Wise Monkeys / Billy Goats Gruff / Blind Mice

21. Which Year - Film composer Henry Mancini received a gold disc for the soundtrack to the movie "The Pink Panther", Britain’s new tallest building, the Post Office Tower in London, opened, The evil Red Baron made his first appearance in the "Peanuts" comic strip, The song "Yesterday" by the Beatles went gold in the U.S. but was never released as a single in Britain and British and French forces started to land in Egypt during fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces around the Suez Canal?
1965 - Capital punishment was abolished in Britain
22. Which piece of sporting equipment is three inches in diameter, one inch high, black, cold and made of rubber?
Puck
23. What did Frenchman Andre Turcat famously do on 2nd March 1969?
Flew Concorde on its maiden flight
24. What word is formed by expressing 1009 in Roman numerals?
MIX
25. In Robin Hood, what is Maid Marion’s surname - Fitzroy, Fitzwilliam or Fitzwalter?
Fitzwalter
26. How many records do you have to sell to get a Gold disc?
500,000
27. In Norfolk they call the male of this creature a Jack, the female they call a Broadster, found along the seashore, which creature is it?
Crab
28. The name of which premiership club is defined in the dictionary as ‘a rash or impetuous person’?
Hotspur (Tottenham)
29. Which restaurateur was buried in a white suit and bow tie in Louisville in 1980?
‘Colonel’ Sanders
30. Johansson is the most common surname in which Scandinavian country?
Sweden
31. Most Eskimo households have fridges. What are they used for?
To keep food from freezing
32. Which seaside Football team is nicknamed the "Cherries"?
Bournemouth
33. The Queen employs a ‘fendersmith’ at Windsor Castle, what is his job?
To light the fires
34. In which year did Michael Schumacher first win the Formula I drivers world championship?
1994
35. What was Rene’s codename when he spoke to London in the TV series Allo Allo?
Nighthawk
36. The sea between Hastings and Newhaven on the South Coast and off the Needles, Isle of Wight are the only two official sites around the English coast for what ceremony?
Burial at sea
37. What are Ram in Derby, Red Dragon in Cardiff, Fox in Oxford and the Eagle in Guildford?
Commercial Radio Stations
38. What is the largest Bra size?
F
39. What is the name of the sister of Pingu in the children’s animated series of that name?
Pinga
40. What are the French Police called?
Police - The Gendarmes are soldiers acting as policemen
Tiebreaker - What is the Guinness World record for the amount of pints of beer drunk in three hours by one person? Ninety (90)

- How many times per second does a mosquito flap its wings?
587
- In a New York crying contest, what volume of tears did the winner produce in three hours?
1/3 Pint

Survey Extra - Name a method of escaping from prison?
Tunnel, Over Wall, Sheets from window, Helicopter, At Gunpoint

Foreign food? It's still unspeakable

Expresso or espresso? It appears that, while many Britons may claim to be food lovers, they still cannot correctly pronounce what is on their plates or in their cups.

Foreign waiters are curling their lips in contempt as diners struggle with culinary tongue-twisters peppering multi-cultural restaurant menus, says a survey.

Top of the list of linguistic clangers highlighted by the study for the BBC's Good Food magazine is the Italian toasted bread dish bruschetta.

Given a choice between two phonetically spelt options, 63 per cent pronounced bruschetta as "broo-shet-tar" rather than the correct "broo-sket-tah".

Another favourite for mispronunciation is chorizo, the spicy Spanish sausage often cooked in red wine. Of those surveyed, 56 per cent were convinced that adding an Italian-sounding "tz" sound – making it "chore-ritz-oh" – would be more authentic, when the softer "chore-reeth-oh" is correct.

Tortilla, the flat, unleavened Mexican bread often dipped in salsa, did not come out as "tor-tee-ya" in 12 per cent of answers and the strong black coffee served in a small cup and favoured by the Italians is an espresso and definitely not an expresso as more than one in four thought.

The British inability to deal with other tongues was also shown up on the wine list.

Forty per cent were unable to correctly pronounce the French white, pouilly fume, choosing "pooh-il-ee fume-ay" rather than the correct "pooh-yee few-may".

Gillian Carter, the editor of Good Food magazine, said: "When people are unsure how to pronounce something on the menu they often point or end up ordering only things they do know how to say.

"I'd encourage anyone unsure to take a gamble rather than miss out on something delicious."

Halloween Quiztime

CHRIS'S QUIZTIME
AT THE
ANCIENT OAK, COTTAM, PRESTON,
LANCASHIRE
PRESENTS

*HALLOWEEN SPECIAL*
Halloween Happenings, Monsters, Ghosts, Witches, Halloween Anagrams
Vampires, Myths & Legends, Horror Movies, All Hell Breaks Out, Halloween Numbers
PLUS - Full 20 Picture Quiz - Horror Actors
FREE
DOWNLOAD HERE

NOTE - THE FREE QUIZ DOWNLOAD DIFFERS FROM THAT BEING PRESENTED AT THE ABOVE VENUE!!!
(DO YOU THINK I'M BATTY? - DON'T ANSWER THAT!)

Today's The Day - 18th October

18th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Luke,
St Gwen of Corwall,
and St Justus of Beauvais.

History Test for October 18th

Today in 1986, who reached the top of the UK pop charts with 'Every Loser Wins'? -Nick Berry

"Die, my dear doctor? That's the last thing I shall do!" Which Victorian reputedly said these last words today in 1865? -Lord Palmerston

Which Italian painter, famous for his views of Venice, was born today in 1865? -Canaletto

Which TV detective series made its debut today in 1981 and featured a jewel thief called Philippa Vale? -'Bergerac'

Born today in 1927, which actor became the first to refuse an Oscar? -George C. Scott (for `Patton: Lust for Glory')

QUOTE “I'd say award winning plays are written only for the critics.” - Lew Grade, British film and television producer, 1970.

Events today...

1598 Henri IV issued his edict to safeguard the civic and religious rights of French Protestants-Huguenots - and to usher in a new age of toleration. Thousands of Protestants were expected to respond to the action by fleeing the country.

1867 Alaska became American territory when The U.S. paid Russia $7.2 million.

1685 The French king Louis XIV has turned screw still further on the Protestants among his people by revoking the Edict of Nantes.

1826 Britain's last state lottery was held.

1842 The first telegraph cable was laid by Samuel Morse. It ran from Governor's Island to the Battery across New York harbour and lasted only 24 hours -- 200 feet of it were wrecked when a ship weighed anchor.

1865 Lord Palmerston, twice British prime minister, died with the witty words, "Die my dear doctor? That's the last thing I shall do!"

1871 Death of Charles Babbage, aged 78. English mathematician and inventor of calculating machine.

1873 At a meeting in New York, delegates from Columbia, Princeton, Rutgers and Yale universities formulated the rules of American football.

1887 Russia transferred Alaska to the USA for $7.2 million.

1893 Death of Charles François Gounod, French composer.

1898 The US took possession of Puerto Rico from Spain.

1907 The first plans were announced for an International Court of Justice to be set up in the Hague.

1910 The trial of Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen began at the Old Bailey - he was accused of the murder of his wife Belle, who was poisoned, cut up into small pieces and buried in the cellar.

1922 Marconi and the General Electric Company were among the major wireless manufacturers who formed a new company to be responsible for the broadcasting of radio programmes throughout Great Britain. Pressure had been mounting for a central service of this kind. The new British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) was to operate from Marconi House in London, under the management of John Reith, and would begin a daily service of programmes from November 14.

1931 America's most prolific inventor, Thomas Alva Edison, died at the age of 84. Edison's lack of formal education proved no handicap: his inventions included the phonograph, microphone and the kinescope, and he designed a complete electrical distribution system for lighting and power.

1963 British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan resigned his office and Sir Alec Douglas Home succeeded him.

1964 The Animals topped the bill when they opened in Manchester. The support acts were Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, Tommy Tucker and the Nashville Teens.

1966 Death of Elizabeth Arden, cosmetics company founder.

1966 The Queen granted a royal pardon to Timothy Evans, who was convicted of the murder of his wife and child in West London and hanged in 1950.

1966 Jimi Hendrix was dubbed the "wild-man of pop" when the "Jimi Hendrix Experience" played their debut concert in Paris at the Olympic Theatre.

1966 Timothy Evans was granted a posthumous pardon by the Queen. He had been hanged in

1950 for the murder of his wife. He had been wrongly framed for the murder by the real killer John Christie who had been his landlord at 10 Rillington Place in London. Christie was later arrested for the murder of his own wife and confessed to killing Evans' wife.

1968 John Lennon and Yoko Ono were remanded on bail for possession of cannabis following a police raid at their flat in Montague Square, London.

1968 Two black athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos were suspended by the Olympic committee after they gave a "black power" salute as a protest during a victory ceremony in Mexico.

1969 Rod Stewart and Ron Wood joined the Small Faces after Steve Marriott had left to form Humble Pie with Peter Frampton.

1970 The Canadian separatist group, Quebec Liberation Front (FLQ), responded to Canadian premier Pierre Trudeau's get-tough policy by murdering Pierre Laporte, the Quebec minister of Labour and Immigration who was kidnapped with British diplomat James Cross eight days earlier. Laporte's body was found in a car boot. Negotiations had opened with the kidnappers, but Trudeau declared a state of "insurrection" in Quebec, introducing emergency powers to deal with the crisis. The FLQ were outlawed and 250 of its members arrested.

1974 A jury trial heard incriminating evidence when a tape was played in which President Richard Nixon was heard telling an aide to make sure that the Watergate burglary investigation was stopped before any White House personnel could be implicated.

1977 The five-day ordeal of passengers aboard a German Lufthansa jet hijacked by Palestinian terrorists ended when a squad of crack troops stormed the aircraft at Mogadishu airport when it became likely that passengers would be killed. Three of the four Palestinians were killed in the shoot-out. The terrorists had already killed the pilot, Jurgen Schumann. The hijack was in support of the left-wing Baader-Meinhof urban terrorist group.

1987 The US attacked an Iranian oil rig in revenge for strikes at its shipping by gunboats.

1988 The television show Roseanne debuted and made a star of Roseanne Barr.

1989 Erich Honecker, East Germany's hardline ruler, was ousted from the job he has held for 18 years. His economic chief, Gunter Mittag, and minister for propaganda and agitation, Joachim Herrmann, were also been forced to quit. The unsmiling, bureaucratic Honeeker, 77, had failed to respond to the desire among East Germans for change. The new ruler the 21-man Politburo were pinning their hopes on is the youthful Egon Krenz, 52. Reform groups were not convinced that Egon Krenz, formerly head of internal and external security, would set the wheels of reform moving. In their eyes he was closely associated with the policies that had created the discontent.

1989 San Francisco was hit by an earthquake which measured 6.9 on the Richter scale, killing at least 273 people and injuring 650.

1989 With the end of Communist rule, Hungary was proclaimed a free republic.

1995 The Grand National Hero, Redrum died.

1996 The Home office announced tough new laws to crack down on stalking.

1999 Pakistan was kicked out of the Commonwealth, following a military coup days earlier.

2003 A new message attributed to Osama Bin Laden called on the US to withdraw from Iraq and warned of suicide attacks.

2003 Bolivia's new president called for unity hours after his predecessor was forced out by weeks of violent protests.

2003 Zimbabwe's state fuel supplier was reported as saying it did not have a drop of fuel, plunging services into crisis.

2003 Two space veterans headed off on a new mission to replace the crew aboard the international orbiting station.

2003 The Pope asked cardinals to pray for him to go on in his role after speculation he could retire on health grounds.

2003 England were on course for the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals after beating South Africa 25-6.

2003 Arsenal went top of the Premiership as Thierry Henry grabbed the winner against Chelsea.

2003 Roy Keane's late header gave Man Utd a 1-0 win against Leeds Utd at Elland Road. And Manchster City beat Bolton Wanderers 6-2.

2004 Indian police said they had shot dead one of the country's most wanted men, the bandit Veerappan.

2004 Tony Blair talked to business leaders about new proposals for a major shake-up of the English exam system.

2004 Britain's Olympic stars headed for a reception with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

2004 Soft Cell singer Marc Almond was in intensive care in hospital after a motorcycle crash in central London.

2004 TV watchdog Ofcom upheld 55 complaints against a live broadcast of a fight on Channel 4 show Big Brother.

2004 Actor Richard Dreyfuss withdrew from the UK run of the Broadway hit "The Producers" because of injuries.

2004 Yakubu's second-half goal gave Portsmouth a deserved 1-0 win over Spurs.

2004 US sports tycoon Malcolm Glazer paid £17m to increase his stake in Manchester Utd for the second time in four days.

2004 Adrian Mutu's agent confirmed that the Chelsea striker had failed a random drug test.

2005 Ex-chancellor Ken Clarke was eliminated from the race to become the next leader of the Conservative Party.

2005 A man was held over hoax letters and a tape which misled detectives hunting the Yorkshire Ripper.

2005 Madonna admitted she wrote a grovelling letter asking Abba if she could sample them on her new single.

BIRTHDAYS (for 18 October 2006)

Canaletto, 309 (born 18 October 1697)
Italian painter best remembered for his dramatic and picturesque views of Venice.

Pierre de Laclos, 265 (born 18 October 1741)
French author of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, his single masterpiece.

Anita O'Day, 87 (born 18 October 1919)
jazz singer

Chuck Berry, 80 (born 18 October 1926)
American rock and roll pioneer whose hits included `Maybelline' and `Sweet Little Sixteen'.

George C. Scott, 79 (born 18 October 1927)
American actor who was awarded an Oscar for his leading part in Patton.

Peter Boyle, 73 (born 18 October 1933)
Actor.

Inger Stevens, 72 (born 18 October 1934)
Died 1970. Actress.

Cynthia Weil, 69 (born 18 October 1937)
Songwriter - 'You've Lost that Lovin Feelin'.

Lee Harvey Oswald, 67 (born 18 October 1939)
Died 1963. Assassin - JFK.

Laura Nyro, 59 (born 18 October 1947)
Died 1997. Singer.

Joe Egan, 57 (born 18 October 1949)
Member of Stealers Wheel - biggest UK hit 'Stuck in the Middle With You'.

Keith Knudsen, 54 (born 18 October 1952)
Member of Doobie Brothers.

Timmy Mallett, 51 (born 18 October 1955)
Childrens TV presenter.

Martina Navratilova, 50 (born 18 October 1956)
Czech-born American tennis champion who won the Wimbledon women's singles title nine times and numerous other Grand Slam events.

Malcolm Marshall, 48 (born 18 October 1958)
cricketer

Jean Claude van Damme, 46 (born 18 October 1960)
Actor - 'Kickboxer' 'Timecop'.

Gladstone Small, 45 (born 18 October 1961)
cricketer

Wynton Marsalis, 45 (born 18 October 1961)
Jazz Trumpeter.

Mark Morriss, 35 (born 18 October 1971)
Lead singer with The Bluetones - 'If'.

Today's The Day - 17th October

17th October 2006

Religious events today...
Saint Ethelred's Day.
Feast day of The Ursuline Martyrs of Valenciennes,
Saints Ethelbert and Ethelred,
St John the Dwarf,
St Anstrudis or Austrude,
St Seraphino,
St Notheltn,
St Ignatius of Antioch,
and St Rule.

History Test for October 17th

Born today in 1918, which American film actress starred with her husband Orson Welles in 'The Lady From Shanghai'? -Rita Hayworth

Playwright Arthur Miller was born today in 1915. Which of his plays deals with the Salem witch-hunt of the l7th century? -'The Crucible'

The composer Frederic Chopin died today in 1849. What was his nationality? -Polish

Today in 1980, the Queen met Pope John Paul II for the first time. Over 800 years earlier, who became the first British Pope? -Nicholas Breakspear (as Adrian IV)

Which American gangster, known as 'Scarface', was sent to prison for tax evasion today in 1931? -Al Capone

QUOTE “Politicians are the same everywhere. They promise to build bridges even where there are no rivers.” - Nikita Krushchev, Soviet statesman, 1960.

Events today...

1586 Death of Philip Sidney, English poet and soldier.

1651 Charles II, defeated by Cromwell at Worcester, fled to France, destitute and friendless.

1777 British commander General Burgoyne surrendered to General Horatio Gates at Saratoga, a victory for the American colonists.

1806 The tyrannical Emperor Jacques I, first ruler of independent Haiti, was assassinated.

1849 Frederic Chopin, the composer and virtuoso pianist, died of tuberculosis in Paris. He was 39. The half-French, half-Polish Chopin was an infant prodigy, at seven writing a march that the Grand Duke Constantine had scored for his military band to play on parade, and a year later making his first public appearance as a soloist. In 1831 he moved to Paris where he quickly established himself as a fashionable recitalist and teacher able to command high fees. The nervous strain of performing, however, did not help his already weak constitution. Chopin was calm at the end, and asked only that his unfinished manuscripts be destroyed and that Mozart's Requiem. be sung at his funeral. This was to be held at the Church of the Madeleine on October 30.

1887 Death of Gustav Robert Kirchoff, German physicist.

1902 The very first Cadillac was built.

1910 Death of Julia Ward Howe, US author.

1914 An earthquake struck Greece and Asia Minor, killing over 3,000 people.

1914 German U-boats raided Scapa Flow, the main base of the British Grand Fleet, off the north coast of Scotland in the Orkney islands.

1931 US gangster Al Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison for income-tax evasion the only charge that could be sustained against him.

1933 Albert Einstein arrived in the United States from Nazi Germany as a refugee.

1939 Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour started work on their first "Road" movie with "The Road to Singapore".

1945 Argentina found the saviour it has been searching for. Juan Domingo Perón addressed a 300,000-strong crowd from the balcony of the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, and told them of his desire for a just and strong nation. In his speech, which was also transmitted to millions more listening on the radio, ex-military man Perón promised that he would lead the people to victory in the forthcoming presidential election. Two weeks earlier Perón's ambition to become undisputed leader of the Argentinian people received a severe setback when he was ousted from his positions of vice-president and minister of war. His re-emergence was due largely to his forceful and politically astute mistress, Eva Duarte, who helped rally support. With her by his side and with the backing of the labour unions, 55-year-old Perón looked set to put into practice his plans for reshaping the nation.

1956 Britain's first full scale nuclear power station was opened by the Queen, at Calder Hall in Cumbria.

1959 The South African De Beers diamond firm announced that synthetic industrial diamonds had been produced.

1960 Charles Van Doreen, who had astounded television viewers after he kept winning the American series "Twenty-One", was charged with perjury along with fourteen other people. The story was retold in the Robert Redford movie Quiz Show which starred Ralph Fiennes.

1960 The daily newspaper "The Daily Chronicle" stopped publication.

1967 French skier Sylvain Saudan made the steepest descent in alpine history, from the north-east side of Mont Blanc down the Couloir Gervasutti to gradients of about 60 degrees.

1973 The ten Arab members of OPEC announced an enormous 70 per cent hike in oil prices and a cutback in production in response to America's support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War. President Nixon had proposed a $2200 million aid package to the beleaguered nation. Western Europe will be particularly hard hit by the decision because it relied on the Arab producers for 80 per cent of its oil. Inflation and petrol rationing were expected. The Arabs' policy was likely to drive a wedge between the US, on whom an oil embargo had also been imposed, and Europe, which was fearful of further retaliatory measures for America's support for Israel.

1977 A US Supreme Court ruling allowed Concorde to use Kennedy Airport, New York.

1977 Eighty-six passengers who had been held hostage aboard a Lufthansa aircraft in Mogadishu were freed when West German commandos stormed the aircraft and killed 3 of the 4 hijackers.

1979 Mother Theresa of Calcutta was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her charity work on behalf of the poor in India.

1979 Death of S. J. Perelman, US humorist.

1985 The House of Lords voted to allow doctors to prescribe contraceptives to girls under the age of 16 without parental consent, ending a campaign by Catholic mother Mrs Victoria Gillick against such action.

1988 Beethoven's tenth symphony was performed for the first time in London - researcher Barry Cooper pieced together fragments of the manuscript and sketches discovered in Berlin.

1989 An earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale claimed 67 lives and caused billions of dollars in damage in the Bay area of San Francisco. A section of the two-tier Interstate 880 in Oakland collapsed, crushing motorists driving on the lower deck. The 15-second quake also caused damage in the Marina and to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

1991 Death of Tennessee Ernie Ford, aged 72, Country singer.

1993 Death of William Paton, English pharmacologist

1995 Sting's former financial adviser was sentenced to six years imprisonment for defrauding the singer of millions of pounds.

1998 Death of Joan Hickson. English actress of stage, film and television. Her film credits are numerous, she made her debut in 1933, but her big impact came in 1984 when she made 12 Agatha Christie 'Miss Marple' stories for television, playing the title role.

2003 A 19-year-old accused of bringing computers at the busiest port in America to standstill was acquitted by a jury.

2003 Chancellor Gordon Brown's wife Sarah gives birth to a boy - It was announced both mother and baby were "fine".

2003 A Tube train was derailed at Hammersmith station. London Underground has said there wereno reported injuries.

2003 It was announced that Porridge star Ronnie Barker was to revive his character, Norman Stanley Fletcher, for a one-off Christmas special.

2003 In golf, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Thomas Bjorn and Ben Curtis won through to the World Match Play semi-finals.

2003 Man Utd boss Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed goalkeeper Fabien Barthez was in talks with Marseille about a loan move.

2004 A major murder inquiry was launched after the bodies of three men were discovered in a Glasgow flat.

2004 After a career spanning decades, Comedy great Sir Norman Wisdom retired from the stage.

2004 Actors Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet attended the premiere of "Finding Neverland" in London.

2004 Singer Michael Jackson's long-time lawyer Steve Cochran left the star's defence team.

2005 John Peel's widow said it would be "just awful" to have to part with the late DJ's record collection.

2005 It was announced that Sylvester Stallone was to write, direct and star in a new Rocky film, 30 years after shooting to fame in the original.

BIRTHDAYS (for 17 October 2006)

John Wilkes, 279 (born 17 October 1727)
English journalist and political agitator who campaigned for press freedom and was elected to Parliament four times but not allowed to take his seat until 1774.

Baroness Karen Blixen, 121 (born 17 October 1885)
Danish author of Out of Africa under the pseudonym of Isak Dinesen.

Nathaniel West, 103 (born 17 October 1903)
American novelist whose Lonelyhearts was made into a film and who drew a scathing picture of Hollywood in The Day of the Locust.

Jean Arthur, 101 (born 17 October 1905)
Died 1991. Actress.

Arthur Miller, 91 (born 17 October 1915)
Playwright 'Death of a Salesman'.

Harry Saltzman, 91 (born 17 October 1915)
Died 1994. Film producer - Bond films.

Rita Hayworth, 88 (born 17 October 1918)
Died 1987. American actress and dancer who partnered Fred Astaire in You Were Never Lovelier and caused a sensation in Gilda.

Montgomery Clift, 86 (born 17 October 1920)
Died 1966. American actor usually given introspective roles, whose films include From Here to Eternity and The Misfits.

Harry Carpenter OBE, 81 (born 17 October 1925)
Sports presenter.

Ann Jones, 68 (born 17 October 1938)
English tennis player

Evel Knievel (Robert Craig), 67 (born 17 October 1939)
American stuntman who specialised in leaping over rows of cars or buses on a motorcycle or in a car.

Jim Seals, 65 (born 17 October 1941)
Singer of Seals and Crofts fame - 'Summer Breeze'.

Gary Puckett, 64 (born 17 October 1942)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Young Girl'.

Michael McKean, 59 (born 17 October 1947)
Actor.

Margot Kidder, 58 (born 17 October 1948)
Actress - Superman's Lois Lane.

George Wendt, 58 (born 17 October 1948)
Actor 'Cheers'.

Dolph Lundgren, 47 (born 17 October 1959)
Actor - 'Rocky 4' 'Masters of the Universe'.

Ziggy Marley, 38 (born 17 October 1968)
Reggae singer.

Today's The Day - 16th October

16th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of Saints Maninian and Maxima,
St Margaret-Mary,
St Anastasius of Cluny,
St Hedwig,
St Bertrand of Comminges,
St Becharius,
St Mommolinus,
St Lull,
St Gerard Majella,
and St Gall.

History Test for October 16th

`Blue Peter' began its long run on TV today in 1958. Which presenter was once a Dr. Who assistant? -Peter Purves (He played Steven Taylor during the William Hartnell years)

Beheaded today in 1793, who was married to Louis XVI of France? -Marie Antoinette

Born today in 1854, who is reputed to have said on arriving in America: "I have nothing to declare except my genius'? -Oscar Wilde

Today in 1834, which English palace was almost destroyed by fire? -The Palace of Westminster

Born today in 1922, which entertainer had fifties UK chart hits with `Jungle Bell Rock' and `Cowpuncher's Cantata'? -Max Bygraves

Events today...

1555 Death of Nicholas Ridley, bishop and Protestant martyr.

1793 Death of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.

1813 France suffered defeat at the Battle of Leipzig which was also know as the Battle of the Nations.

1815 Napoleon was exiled to the Atlantic island of St Helena.

1846 At Massachusetts General Hospital, dentist William T. G. Morton successfully used an anaesthetic (diethyl ether) for the first time and removed a tumour from a young man's jaw.

1901 President Roosevelt's invitation to black American educator Booker T Washington to visit the White House unleashed a fury of opposition. The consensus among the protesters was that the invitation constituted a "breach of etiquette". Mr Washington spent most of his time encouraging his fellow blacks to absorb American values. The year before, he formed the National Negro Business League, which emphasised vocational skills, thrift and enterprise. One suspected that the protesters were really objecting to a breach of the colour bar, for there was no hint of radicalism in his aims. The controversy did not help Washington's cause among his own people.

1902 The first detention centre housing young offenders was opened in Borstal, Kent.

1906 British New Guinea becomes part of Australia.

1915 Britain declared war on Bulgaria.

1922 The Simplon II railway tunnel, under the Alps, was completed.

1928 The frosted lightbulb was patented by Marvin Pipkin.

1946 Ten leading Nazis found guilty of crimes against humanity by the International War Crimes Tribunal were hanged in the gymnasium of Nuremberg prison. Hermann Goering chose to exit via a different door, taking poison less than two hours before he was due to be executed.

1956 An 11,000 carat emerald was found in South Africa by Charles Kempt and J. Botes.

1959 Death of George Marshall, US general and diplomat.

1964 Labour Party leader Harold Wilson became Prime Minister.

1964 The first Chinese-made atom bomb was tested in an explosion at Lop Nor.

1972 Death of Leo G Carroll, aged 79. Actor. Mr Waverly in Man from UNCLE.

1972 The group Creedance Clearwater Revival announced they were splitting up.

1973 Death of Gene Krupa, aged 64. Bandleader.

1975 GOES I (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) was launched.

1977 Death of Sir Michael Balcon, aged 81. Film producer.

1978 Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyla was elected Pope, the first non-Italian pope since 1542 and the youngest this century.

1981 The Lionel Richie and Diana Ross single "Endless Love" went Platinum.

1981 Death of Moshe Dayan, Israeli general and politician.

1984 A baboon's heart was transplanted into a 15 day old baby. The baby survived only until 15th November that year.

1987 The London Weather Centre was battening down its hatches to meet a deluge of criticism after failing to alert southern England to the imminent arrival of the worst storm to hit Britain in 300 years. The violence of the Force-11 storm brought down roofs, chimneys, trees and power lines, claimed the lives of 18 people and caused an estimated £100 million of damage. Life was brought to a halt on land and sea as police advised people to stay at home rather than add to the chaos. Sevenoaks in Kent lost six of the giant oak trees which gave the town its name, while experts at Kew Gardens said that it would take about 200 years to replace some of the trees lost from their arboretum. The Met Office blamed a computer error for its miscalculation.

1989 A committee of the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, voted 76-11 in favour of a ban on the international trade in ivory.

1989 Death of Cornel Wilde, US film actor.

1990 Death of Art Blakey, aged 71. Jazz musician.

1991 Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, 50miles (80km) north of Austin, Texas, was the scene of the worst massacre in American history. After crashing his Ford pick-up truck through the front of the packed eating place, unemployed seaman George Hennard, 35, systematically shot as many of the terrified lunchtime crowd as he could, killing 22. Police arrived, then Hennard retreated to a backroom and turned the gun on himself.

1991 The results of the auction of ITV franchises resulted in the biggest shake-up in commercial television's 37-year history. Thames in London, TV-am, the breakfast channel, TVS in the south of England, and TSW in the south-west all lost their franchises. Former PM Margaret Thatcher scrapped the “Independent Broadcasting Authority” when her appeal to stop the screening of Thames TV's “Death on the Rock” - a controversial documentary about the SAS shooting on Gibraltar of three IRA terrorists - was turned down. She then determined that franchises should go to the highest bidders, only acceding to a quality threshold when the chairman of the Independent Television Commission, George Russell, threatened to resign.

1992 Death of Shirley Booth, aged 94. Actress.

1993 Death of Paolo Bortoluzzi, Italian dancer and choreographer.

2003 John Paul II looking frail but alert appealled for the faithful's prayers at a Mass for his silver jubilee.

2003 The Belgian authorities arrested two people, one a European Commission official, over alleged fraud in grain dealing.

2003 HSBC said it was shedding 4,000 customer service jobs at its UK sites as part of plans to transfer work to China, India and Malaysia.

2003 French club Marseille said they had reached an agreement to sign Man Utd keeper Fabien Barthez on loan.

2004 US presidential candidate John Kerry said he would make stem cell research a priority, dropping George Bush's policy.

2004 Tory MP Boris Johnson was told to go to Liverpool and apologise for saying the city wallowed in its "victim status".

2004 The investigation into the Lord Lucan murder case reopened - almost 30 years after his disappearance.

2004 Robert De Niro failed to show up at an awards ceremony in Milan and a press conference in Rome.

2004 The Rhinos were crowned Super League champions after beating the Bulls in the Grand Final at Old Trafford.

2004 Chelsea suffered their first defeat of the season at the hands of a resolute Man City.

BIRTHDAYS (for 16 October 2006)

Noah Webster, 248 (born 16 October 1758)
American lexicographer responsible for the first American dictionary.

Oscar Wilde, 152 (born 16 October 1854)
Died 1900. Irish-born writer and wit whose work includes the play The Importance of being Earnest and the novel A Picture of Dorian Gray.

Eugene O'Neill, 118 (born 16 October 1888)
American dramatist whose fnest plays include The Iceman Cometh and Long Day's Journey into Night:

Max Bygraves, 84 (born 16 October 1922)
Singer comedian TV presenter.

Bert Kaempfert, 83 (born 16 October 1923)
Died 1980. German conductor and composer who wrote many hits including Frank Sinatra's Strangers in the Night.

Angela Lansbury, 81 (born 16 October 1925)
British actress who won Tony awards for Broadway plays such as Mame, was nominated for an Oscar for the film Gaslight, but is probably best known for her role in the television series Murder She Wrote.

Gunter Grass, 79 (born 16 October 1927)
German sculptor and novelist, author of The Tin Drum.

Peter Bowles, 70 (born 16 October 1936)
Actor 'To the Manor Born'.

Emile Ford, 69 (born 16 October 1937)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'What do you want to make those eyes at me for'.

Suzanne Somers, 60 (born 16 October 1946)
Actress 'Three's Company'.

David Zucker, 59 (born 16 October 1947)
Film producer - 'Airplane' 'Police Squad' 'Naked Gun'.

Robert Hall "Bob" Weir, 59 (born 16 October 1947)
Member of The Grateful Dead.

Terry Griffiths, 59 (born 16 October 1947)
Snooker player.

Tony Carey, 53 (born 16 October 1953)
Member of Rainbow.

Tim Robbins, 48 (born 16 October 1958)
Actor 'Shawshank Redemption' 'Hudsucker Proxy'.

Gary Kemp, 47 (born 16 October 1959)
Lead singer with Spandau Ballet - biggest UK hit 'True'.

Manute Bol, 44 (born 16 October 1962)
pro basketball player.

Flea, 44 (born 16 October 1962)
Bassist with Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

Simon Bartholomew, 41 (born 16 October 1965)
Member of Brand New Heavies.

Wendy Wilson, 37 (born 16 October 1969)
Member of Wilson Phillips.

Today's The Day - 15th October

15th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Leonard of Vandoeuvre,
and St Euthymius the Younger.

History Test for October 15th

Today in 1971 the music of Khatchaturian's 'Spartacus' introduced the first episode of which TV drama? -`The Onedin Line'

Born today in 1881, who created the character Lord Emsworth of Blandings Castle and his pig called the Empress of Blandings? -P.G. Wodehouse

Which singer reached Number One in the UK pop charts today in 1988 with 'One Moment in Time'? -Whitney Houston

Name the American composer of the songs 'Night and Day' and 'Anything Goes', who died today in 1964. -Cole Porter

American novelist Mario Puzo was born today in 1920. Name his best-selling novel, telling the epic story of Don Corleone. -`The Godfather'

Events today...

1522 Spanish emperor Charles V promoted Hernan Cortes to the status of governor general in the new Mexican colony founded by the expedition leader in 1521.

1534 The artist and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini looked set to get away with cold-blooded murder on account of his arch-rival and fellow artist Pompeo outside a chemist's shop on the corner of the Chiavica in Rome. Fortunately for Cellini the new Pope, Paul III (formerly Alessandro Farnese), was a great admirer of his work. Pope Paul was said to be so keen for Cellini to make his coinage that he was prepared to award him a safe conduct until the next Feast of the Assumption (August), when he would grant the goldsmith a full pardon.

1581 The first major ballet was staged at the request of Catherine de Medici at the palace in Paris.

1582 Pope Gregory XIII decreed that 10 days be dropped from the calendar. The Julian calendar calculated a year as 365 and a quater days, overestimating it by 11 minutes 14 seconds. The equinox in1582 fell on March 11, 14 days earlier than in Caesar's time. By losing 10 days this month and counting years ending in hundreds as leap years only if they were divisible by 400, the new calendar would work. The Gregorian calendar was adopted in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France; 5 Oct became 15 Oct.

1730 Death of Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, French explorer.

1783 The first ascent from Earth was made by Frenchman Jean Pilate de Rozier. He was carried in a balloon.

1821 The Central American Federation won independence from Spain.

1852 Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, the founder of the Turnverein (gymnastic club) movement in Germany, died at Freyburg an der Unstrut aged 74. Jahn, a nationalist, sought to improve the moral and physical powers of his fellow Germans through gymnastics. At Jahn's first gymnasium in Berlin his pupils dressed in a kind of medieval costume. Jahn suffered in the reaction of 1819 along with other German democrats and individualists. His gymnasium was closed down and he was imprisoned for six years. In 1840 he was awarded the Iron Cross, and eight years later was elected to the German parliament.

1880 Victorio, military genius and leader of the Warm Springs Apache, was finally trapped by Mexican troops and fights until his ammunition gave out, then he killed himself.

1915 In World War I, Bulgaria allied itself with the Central European Powers.

1917 Mata Hari, Dutch spy, was shot in Paris, having been found guilty of espionage for the Germans.

1927 Britain's Public Morals Committee attacked the use of contraceptives, which allegedly produce "poor hereditary stock".

1928 The German airship Graf Zeppelin, captained by Hugo Eckener, completed its first transatlantic flight.

1934 Death of Raymond Nicolas Landry Poincare, French Statesman.

1937 "To Have and Have Not" by Ernest Hemingway was published.

1940 "The Great Dictator" starring Charlie Chaplin, Jack Oakie and Paulette Goddard received its premiere.

1945 French politician Pierre Laval, who led the Vichy government which collaborated with the Germans in World War Two, was executed.

1946 Death of Hermann Goering, Nazi leader.

1949 Billy Graham began his ministry.

1951 Lucille Ball started a 20 year run in the television show "I Love Lucy".

1961 The human-rights organisation Amnesty International was established in London.

1964 Russian leader Nikita Kruschev was removed from office and replaced by Alexei Kosygin as Premier, and Leonid Brezhnev as leader, of the Communist Party.

1964 Harold Wilson won the British elections for the Labour Party with a majority of just four to become the youngest British prime minister of the 20th century.

1964 The American composer and lyricist Cole Porter died in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 71. The grandson of a millionaire speculator, Porter inhabited the glittering society world that so often provided the backdrop to his musicals and songs. The richest creative period of his life was between 1928 and 1948, culminating with his greatest musical, Kiss Me Kate. In 1958, 21 years after a horseriding accident left him crippled, Porter underwent the amputation of one leg.

1969 The biggest anti-war demonstration in America's history was staged. Millions of Americans took part in organised rallies and marches to register disapproval of their country's continuing involvement in the Vietnam War. The protesters wanted a moratorium, an end to the war that had, after eight years of US involvement, cost the lives of 40,000 US servicemen.

1973 "Quadrophenia" by The Who was released.

1983 Death of Pat O'Brien, aged 83. Actor.

1985 The Spacelab was carried into Space by the Shuttle Columbia.

1991 The US senate elected Clarence Thomas, 43, to the Supreme Court by 52 votes to 48, the highest number of "No" votes ever cast against a nominee. Ten days earlier it seemed likely that the Democrat-dominated Senate would back Thomas by a handsome margin. Then it was revealed that a 35-year-old black law professor, Anita Hill, had accused Thomas of sexual harassment while he was chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the early 1980s. The Administration had been aware of her allegations but dismissed them out of hand. The Senate hearings to determine Thomas's suitability for the Supreme Court were later broadcast live to an American public, but became a trial of character instead of an examination of his stance on legal issues. In the end the Senate gave Thomas the benefit of the doubt. He now had a job for life as one of nine judges who decided whether laws passed by Congress contravened the US Constitution.

1997 The land speed record was broken by RAF pilot Andy Green when he drove a jet powered car in the Nevada desert.

1999 Nurses complained at their new see-through uniforms.

2003 China's first man in space, Yang Liwei, started his re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere after an historic mission.

2003 Nato's rapid response force was launched, able to deploy anywhere in the world in five days.

2003 Eleven-year-old Ryan Gilpin became the youngest presenter of Blue Peter after winning a contest.

2003 Liverpool easily beat Olimpija 3-0 to move into the Uefa Cup second round. But, Southampton lost 1-0 in Bucharest and were dumped out of the competition.

2003 Millwall appointed Dennis Wise as caretaker player-manager following the departure of Mark McGhee.

2004 Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said his treason acquittal would help heal deep political divisions.

2004 Michael Jackson's defence teams failed in an attempt to have child abuse charges thrown out of court.

2004 US sports tycoon Malcolm Glazer confirmed that he had raised his stake in Manchester United to 25.3%.

BIRTHDAYS (for 15 October 2006)

Virgil, 2075 (born 15 October 70BC)
Roman epic, didactic and pastoral poet.

Evangelista Torricelli, 398 (born 15 October 1608)
Italian mathematician who invented the barometer in 1643.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, 162 (born 15 October 1844)
German philosopher who developed the idea of the Ubermensch, or superman, in his book Thus Spake Zarathustra.

Lord Robert Baden Powell, 149 (born 15 October 1857)
Died 1941. Founder of the Boy Scouts.

John L. Sullivan, 148 (born 15 October 1858)
American world heavyweight boxing champion for 10 years.

Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, 125 (born 15 October 1881)
Died 1975. English author of more than 90 books who created the famous butler Jeeves.

Mervyn Le Roy, 106 (born 15 October 1900)
Died 1987. Film actor and director.

C. P. Snow, 101 (born 15 October 1905)
British author and parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Science and Technology who wrote the Strangers and Brothers series of novels, which include The Corridors of Power.

Mario Puzo, 86 (born 15 October 1920)
Author - 'The Godfather'.

Tony Hart, 81 (born 15 October 1925)
TV presenter and creator of 'Morph' - 'Vision On'.

Billy Smart, 72 (born 15 October 1934)
of circus fame.

Barry McGuire, 69 (born 15 October 1937)
Singer - 'Eve of Destruction'.

Marv Johnson, 68 (born 15 October 1938)
Died 1993. Soul artist - co-creator of Motown sound.

Penny Marshall, 64 (born 15 October 1942)
Actress 'Laverne and Shirley' and film director 'League of Their Own'.

Richard Carpenter, 60 (born 15 October 1946)
Member of The Carpenters - brother of the late Karen Carpenter - biggest UK hit 'Yesterday Once More'.

Chris de Burgh, 58 (born 15 October 1948)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Lady in Red'.

Tito Jackson, 53 (born 15 October 1953)
Member of The Jacksons.

Tanya Roberts, 51 (born 15 October 1955)
Actress.

Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, 47 (born 15 October 1959)
Creator of 'Budgie the helicopter'.

Dave Stead, 40 (born 15 October 1966)
Drummer with Beautiful South.

Andy Cole, 35 (born 15 October 1971)
Footballer

10 things we didn't know last week

1. In Kingston upon Thames, men on average live to be 78. In Kingston-upon-Hull it is 73. More details

2. The Queen's got great legs (according to Helen Mirren).

3. Seventy percent of victims of police shootings are shot in the back or the side. More details

4. Each person sends an average of 55 greetings cards per year. More details

5. Cats and some other mammals are thought to navigate using magnetised cells in their brains.

6. Chris De Burgh has healing hands. More details

7. Kim Jong-il is an obsessive James Bond fan.

8. Joggers who run with their backs to the traffic are twice as likely to die as those who face oncoming cars.

9. Just one cow gives off enough harmful methane gas in a single day to fill around 400 litre bottles. More details

10. Eighty-five percent of women working in brothels in the UK are from overseas, where 10 years ago 85% were from Britain.

[2 – Sunday Times, 8 Oct; 5 – Daily Telegraph, 12 Oct; 7 – the Sun, 10 Oct; 8 – Glasgow Evening Times, 11 Oct; 10 – the Times, 13 Oct;]

10 things we didn't know last week

1. Some Amish people have phones in trees near their houses to get round the ban on them at home.

2. More than 90% of plane crashes have survivors. More details

3. Pollen can cause havoc on the railways, by blocking train radiators. More details

4. Duck a l'orange is not from France, but Renaissance Italy.

5. Peter Kay and Ronnie Barker used to write to each other in character - Barker as Fletch from Porridge and Kay as Brian Potter from Phoenix Nights.

6. Dung beetles prefer horse and dog faeces to those of camels and foxes.

7. Parents spend four times as much time with their children now as in the 1970s.

8. Computer games are a powerful learning tool according to government-funded research.

9. Bullets can’t penetrate more than two metres of water.

10. Tony Blair’s favourite meal to cook is spaghetti bolognaise. More details

[1 – the Times, 3 October; 4 – Today, BBC Radio 4, 5 October; 5 - Daily Mirror, 2 October; 6 – the Times, 6 October; 7 – the Times, 4 October; 8 – Daily Telegraph, 5 October; 9 – Metro, 2 October. ]

Website Change Of Address

Quiztime UK new bookmark address -
http://mysite.orange.co.uk/Quiztime2003

Today's The Day - 14th October

14th October 2006
Frump Day.

National day of Madagascar.

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Callixtus I,
St Angadiama,
St Justus of Lyons,
St Burchard of Wurzburg,
St Manaccus,
St Manechildis,
and St Dominic Lauricatus.

History Test for October 14th

Following the assassination of President Anwar Sadat , who was confirmed as the new President of Egypt today in 1981? -Hosni Mubarak

Born today in 1927, Roger Moore made his first appearance as James Bond in which film? -`Live And Let Die'

The Battle of Hastings was fought today in 1066. What famous pictorial record of the event hangs in a French town? -The Bayeux Tapestry

Cliff Richard was born today in 1940. He came third in the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest with which song? -'Power To All Our Friends'

The actress Dame Edith Evans died today in 1976. She is best remembered for her role as Lady Bracknell in which Oscar Wilde play? -`The Importance Of Being Earnest'

QUOTE “I do not dislike the French from the vulgar antipathy between neighbouring nations, but for their insolent and unfounded airs of superiority.” - Horace Walpole, British writer, in a letter, 1787.

Events today...

1066 The Battle of Hastings was fought on Senlac Hill, where King Harold was slain as William the Conqueror's troops routed the English army.

1586 Mary Queen of Scots stood trial for conspiring against Queen Elizabeth I and was executed (beheaded) in February 1587.

1791 The Society of United Irishmen was set up in Belfast to demand rights for Catholics.

1884 Photographic film was patented by US entrepreuner and inventor George Eastman.

1893 The first musical comedy, The Gaiety Girl, was performed in London.

1912 President Theodore Roosevelt was shot in an attempted assassination.

1913 An explosion at Universal Colliery in South Wales killed 439 miners - It was Britain's worst mining disaster.

1920 Oxford degrees were conferred on women for the first time.

1926 "Winnie-The-Pooh" was published, written by A.A. Milne.

1939 Eight hundred and ten died as The Royal Navy battleship Royal Oak was torpedoed and sank in Scapa Flow.

1944 German Field Marshall Rommel was given the choice of suicide or trial and almost certain exception if he stood trial for suspected conspiracy against Adolf Hitler. He committed suicide.

1947 Another chapter in the history of aviation was written when the Bell X-1 became the first aircraft to fly faster than sound. The rocket-powered craft, piloted by Major Charles Yeager, USAF, was taken to a height of 30,000ft (9700m) under a B-29 Superfortress mother-plane. The test began at 70,000ft (22,700m). The maximum speed achieved was Mach 1.05, held for several seconds. Once the test was completed, the X-1 glided to land at Edwards Air Force Base in California. There was severe buffeting at around Mach 0.94, but comparatively little as the sound barrier was broken.

1954 Filming began in Egypt on the movie "The Ten Commandments". It had a cast of 25,000 extras.

1954 The movie "White Christmas" received its premiere and starred Bing Crosby (of course) and Danny Kaye.

1959 Death of Errol Flynn, aged 50. Australian actor.

1964 Dr Martin Luther King Jr won the Nobel Peace Prize.

1967 Tammy Wynette had her first number 1 hit with "I Don't Wanna Play House".

1969 The British ten shilling note was replaced with a 50pence coin.

1971 The US spacecraft Mariner 9 transmitted the first close-up TV pictures of Mars to Earth.

1973 Egypt and Syria invaded Israel as the nation celebrated the holy Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

1976 Death of Dame Edith Evans, leading British stage actress who made occasional films and is perhaps best known for her performances in The Queen of Spades and The Importance of Being Earnest.

1977 The much-loved entertainer Bing Crosby collapsed and died after completing a round of golf near Madrid. He was 73. Hollywood was quick to exploit Crosby's vocal talent, and in 1940 he began an association that would last 20 years with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in the Road films. One of his most successful films was High Society, with Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra. His records have sold more than 400 million copies.

1982 The largest mass wedding took place in Seoul, South Korea, when 5,837 couples were married simultaneously.

1986 Death of Keenan Wynn, aged 70. Actor.

1987 Jessica McClure who was only 18 months old fell down an abandoned well in Texas and it took rescuers 58 hours to get her out.

1990 Death of Leonard Bernstein, aged 72. Conductor and composer 'West Side Story'.

1991 The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The daughter of the martyred General Aung San, father of Burmese independence, she returned to Burma in 1988, after an absence of 28 years. The formation of a military government in Burma motivated her to found an opposition party, the NLD (National League for Democracy). She denounced the government and in July 1989 was put under house arrest and barred from participating in the May 1990 elections. Despite winning only 10 out of 485 seats, the military refused to hand over power to the NLD, which won 81 per cent of the seats they contested. The Peace Prize wass seen as part of an international effort to win her release.

1997 Death of Harold Robbins, aged 81. Author.

1997 A fire swept through the Yang Sing restaurant in Manchester’s China Town.

2003 Thousands gathered at Tehran airport to cheer Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi on her return to Iran.

2003 A man diagnosed with HIV was found guilty of "biological" grievous bodily harm after unprotected sex with two women.

2003 Author DBC Pierre won the £50,000 Booker Prize for his first novel, black comedy Vernon God Little.

2003 Girls Aloud star Cheryl Tweedy told a court she punched a nightclub worker because she hit her first.

2003 Chelsea climbed above Arsenal at the top of the table with a 0-0 draw against Birmingham.

2003 Northern Ireland's Sammy McIlroy was expected to be appointed as manager of Division Two's Stockport.

2003 Tim Henman was beaten in the first round of the Madrid Masters by Mardy Fish.

2003 Sheff Utd beat West Brom 2-0 to go top of the First Division table. And Pablo Counago scored twice as Ipswich thrash injury-hit Burnley 6-1 at Portman Road.

2004 Several thousand Jewish settlers rallied against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan.

2004 Britain said it would freeze any assets belonging to the terror group who killed hostage Kenneth Bigley.

2004 An art teacher claiming unfair dismissal from Eton College said she was asked to "carry out work" on Prince Harry's coursework.

2004 Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy and wife Sarah announced they were expecting their first child.

2004 The UK music industry was granted a court order forcing ISPs to reveal the names of alleged illegal file-sharers.

2004 Malcolm Glazer's ambitious attempt to take over Manchester United broke down.

2005 EU bird flu experts agreed measures to try to prevent the spread of the virus, as a new case emerged in Romania.

2005 A former paramedic accused of trying to sell a defibrillator on internet auction site eBay said he did it to pay his CSA debt.

2005 New James Bond actor Daniel Craig said he wanted to take the film series "somewhere it's never gone before".

2005 Wallace and Gromit's first feature film came out in the UK as its creators recovered from a devastating fire.

2005 Roy Keane retired from playing for the Republic of Ireland following their failure to qualify for the World Cup.

BIRTHDAYS (for 14 October 2006)

William Penn, 362 (born 14 October 1644)
English Quaker leader who founded the American Quaker colony of Pennsylvania.

Eamon de Valera, 124 (born 14 October 1882)
American-born Irish politician who was president of the newly declared Irish Republic from 1919 to 1922, three times Irish prime minister and subsequently president from 1959 to 1973.

Dwight David Eisenhower, 116 (born 14 October 1890)
American military commander in charge of the Allied invasion of Europe in World War Two, and twice president of the USA after the war.

Lillian Gish, 113 (born 14 October 1893)
Died 1993. American heroine in many silent film classics, including Birth of a Nation.

Roger Moore, 79 (born 14 October 1927)
Actor - James Bond.

Melba Montgomery, 68 (born 14 October 1938)
Country singer.

Ralph Lauren, 67 (born 14 October 1939)
Fashion designer.

Cliff Richard, 66 (born 14 October 1940)
British pop singer who rose to fame in the '50s and has had chart-topping hits ever since.

Christopher Timothy, 66 (born 14 October 1940)
Actor 'All Creatures Great and Small'.

Dan McCafferty, 60 (born 14 October 1946)
Member of Nazareth - biggest UK hit 'Broken Down Angel'.

Justin Hayward, 60 (born 14 October 1946)
Member of The Moody Blues and soloist - biggest UK hit 'Go Now' - biggest solo UK hit 'Forever Autumn'.

Lesley Joseph, 58 (born 14 October 1948)
Dorien in `Birds of a Feather'

Marcia Barrett, 58 (born 14 October 1948)
Member of Boney M - biggest UK hit 'Rivers of Babylon'.

Chris Amoo, 54 (born 14 October 1952)
Member of The Real Thing - biggest UK hit 'You to me Are Everything'.

Thomas Dolby, 48 (born 14 October 1958)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Hyperactive!'.

Steve Cram MBE, 46 (born 14 October 1960)
Athlete.

Karyn White, 41 (born 14 October 1965)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Superwoman'.

Matthew Le Tissier, 38 (born 14 October 1968)
Southampton footballer

Shazney 'Bart' T Lewis, 31 (born 14 October 1975)
Member of All Saints.

Usher, 27 (born 14 October 1979)
Rap artist.

Today's The Day - 13th October

13th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Edward the Confessor,
St Comgan d of Aurillac ,
St Faustus of Cordova,
and St Maurice of Camoet.

History Test for October 13th

Today in 1792, the foundation stone of the White House was laid. Which President became the first to live there? -John Adams, the second President (The first, George Washington was never a resident)

The Osmond Brothers' younger sister Marie was born today in 1959. What was her 1973 British Top Ten hit? -`Paper Roses'

Crowned today in 1399, Henry IV was the first King of which Royal House? -Lancaster

Born today in 1853, which mistress of King Edward VII was nicknamed 'The Jersey Lily'? -Lillie Langtry

Today in AD54, which Roman emperor was believed to have been poisoned with a dish of mushrooms by his wife Agrippina? -Claudius

Events today...

54AD The Roman emperor and historian Claudius I (Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus) died, allegedly after consuming poisoned mushrooms dished up by his fourth wife, his niece Agrippina. He was 64. Shortly before his death, Claudius had agreed to acknowledge Nero, Agrippina's son by a former marriage, as his heir instead of his natural son, Britannicus. Claudius was made emperor 13 years earlier by the Praetorian Guards, the imperial household army, after the murder of his nephew, Caligula. Until then, Claudius had been encouraged by the imperial family to keep a low profile and concentrate on studying. Ill health, ugliness and an absence of social grace did not recommend him to the public eye. But as emperor he invited popularity and glory - shown in his decision to extend the Roman empire in Africa and Britain - but won neither. He was, however, an able and enlightened administrator.

1307 On the orders of Philip IV of France, the arrest of the Templars on charges of heresy took place in Paris.

1399 Coronation of Henry IV, the first King of the House of Lancaster.

1715 Death of Nicholas de Malebranche, French philosopher.

1792 The cornerstone of the White House, Washington, DC, was laid by President George Washington.

1815 Death of Joachim Murat, King of the Two Sicilies.

1822 Death of Antonio Canova, Italian sculptor.

1857 Prioress won at Newmarket, becoming the first American horse to win a major British race.

1884 Greenwich was adapted as the universal time meridian of longitude from which standard times throughout the world are calculated.

1894 The first Merseyside `derby' football match was played at Goodison Park between Liverpool and Everton, with Everton winning 3-0.

1904 The Interpretation of Dreams by Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud was published.

1905 Death of Henry Irving, English actor.

1914 Garrett Morgan invented and patented the gas mask.

1923 Ankara replaced Istanbul as the capital of Turkey.

1930 Hitler's 107 Nazi deputies turned up in uniform to take their new seats at the Reichstag.

1939 The song "On a Little Street in Singapore" was recorded by Harry James and his band. A young singer called Frank Sinatra sang the vocal. It was the seventh song he had recorded.

1939 Hitler tried without success to persuade US president Roosevelt to intermediate a peace between Germany, France and Britain.

1940 Fourteen-year-old Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George VI, made her first public contribution to Britain's war effort by broadcasting to the children of Britain and the Commonwealth. The Princess's father had been much admired for his morale-boosting efforts in the dark days. Princess Elizabeth followed his example in her address to the BBC radio Children.'s Hour audience. She told them: "We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well." At the end of the programme the Princess encouraged her 10-year-old sister, Margaret, to utter her first public sentence: "Goodnight, and good luck to you all".

1962 The play "Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf" opened in New York. The movie version was made four years later and won six Oscars.

1963 The Beatles appeared in their first major television show when they topped the bill on "Sunday Night at the London Palladium" which was watched by 15 million. Beatlemania hit the streets of London as thousands of fans caused traffic jams outside the theatre.

1966 Death of Clifton Webb, aged 74. US Actor.

1968 Death of Bea Benaderet, aged 62. The voice of Betty Rubble!.

1971 Donny Osmond received a gold disc for the song "Go Away Little Girl". He was only 13 at the time.

1972 An aircraft crashed in the Andes and the sixteen survivors resorted to cannibalism in order to survive 69 days.

1973 Jordan entered the Yom Kippur War.

1974 Death of Ed Sullivan, Variety show TV host.

1979 Michael Jackson had his second number 1 hit in the U.S. with the song "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough".

1982 The Detroit marathon was certainly not as famous as its counterparts in Boston and New York, but it seemed to attract a special strain of competitor. Anthony "Scott" Welland was one such unusual competitor. He finished the Detroit super run in the world record time of 4 hours 7 minutes and 54 seconds - backwards.

1983 The first cellular phones were introduced.

1987 The U.S. Navy used specially trained dolphins for military use in the Persian Gulf.

1988 The Law Lords lifted an injunction and allow British newspapers to print extracts from Peter Wright's book Spycatcher.

1988 The Turin Shroud, for centuries regarded as the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, was believed to be a fake. The results of exhaustive carbon dating tests, carried out on the shroud at laboratories in Oxford, Zurich and Arizona, were revealed on this day. Speaking at a press conference in London, Professor Edward Hall, the head of the Oxford team, said that the data showed with 95 per cent certainty that the 14-ft (4.5m) linen cloth dated from between 1260 and 1390, a period when forgery was rife. The Catholic Church, which had consistently expressed caution over the shroud's origins, accepted the findings, but one regular visitor to the Turin Cathedral chapel, Signora Angela Bosso, 72, remarked: "I don't believe in those scientists."

1996 Death of Beryl Reid, aged 76. Actress.

1997 Chris Evans took over the Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio on a ten week contract. This was the same day that Radio 1 relaunched their Breakfast Show with Zoe Ball and Kevin Greening, replacing Mark Radcliffe who hosted the show since Chris Evans' departure earlier in the year.

1997 The British team who broke the landspeed record only weeks before in 'Thrust', broke the Sound Barrier. 'Thrust' became the first land-based vehicle to achieve this feat.

1999 Manchester United bowed out of the Worthington Cup, beaten 3-0 by Aston Villa.

2003 The Tory leader gave the Westminster watchdog a 40-page 'complete rebuttal' of claims about the running of his office. He attracted criticism for employing his wife Betsy.

2003 Ali Abbas, the orphan boy who lost both his arms in the Iraq war said he was delighted with his prosthetic limbs fitted at a UK hospital.

2003 The Rolling Stones confirmed that they would play a SARS benefit show in Hong Kong after all.

2003 ITV1 announced it would put £60 million extra into comedy and factual programmes over the following 12 months.

2004 Tony Blair apologised for errors in Iraq intelligence but rejected claims he misled MPs or that the war was wrong.

2004 Michael Jackson asked TV stations to stop playing Eminem's new video, which ridiculed him.

2004 Family and friends remembered actor Christopher Reeve at a private ceremony at his New York home.

2004 Azerbaijan 0-1 England. Michael Owen headed in England's winner in the World Cup qualifier against Azerbaijan.

2004 The British Grand Prix was put back on the 2005 Formula One calendar pending a rights deal.

2005 Leading lights from the world of theatre hailed playwright Harold Pinter after he won the Nobel literature prize.

2005 Comedy legend Ronnie Barker was cremated at a funeral attended by about 20 family members and close friends.

2005 Apple set its sights on conquering the world of portable video with the a new version of its iconic iPod.

BIRTHDAYS (for 13 October 2006)

Lillie Langtry, 153 (born 13 October 1853)
English society beauty known as the `Jersey Lily' who was intimate with Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales.

Cornel Wilde, 91 (born 13 October 1915)
Died 1989. Actor.

Yves Morrtand, 85 (born 13 October 1921)
Died 1991. Italian-born French actor-singer whose films include The Wages of Fear and Let's Make Love.

Lenny Bruce, 82 (born 13 October 1924)
Died 1966. American social satirist who was arrested and charged with obscenity on several occasions, deported from Britain in 1963 and banned from Australia after a single performance in Sydney.

Baroness Margaret Thatcher, 81 (born 13 October 1925)
British Conservative politician and prime minister from 1979 to 1990.

Chris Farlowe, 66 (born 13 October 1940)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Out of Time'.

Paul Simon, 65 (born 13 October 1941)
American pop singer, songwriter and musician who, as part of the duo Simon and Garfunkel, produced big hits such as `Bridge Over Troubled Water' and `Mrs Robinson' and whose solo hits include `Fifty ways to Leave Your Lover' and the album Graceland.

Robert Lamm, 62 (born 13 October 1944)
Member of Chicago.

Edwina Currie, 60 (born 13 October 1946)
Politician.

Lacy J Dalton, 60 (born 13 October 1946)
Country singer.

Sammy Hagar, 59 (born 13 October 1947)
Solo and Van Halen.

John Ford Coley, 55 (born 13 October 1951)
Singer of England Dan and fame - biggest UK hit 'I'd Really Love to See You Tonight'.

Chris Carter, 49 (born 13 October 1957)
Creator of X Files.

Marie Osmond, 47 (born 13 October 1959)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Paper Roses'.

Agent Fox Mulder, 45 (born 13 October 1961)
Fictitious character (X Files).

Kelly Preston, 44 (born 13 October 1962)
Actress 'Jerry McGuire'.

Cherelle, 41 (born 13 October 1965)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Saturday Love'.

Today's The Day - 12th October

12th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Maximilian of Lorch,
Saints Felix and Cyprian,
St Edwin,
St Wilfrid of York,
and St Ethelburga of Barking.

History Test for October 12th

Who analysed election results on TV with the help of his swingometer and died today in 1981? -Bob McKenzie

Which South African siege began today in 1899? -The Siege of Mafeking

Born today in 1948, Rick Parfitt is a member of which pop group? -Status Quo

Which English Quaker and prison reformer died today in 1845? -Elizabeth Fry

The 1968 Olympic Games were opened today - in which City? -Mexico City

Events today...

1492 Columbus sighted his first land in discovering the New World, calling it San Salvador.

1492 Death of Piero della Francesca, Italian painter.

1609 “Three Blind Mice” was the first known secular song to be published.

1823 Charles MacIntosh started selling raincoats which became known as Macs.

1845 Death of Elizabeth Fry, English social and prison reformer.

1859 Death of Robert Stephenson, English civil engineer.

1870 Death of Robert E. Lee, US Confederate general.

1899 The Boer states responded to Britain’s dispatch of troops to South Africa by issuing a declaration of war.

1901 President Roosevelt renamed the Executive Mansion in Washington D.C. as "The White House".

1915 The German authorities in Belgium executed British nurse Edith Cavell, for her role in an underground operation to help Allied soldiers escape from Belgium to the Netherlands.

1924 Death of Anatole France, French writer and Nobel Prize-winner whose novels reflected his deeply pessimistic view of life.

1928 The first “iron lung” was used in the Boston Children’s hospital in Massachusetts.

1931 Johnny Weissmuller was chosen by MGM Studios to play the role of Tarzan.

1933 Notorious bank robber John Dillinger escaped from prison in Ohio and his gang killed the sheriff.

1935 Hitler banned American jazz from German radio, calling it decadent.

1940 Death of Tom Mix, aged 60. Film cowboy.

1948 The first Morris Minor designed by Alec Issigonis, was produced at Cowley, Oxfordshire.

1951 American swimmer Florence Chadwick broke the English Channel swimming record with a time of 13 hours and 33 minutes.

1957 Canadian Prime Minister Lester Bowles Pearson received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to solve the Suez Crisis with the introduction of the U.N. Emergency Force.

1962 A little known band opened for Little Richard at a Liverpool gig. The band was The Beatles.

1964 Death of Ian Fleming, the English creator of the fictional character James Bond.

1968 The 19th Olympic Games opened in Mexico City.

1969 Death of Sonja Henie, aged 57. Film actress.

1971 Death of Gene Vincent, aged 36. Rock and Roll singer 'Be Bop a Lula'.

1975 The Faces played their final gig. Rod Stewart said that the departure of Ronnie Lane had removed the heart from the group.

1978 British punk Sid Vicious, former bass guitarist with the Sex Pistols, was arrested in New York and charged with the murder of his American girlfriend Nancy Spungen.

1984 The IRA launched an attack on the British government, by bombing the Grand Hotel in Brighton at 3am. Most of the cabinet were staying there for the Conservative Party Conference.

1986 Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to visit China.

1991 Steven Spielberg married actress Kate Capshaw.

1993 Death of Leon Ames, US film actor.

1997 Bashir Hussein, a school teacher from Stockport, won the Manchester Marathon for the second year running.

1997 Death of John Denver, aged 53. Country singer.

1998 Boris Yeltsin cut short his visit to Kazakhstan due to medical advice.

1999 The world’s population reached 6 billion.

1999 A Military coup seized power in Pakistan.

2000 The Queen officially opened Manchester’s Lowry Centre.

2003 An overnight fire at a mental hospital in the ex-Soviet republic of Belarus killed at least 29 people.

2003 Cecilia Bartoli was named the most popular star in the classical music world at the Gramophone Awards.

2003 Iain Duncan Smith insisted he did nothing wrong in employing his wife as an aide during his first year as Conservative leader.

2003 Two coaches collided in Lincolnshire, injuring 39 elderly people who were travelling to a shrine.

2003 Beyonce and Sean Paul failed to dislodge The Black Eyed Peas from the top of the UK singles chart.

2003 Hong Kong politicians attacked a SARS benefit concert as a "fiasco" after the Rolling Stones pulled out.

2003 Michael Schumacher won an all-time record sixth F1 title as Rubens Barrichello wins the Japanese GP.

2003 England players urged Sven-Goran Eriksson to stay on as England coach.

2004 Gurinder Chadha's "Bride and Prejudice" made its debut at number one on the UK box office chart.

2004 Mobile phone signals were to be jammed in French cinemas and theatres to prevent audience disturbance.

2004 Veteran host Bruce Forsyth earned his first National TV Awards nomination for Strictly Come Dancing.

2005 It was announced that thirteen bags of drugs were allegedly found in Boy George's home when he was arrested the previous week.

2005 Broadcaster ITV and cable firm NTL were reportedly planning to team up to bid for the rights to half the live Premier League matches.

2005 England finished top of their World Cup qualifying group with an impressive 2-1 win over Poland at Old Trafford.

BIRTHDAYS (for 12 October 2006)

Edward VI, 469 (born 12 October 1537)
English monarch, the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour.

James Ramsey MacDonald, 140 (born 12 October 1866)
Died 1937. Scottish statesman and first labour prime minister of Britain.

Ralph Vaughan Williams, 134 (born 12 October 1872)
English composer best known for Sea Symphony, Sinfonia Antartica and Greensleeves.

Aleister Crowley, 131 (born 12 October 1875)
English occultist and author who promoted himself as `the wickedest man alive' and with his followers was expelled from the abbey in Sicily when rumours of orgies and ceremonies involving the sacrifice of babies surfaced.

Jaroslav Drobny, 85 (born 12 October 1921)
Czech tennis player who defected to the West and won Wimbledon for the second time with an injured knee in what was the longest final ever, playing against Ken Rosewall.

Magnus Magnusson, 77 (born 12 October 1929)
Mastermind question master

Luciano Pavarotti, 71 (born 12 October 1935)
Italian tenor of huge popularity who specialises in the music of Bellini, Verdi and Puccini.

Sam Moore, 71 (born 12 October 1935)
Singer of Sam and Dave fame - biggest UK hit 'Soul Sister Brown Sugar'.

Melvin Franlin, 64 (born 12 October 1942)
Died 1995. Member of The Temptations.

Stephanie Powers, 64 (born 12 October 1942)
Actress 'Girl from UNCLE' 'Hart to Hart'.

Angela Rippon, 62 (born 12 October 1944)
TV newsreader and celebrity

Rick Parfitt, 58 (born 12 October 1948)
rock singer and guitarist (Status Quo)

Susan Anton, 56 (born 12 October 1950)
actress

Les Dennis, 52 (born 12 October 1954)
TV presenter and comedian.

David Vanian, 50 (born 12 October 1956)
Member of The Damned.

Today's The Day - 11th October

11th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Mary Soledad,
Saints Andronicus, Tarachus, and Probus,
St Agilbert,
St Alexander Sauli,
St Nectarius of Constantinople,
St Bruno the Great of Cologne,
St Gummarus or Gomaire,
and St Canice or Kenneth.

History Test for October 11th

Which French singer, known as 'The Little Sparrow', died today in 1963? -Edith Piaf - born Edith Giovanna Gassion

Footballer Bobby Charlton was born today in 1937. For which club did he play throughout his career? -Manchester United (Charlton did play a few games for Preston North End when he was Player-Manager there after leaving United)

The first TV broadcast from which famous London residence took place today in 1948? -10 Downing Street

Which war broke out today in 1899? -The Boer War (aka the South African War)

Dawn French was born today in 1957. What is the title of her TV comedy crime series? -`Murder Most Horrid'

Events today...

80 AD The Coliseum was built in Rome.

1521 Pope Leo X conferred the title of Defender of the Faith on Henry VIII. Twelve years later Henry broke with Rome to marry Anne Boleyn

1531 Death of Huldrych Zwingli, Swiss religious reformer.

1689 Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, assumed control of the government.

1727 George II was crowned in London.

1809 Death of Meriwether Lewis, American explorer who with William Clark found the overland route to the Pacific.

1834 Sir William Napier, Britain's Chief Superintendent of Trade in China, died in Macao at the age of 98. He had recently returned from Canton after a disastrous attempt to persuade the imperial government of China to trade directly with Britain rather than through the Hong merchants. Angered Chinese viceroy Loo had no wish to alter established custom. He ordered Napier to return to Macao, and when he refused kept him in confinement. He also called a halt to trade with Britain. Within weeks Napier was dangerously ill, weakened by the heat, and by sheer anxiety, anger and frustration.

1844 Baked beans magnate HJ Heinz was born of German parents in Pittsburgh

1871 The Great Fire of Chicago was finally extinguished.

1881 Roll film for cameras was patented by David Houston in Wisconsin.

1889 Death of James Joule, English physicist.

1896 Death of Anton Bruckner Austrian composer.

1899 The Boer War began between the British Empire and the Republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal.

1919 The first airline meals were served on a Handley-Page flight from London to Paris. They were pre-packed lunch boxes at 3 shillings each (15p).

1923 Rampant inflation in Germany caused the mark to drop to an exchange rate of 10,000,000,000 to the pound.

1957 The world's largest steerable radio-telescope went into operation at the Jodrell Observatory of the University of Manchester. The instrument, which had a 250-ft (81-m) diameter parabolic bowl, was mounted on a trunnion 180ft (58m) above ground level. The telescope's designer, Bernard Lovell, completed his project in time for tracking the first Sputnik, which was launched a week earlier. Indeed, had it not been for the Russian "first", Lovell's project might have been halted because of spiralling costs.

1958 The BBC TV sports programme Grandstand was first transmitted.

1961 Death of Leonard "Chico" Marx, piano-playing member of the Marx Brothers comedy team, aged 74.

1963 France mourned the loss of Jean Cocteau and Edith Piaf. Cocteau died in Paris, aged 74, Piaf in the south where she was convalescing after treatment for drug and alcohol abuse. The two had been firm friends since 1940 when Piaf's newly acquired star status gave her the entree to move in the same artistic circles as Cocteau. Such was his admiration for Edith that he wrote a play for her, Le Bel Indifferent. He described her as "a star who burned in the nocturnal solitude of the sky over Paris".

1968 The first manned Apollo space flight was launched when Apollo 7 blasted off with astronauts Wally Schirra, Don Fulton and R. Walter Cunningham. They made 163 orbits.

1971 Death of Chester Conklin, aged 83. Silent comic (and one of the original Keystone Kops).

1975 The show that launched many comedians to super stardom, "Saturday Night Live" debuted on American television. The first guest host was George Carlin. Also appearing in the cast were Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Gilda Radnor and Jane Curtin.

1975 William Jefferson Clinton and Hilary Rodham married.

1976 The third wife and widow of Mao Tse-tung, Qiang Qing, was arrested in Berlin with three associates: the "Gang of Four" had attempted to seize power on Mao's death.

1978 Nancy Spungen was found dead. Her boyfriend Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols was arrested but never stood trial as he died later from a drugs overdose.

1980 The Soviet Salyut 6 returned to earth; its cosmonauts had been in space for a record 185 days.

1982 The Mary Rose, which had been the pride of Henry VIII's fleet until it sank in the Solent in 1545, was raised.

1986 President Ronald Reagan and Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev held talks about arms control and human rights when they met in Reykjavik, Iceland.

1987 The latest in sonic wizardry was brought in to settle the long dispute over the existence of the Loch Ness monster. Known affectionately as Nessie, it was first sighted by an unimpeachable source - St Columba - back in 565AD. Since then there have been numerous claims of sightings, including photographic evidence. The trawl of the loch by some 24 boats fitted with sophisticated sonic detectors revealed a large moving object at a depth of around 180 ft (58m).

1993 Death of Jess Thomas, US operatic tenor.

1996 British soldier Warrant Officer James Bradwell died from injuries suffered in the IRA bomb blasts at Lisburn barracks. He had been caught in both explosions.

1998 Bashir Hussein of Stockport Harriers won the Manchester Marathon in a time of 2 hours 22 minutes. It was the third consecutive year he had won.

1999 Manchester United players past and present played in Sir Alex Ferguson’s testimonial at Old Trafford.

1999 Manchester United’s David Beckham denied rumours that his wife Victoria Adams had given him an ultimatum to choose between her and the club.

2000 The Scottish First Minister Donald Dewer died suddenly at his official residence.

2000 England drew 0-0 with Finland in Helsinki. This did not look good for their qualification for the World Cup following a 1-0 defeat by Germany four days earlier.

2003 The Israeli army demolished Palestinian homes in the Rafah refugee camp as it searched for arms-smuggling tunnels.

2003 US surgeons began carrying out a dangerous operation to separate two-year-olds from Egypt joined at the head.

2003 The government planned to stop high-earners like footballers benefiting from an anti-social hours allowance.

2003 England football fans who were denied entry to Turkey for a Euro 2004 qualifying match began arriving home.

2003 England survived a missed David Beckham penalty to draw 0-0 in Turkey and seal a place in the Euro 2004 finals.

2003 UK relatives of the Bali bombing victims attend a church service on the island to mark the first anniversary of the attack.

2003 A £900,000 fund was set up to create more children's and family-friendly movies in the UK.

2003 Teenager Darren Fletcher scored as Scotland beat Lithuania 1-0 to secure a Euro 2004 play-off spot and the Republic of Ireland's challenge for a place ended as Switzerland won 2-0 in Basel.

2004 Poll organisers in Afghanistan asked the UN to investigate alleged voter fraud in the presidential election.

2004 The EU lifted sanctions against Libya and ended an arms embargo, under strong Italian pressure.

2004 Superman star Christopher Reeve, who lobbied for medical research after being paralysed in a fall, died of heart failure aged 52.

2004 French musician Jean Michel Jarre performed a sound and light show in China's Forbidden City.

2004 Champion jockey Kieren Fallon was discharged from hospital hours after a crashing fall at Leicester.

2004 Micky Adams quits as Leicester manager and Dave Bassett was placed in temporary charge of the team.

2004 Fifa banned Scotland boss Berti Vogts from the touchline for Scotland's World Cup qualifier against Moldova.

2005 The BBC said it wanted the licence fee to go up by 2.3% above inflation in two years to boost digital services.

2005 TV viewers accused Channel 4 of misleading them over the availability of its new digital channel More4.

2005 Sci-fi movie Serenity knocked Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley, off the top of the UK box office chart.

BIRTHDAYS (for 11 October 2006)

Sir George Williams, 185 (born 11 October 1821)
English social reformer who founded the YMCA.

Henry John Heinz, 162 (born 11 October 1844)
food industry pioneer.

Eleanor Roosevelt, 122 (born 11 October 1884)
Died 1962. American writer and civil rights campaigner who was married to US president Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Friedrich Bergius, 122 (born 11 October 1884)
German industrial chemist who invented a process to extract coal from oil.

François Mauriac, 121 (born 11 October 1885)
French novelist, dramatist and critic who won the Nobel Prize in 1952.

Jerome Robbins, 88 (born 11 October 1918)
Died 1998. Composer / director.

Art Blakey, 87 (born 11 October 1919)
Died 1990. American jazz drummer and leader of the Jazz Messengers.

Lord Prior, 79 (born 11 October 1927)
chairman GEC and politician

Ennio Morricone, 78 (born 11 October 1928)
Italian composer whose film scores such as A Fistful of Dollars have won him international acclaim.

Ted Edgar, 71 (born 11 October 1935)
showjumper

Roy Scheider, 71 (born 11 October 1935)
Actor - 'Jaws' 'French Connection'.

Ron Liebman, 69 (born 11 October 1937)
Actor.

Sir Bobby Charlton OBE, 69 (born 11 October 1937)
Manchester United Great

Maria Bueno, 67 (born 11 October 1939)
Brazilian tennis player who first won Wimbledon at the age of 17, and subsequently won many other major championships.

Lester Bowie, 65 (born 11 October 1941)
jazz trumpeter

Alan Pascoe, 59 (born 11 October 1947)
Athlete.

Daryl Hall, 57 (born 11 October 1949)
Singer of Hall & Oates fame - biggest UK hit 'Maneater'.

David Morse, 53 (born 11 October 1953)
Actor - St Elsewhere's Dr Jack Morrison.

Dawn French, 49 (born 11 October 1957)
actress and comedienne

Joan Cusack, 44 (born 11 October 1962)
Actress - 'Addams Family Values'.

Luke Perry, 40 (born 11 October 1966)
Actor - Beverley Hills 90210's Dylan McKay.

Quiztime Quiz 081006

1. Which group 'Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ in the UK Cahrts?

SCISSOR SISTERS

2. Worldwide what is the best selling product of the Heinz company? Is it baked beans, tomato soup or tomato ketchup?

TOMATO SOUP

3. Which actor links Chancer, Chariots of Fire and The Whistle Blower?

NIGEL HAVERS

4. Which boxer has the Christian names Christopher Livingstone?

CHRIS EUBANK

5. In The News - Which Tenor has recently undergone brain surgery at St George's Hospital in south London?

RUSSELL WATSON

6. A ship’s Captain would be very concerned over reports of Growlers in the vicinity of his/her ship. What is a Growler?

SMALL ICEBERG

7. Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus are villains in which superhero films?

SPIDERMAN

8. In a game of match play golf if a person wins 4 and 3 how many holes have been played?

FIFTEEN

9. Who is the writer of "Prime Suspect"?

LYNDA LA PLANTE

10. 'The last lighthouse keeper', 'Mr. Macgregor' and 'Only dad' are novels by which author?

ALAN TITCHMARSH

11. Kites, the Moon, surfers and hippos are replacing Indian dancers and skateboarders, where?

BBC LOGOS

12. The battleship USS Arizona is a designated US War Memorial. Where is it to be found?

PEARL HARBOUR

13. True or false - The character of Indiana Jones was named after George Lucas’s dog?

TRUE

14. To which British airport would you be flying if your bags were marked LBA?

LEEDS BRADFORD

15. One point each - Who are the three 'Top Gear' hosts?

JEREMY CLARKSON / RICHARD HAMMOND / JAMES MAY

16. In athletics which track event is closest in total distance to a mile?

4x400M. (Mile is 1,609M)

17. What is the currency of Japan?

YEN

18. Which organisation has its headquarters in a very distinctive cream and green building on the banks of the River Thames at 85, The Embankment, Vauxhall Cross, London?

MI6

19. Where would an American wear a fanny pack?

ROUND THE WAIST (BUM BAG)

20. Quiztime Survey Question - Name something you lick?

ICE CREAM / STAMPS / ENVELOPE / LIPS / FINGERS

21. Which Year - The finding of oil in the North Sea was announced by BP, "Cracklin' Rose" by Neil Diamond went gold, American dare-devil Gary Gavelich broke the world land speed record in his rocket-propelled car "Blue Flame", driving at 631.367 mph, Anwar Sadat became president of Egypt and Jimi Hendrix was buried in his home town of Seattle?

1970

22. Which English cricketer was the first in the world to score a century and take ten wickets in the same test match?

IAN BOTHAM

23. Which two colours appear on the flag of Peru?

RED & WHITE

24. Which is the nearest Commonwealth country to the UK?

MALTA

25. In The News - Which animals have been found killed in Australia in apparent revenge attacks?

STINGRAYS

26. Which word connects a Japanese company, a priest and a type of melody?

CANON

27. Wesley Snipes appeared in which 1987 Michael Jackson video?

BAD

28. Which European aircraft manufacturer assembles all its aircraft at Toulouse in France?

AIRBUS

29. How many previous German popes have there been - 4, 6 or 8?

EIGHT

30. In what kind of shop might you or an assistant use a Brannock Device?

SHOE SHOP

31. One Point Each - Name the three people that Roger Federer has beaten to win the US Open singles title?

ANDY RODDICK / ANDRE AGASSI / LLEYTON HEWITT

32. Who stars as the Queen in the new film 'The Queen'?

HELEN MIRREN

33. True or false - Tony Blair is an only child?

TRUE

34. How many times has Michael Schumacher been World Champion?

SEVEN

35. Who plays the part of Detective Inspector Rebus on TV?

KEN STOTT

36. What Is The Alternative Name For Crane Fly?

DADDY LONG LEGS

37. Which comedian, who died last month, used the catchphrase 'Me old flower'?

CHARLIE WILLIAMS - replace Norman Vaughn as host of the Golden Shot

38. In which sport might you see the two teams defending goals of different sizes?

WATER POLO (the goal in the shallow end can be higher)

39. According to the insurance company Elephant.co.uk, is it men or women who are more likely to have an accident on a roundabout?

WOMEN (also car parks & traffic lights)

40. If James is five, Henry is three, and Edward is two, who is one?

THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE!

Tiebreaker - According to a recent survey how many of the world’s population, at any one time, are drunk?

42,000,000

- In which year was the first Prime Suspect shown on ITV?

1991

Website Change Of Address

Quiztime UK new bookmark address -
http://mysite.orange.co.uk/Quiztime2003

Today's The Day - 10th October

10th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Francis Borgia,
St Daniel,
St Cerbonius,
Saints Eulampius and Eulampia,
St Paulinus of York,
St Maharsapor,
and St Gereon.

History Test for October 10th

Today in 1971, the first episode of `Upstairs Downstairs' was screened. What was the Bellamy's address? -165 Eaton Square

Born today in 1930, who wrote the plays `The Birthday Party' and 'The Caretaker'? -Harold Pinter

Yul Brynner died today in 1985. Who starred with him as Anna in the film version of `The King and I'? -Deborah Kerr

Which London theatre, opened today in 1881, was the first public building in the world to be lit with electricity? -The Savoy

Who was appointed Poet Laureate today in 1972? -Sir John Betjeman

QUOTE “Music creates order out of chaos; for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous.” - Yehudi Menuhin, violinist, 1976.

Events today...

732AD The Franks, under Charles Martel, defeated the Saracens at the Battle of Tours.

1469 Death of Fra Filippo Lippi Italian painter.

1794 The Russians crushed the rebel Polish army, taking its leader prisoner.

1865 The billiard ball was patented by John Wesley Hall.

1881 Charles Darwin published what he considered his major work, the result of a 45-year ecological study - The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms with Notes on their Habits.

1886 The dinner jacket was first worn in New York by its creator, Griswold Lorillard, at the Tuxedo Park Country Club, after which it was named.

1903 British suffragette Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst formed the Women's Social and Political Union in Manchester to fight for female emancipation.

1911 China's Imperial Dynasty was forced to abdicate, and a republic was proclaimed, under Sun Yat-Sen.

1913 The last obstacle to the completion of the Panama Canal was overcome in spectacular fashion by President Woodrow Wilson. From the safety and comfort of the Oval Office, he pressed a red button to detonate the explosives laid over 4000 miles (6400km) away to clear the final stretch of the Canal. American military engineers, headed by Colonel Goethals, had spent the nine years on the US-financed waterway. This link between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans was 51 miles (82 km) long, had six locks and traversed two natural lakes, one of which - Lake Gatun - was the largest in the world.

1933 The first synthetic detergent went on sale. It was called Dreft and made by Proctor and Gamble.

1935 George Gershwin's ‘Porgy and Bess’ opened in New York, the "first American opera".

1940 A German bomb destroyed the high altar of St Paul's Cathedral in London.

1954 Ho Chi Minh returned to Hanoi as the French evacuated.

1957 A major radiation leak was detected at the Windscale atomic power station in Cumbria following a nuclear accident on October 7.

1961 Following a volcanic eruption, the entire population of the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha was evacuated to Britain.

1963 The U.S. Russia and UK all signed a treaty banning atmospheric nuclear testing.

1963 Death of Edith Piaf, French singer.

1964 Death of Eddie Cantor, US actor and entertainer.

1965 The evil Red Baron made his first appearance in the "Peanuts" comic strip.

1973 The man twice chosen by US President Richard Nixon to be his deputy resigned before appearing in a federal district court in Baltimore to face charges of income tax evasion. Spiro Agnew, 54, pleaded "no contest" ("guilty") and was fined $10,000 (£5400) and placed on probation for three years. So far, Agnew had described the charges against him as "lies, damned lies". His last-minute reversal meant that the Federal prosecutors could not bring more serious charges against him. These related to the source of the income which Agnew concealed from the Revenue. From the time of his election as Governor of Maryland in 1967, Agnew had accepted cash bribes from engineering firms in return for lucrative state contracts. Agnew's fall from grace was the heaviest of the many miscreants who had so far inhabited the corridors of power in the Nixon administration.

1975 After a tumultuous past during which time they had already married and divorced, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor remarried in a remote village in Botswana.

1978 Steve Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith were injured when a fan threw a cherry bomb on stage in Philadelphia.

1979 Fleetwood Mac were honoured when their star was unveiled on the Hollywood Walk of fame.

1979 The political fall-out generated by the overthrow of the self-proclaimed Emperor of the Central African Empire, Marshal Jean Bedel Bokassa, the previous month alighted on the shoulders of French president Giscard d'Estaing. If he wished for relief from France's domestic problems - which included rising unemployment and inflation- he would not have found it in the satirical newspaper ‘Le Canard Enchaing’, which claimed he accepted gifts of diamonds from Bokassa. The opposition Socialist party were playing the Bokassa affair for all its worth, demanding an enquiry into relations between the deposed emperor's corrupt and nasty regime and France.

1983 Death of Sir Ralph Richardson, aged 80. Actor 'David Copperfield' 'Dr Zhivago'.

1985 Death of Yul Brynner, bald-headed American actor whose most famous films include The King and I and The Magnificent Seven.

1985 Orson Welles died at his Los Angeles home, aged 70. Wisconsin-born Welles (real name George Orson) knew success early in his career. In 1938, when he was only 23, he came to the attention of Hollywood with his radio production of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, which had several million Americans believing that Martians had landed in New Jersey. His first film, Citizen Kane, which he directed, produced, wrote and starred in, was highly praised. But there was no way but down from this pinnacle of perfection. Disillusioned, he left Hollywood after the war to act in Europe. Eventually he drifted into television, providing voice-overs for commercials.

1992 Michael Jackson's first televised concert was broadcast on the HBO network in the U.S. HBO paid $20 million for the honour. However it was the most watched show ever in the company's history. The concert was broadcast from Bucharest.

1995 900 Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel as part of the second phase of the peace plan implemented on the West Bank.

2000 Judy Finnigan ‘popped’ out of her dress as she accepted an award at the Television Awards along with husband Richard Madeley.

2003 US President George Bush announced new measures designed to help end communist rule in Cuba.

2003 Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, urged Iran to release all political prisoners.

2003 Seven Palestinians were killed in raging battles in the Gaza Strip as the Israelis continued a raid on arms-smuggling tunnels.

2003 Prince Johan of the Netherlands, second in line to the throne, gave up his right of succession in a row over his forthcoming marriage.

2003 The man elected president of Chechnya the previous weekend, Akhmad Kadyrov, told critics the poll was free and fair.

2003 Ahead of England's match with Turkey, thirty England football fans were being held at an airport in Istanbul, and would probably be sent home.

2003 Newcastle's Kieron Dyer denied any involvement in an alleged gang rape, as two other Premiership players are questioned.

2003 A court heard that Girls Aloud star Cheryl Tweedy punched a nightclub attendant with 'a right hook' when asked to pay for lollipops.

2003 BBC Radio 2 promoted its head of programmes, Lesley Douglas, to become its new controller.

2003 Danny Tickle's late drop goal put the Warriors into the Tetley's Super League Grand Final against Bradford.

2004 Two bomb attacks killed at least 10 people in Baghdad, as US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Iraq.

2004 Somali MPs elected Abdullahi Yusuf as the new president in a bid to restore stability in their lawless nation.

2004 Prayers were said for murdered hostage Ken Bigley at church services all over Britain.

2004 A Canadian submarine left drifting in the mid-Atlantic after a fire finally arrived at a Scottish naval base.

2004 Robbie Williams' went straight in at number one on the UK singles chart as REM topped the album chart.

2004 Fawlty Towers, the classic comedy starring John Cleese as a hapless hotelier, was voted the top British sitcom by foreign viewers.

2004 Ronnie O'Sullivan beat Ian McCulloch 9-5 to win the Grand Prix final in Preston.

2005 Irish author John Banville won the UK's leading literary award, the Man Booker Prize, for his novel The Sea.

2005 Priceless props from the Wallace and Gromit films were destroyed in a fire at a Bristol warehouse.

2005 Oasis defied the critics to win two major prizes at the Q Awards; Coldplay were named best act in the world.

BIRTHDAYS (for 10 October 2006)

Jean Antoine Watteau, 322 (born 10 October 1684)
French painter

Henry Cavendish, 275 (born 10 October 1731)
English physicist

Benjamin West, 268 (born 10 October 1738)
American-born history and portrait painter who spent most of his career in England, becoming President of the Royal Academy.

Giuseppe Verdi, 193 (born 10 October 1813)
Died 1901. Italian romantic opera composer whose works include Rigoletto and Aida.

Helen Hayes, 106 (born 10 October 1900)
Died 1993. Actress.

Thelonious Monk, 86 (born 10 October 1920)
Died 1982. American jazz pianist and composer who led the way in bebop.

Ed Wood, 82 (born 10 October 1924)
Died 1978. Director of "the worst film ever made" 'Plan 9 from Outer Space'.

James Clavell, 82 (born 10 October 1924)
Died 1994. Novelist - ' The Great Escape' 'Shogun'.

Nicholas Parsons, 78 (born 10 October 1928)
TV presenter.

Harold Pinter, 76 (born 10 October 1930)
British dramatist

Judith Chalmers OBE, 70 (born 10 October 1936)
TV presenter.

Peter Coyote, 64 (born 10 October 1942)
Actor.

Ben Vereen, 60 (born 10 October 1946)
Actor - Dr La Forge in 'Star Trek Next Generation'.

Charles Dance, 60 (born 10 October 1946)
Actor - 'Jewel in the Crown'.

Chris Tarrant, 60 (born 10 October 1946)
Radio and TV presenter.

John Prine, 60 (born 10 October 1946)
Country singer.

Jessica Harper, 57 (born 10 October 1949)
Actress.

David Lee Roth, 53 (born 10 October 1953)
Singer - solo and Van Halen - biggest UK hit 'Just Like Paradise'.

Midge Ure, 53 (born 10 October 1953)
Ultravox and solo singer - biggest solo UK hit 'If I Was'.

Amanda Burton, 50 (born 10 October 1956)
Actress 'Silent Witness'.

Dawn French, 49 (born 10 October 1957)
Comedienne.

Tanya Tucker, 48 (born 10 October 1958)
Country singer.

Kirsty MacColl, 47 (born 10 October 1959)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Fairytale of New York'.

Julia Sweeney, 45 (born 10 October 1961)
Actress comedienne.

Martin Kemp, 45 (born 10 October 1961)
Bass player with Spandau Ballet - biggest UK hit 'True'.

Jim Glennie, 43 (born 10 October 1963)
Bass player with James - biggest UK hit 'Sit Down'.

Richard Oakes, 30 (born 10 October 1976)
Guitarist with Suede.

Today's The Day - 9th October

9th October 2006
National Day of Uganda.

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Demetrius of Alexandria,
Saints Eleutherius and Rusticus,
Saints Andronicus and Athanasia,
St Denis or Dionysius of Paris,
St Dionysius the Aeropagite,
St Savin,
St Publia,
and St Ghislain or Gislenus.

History Test for October 9th

Today in 1967, breathalyser tests were introduced to Britain. Who was Transport Minister at the time? -Barbara Castle

Born today in 1908, which French actor and director played the character Monsieur Hulot in a series of films? -Jacques Tati

Uganda achieved independence today in 1962. Who became its first President? -Milton Obote

Born today in 1933, which English cartoonist created `The Fosdyke Saga'? -Bill Tidy

Born today in 1935, which Royal married Katharine Worsley? -The Duke of Kent

Events today...

1192 King Richard the Lion Heart abandoned the Holy Land after an unsuccessful Crusade, leaving Jerusalem in Muslim hands.

1470 Henry VI was restored to the throne after being deposed in 1461.

1514 Mary Tudor (daughter of Henry VIII) married King Louis XII of France.

1562 Death of Gabriel Fallopius, Italian anatomist.

1651 The Navigation Act was passed, allowing only English ships to import goods from Africa, America and Asia to England.

1760 Russians and Austrians pillaged Berlin.

1779 The first Luddite riots, against the introduction of machinery for spinning cotton, began in Manchester.

1855 Isaac Singer patented his sewing machine.

1871 Fire devastated the Mecca of the Mid-west, Chicago. The inferno began the previous day in the south-western part of the city and quickly had spread northwards. The flames were so immense that they licked across the Chicago River and only died out when they reached Lake Michigan. A recent long spell of dry weather rendered the city's many wooden buildings into ideal tinder. About 300 people were estimated to have lost their lives, and a further 90,000 their homes, to the fire. In all, four square miles of the city was destroyed, including the business sector, at a cost of $200 million (£108 million). Improved safety standards were expected to be the priority of any reconstruction programme for the city.

1875 The Universal Postal Union was established, with headquarters in Berne, Switzerland.

1888 The massive marble Washington Monument, designed by Robert Mills, was opened.

1897 Henry Sturmey set off in his 4.5hp Daimler from Land's End in Cornwall, aiming to be the first person to drive from Land's End to John O'Groats in Scotland - a distance of 929 miles (1486km).

1917 The "Rotoscope" was patented by Max Fleischer and was an early form of photographing drawings for animations.

1934 Alexander, King of Yugoslavia, and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou were assassinated by Croatian terrorists in Marseilles.

1951 Marilyn Monroe was urged by studio bosses at RKO Pictures to wear knickers under her dresses.

1958 Death of Pope Pius XII.

1961 Tanganyika gained independence from Britain.

1962 John B McKay, a NASA pilot took the X-15 to an altitude of 39,200 meters.

1962 Uganda received formal independence.

1963 Three thousand lives were lost when the Vaiont Dam in the Italian Alps was wrecked by a rock slide.

1967 Death of Andre Maurois, French author and biographer.

1967 Ernesto "Ché" Guevara, the Argentine-born revolutionary who helped Fidel Castro win power in Cuba, was shot dead after being captured by Bolivian Army troops. He was 39. Che Guevara was in Bolivia as part of a Cuban-sponsored expedition to topple the military government of President Barrientos and export Fidel Castro's brand of Communism to other countries in Latin America. The revolutionary struggle in Bolivia was expected to be carried on under the leadership of Inti Peredo, although without the charismatic Ché Guevara the long-term prospects of the movement did not look very good.

1972 Death of Miriam Hopkins, aged 69, Actress.

1973 Elvis and Priscilla Presley were divorced.

1974 Oscar Schindler, the subject of Steven Spielberg's Schindler' s List movie died in Frankfurt. He was responsible for saving the lives of about 1200 Jews during the Holocaust.

1978 Death of Jacques Brel, aged 49, French singer composer.

1980 Princess Caroline of Monaco divorced Philippe Junot.

1985 Yoko Ono dedicated a memorial garden in New York's Central Park to John Lennon. The garden was named Strawberry Fields.

1987 Death of multi-talented Clare Boothe Luce, former US congresswoman, ambassador, novelist, editor and playwright who wrote The Women.

1988 Death of Jackie Milburn, English footballer.

2003 The US Government offered a reward of up to $5m for the capture of fugitive Croatian general Ante Gotovina.

2003 Portugal scandal MP, Paulo Pedroso was set to return to parliament after four months in jail on suspicion of belonging to a child sex ring.

2003 Leeds United suspended footballer Jody Morris, as police investigate an allegation of sexual assault.

2003 A court heard that singer Cheryl Tweedy from "Girls Aloud" punched a toilet attendant and called her a "black bitch".

2003 Napster, which became synonymous with online music piracy, began testing its legitimate paid-for service.

2003 Sir Roger Moore received his knighthood and Sting a CBE from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

2003 The England team arrived in Turkey for their Euro 2004 qualifier without striker Michael Owen.

2004 Australian Prime Minister John Howard says he was "humbled" as he claimed victory in the country's federal election.

2004 A 14-year-old girl died in hospital after being shot from a car on her way home from a Nottingham funfair.

2004 US rock star Melissa Etheridge cancelled a tour after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

2004 Oscar-winning actor Christopher Walken left his hand and foot prints outside Hollywood's Chinese Theater.

2005 On his arrival back in London Boy George refused to comment on drugs charges he faced in New York.

2005 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, made in 1974, topped a poll of the greatest horror films of all time.

BIRTHDAYS (for 09 October 2006)

Camille Saint-Saens, 171 (born 09 October 1835)
French composer and pianist who is perhaps best known for his opera Samson and Delilah and his symphonic poem Dance Macabre.

Aimee Semple McPherson, 116 (born 09 October 1890)
American theatrical `evangelist’ who was one of the first to use radio as a means of reaching a large religious audience.

Alastair Sim, 106 (born 09 October 1900)
Died 1976. Actor.

Jacques Tati, 98 (born 09 October 1908)
Died 1982. French actor, film director and screenwriter remembered for Monsieur Hulot's Holiday and Mon Oncle.

Donald Sinden CBE, 83 (born 09 October 1923)
Actor.

Bill Tidy, 83 (born 09 October 1923)
Cartoonist.

Brian Blessed, 70 (born 09 October 1936)
Actor.

John Lennon, 66 (born 09 October 1940)
Died 1980. English pop singer, musician and songwriter who rose to fame with the Beatles and later formed the Plastic Ono Band with his wife Yoko Ono.

John Entwistle, 62 (born 09 October 1944)
Member of The Who - biggest UK hit 'My Generation'.

Jackson Browne, 58 (born 09 October 1948)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Stay'.

Steve Ovett MBE, 51 (born 09 October 1955)
British middle-distance runner who won the gold medal at the Moscow Olympics in 1980.

Scott Bakula, 51 (born 09 October 1955)
Actor 'Quantum Leap'.

Mike Singletary, 48 (born 09 October 1958)
pro football player.

Polly Jean Harvey, 37 (born 09 October 1969)
Singer of P J Harvey fame.

Sean Lennon, 31 (born 09 October 1975)
Singer - John and Yoko's son.

Today's The Day - 8th October

8th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Simeon Senex,
St Pelagia (or Margaret) the Penitent,
St Demetrius,
St Keyne,
St Thais,
St Marcellus,
and St Reparata of Caesarea.

History Test for October 8th

Who married the Honourable Serena Stanhope today in 1993? -Viscount Linley

The Speaker of the House of Commons Betty Boothroyd, was born today in 1929. Whom did she succeed in the post? -Bernard Weatherill

Name the author of `The History of Tom Jones', who died today in 1754. -Henry Fielding

At the time of its opening today in 1965, what was the tallest building in Great Britain? -The Post Office Tower - now the British Telecom Tower

Born today in 1928 which comedy actor starred in the TV comedy series `Oh No! It's Selwyn Froggitt'? -Bill Maynard

Events today...

1085 St Mark's Cathedral in Venice was consecrated.

1575 Death of Jan Massys, Flemish painter.

1754 Death of Henry Fielding, aged 47, Novelist 'Tom Jones'.

1805 The outnumbered French troops defeated the invading Austrians at Ulm.

1809 Metternich was appointed Austrian foreign minister.

1813 Bavaria joined the allies against Napoleon.

1813 Wellington invaded southern France.

1820 Henri Christophe, the Haitian leader who believed that despotism was the only form of government for his people, shot himself. He was 53. A former slave, Christophe rose to prominence as a military commander during the war against the French in 1791. After 1806, when his efforts to become overlord of the entire country had been thwarted, Christophe established his own fiefdom in northern Haiti. He built a fortress, Citadelle Laferriere, south of his capital, Cap-Haitien. His people had been in revolt for previous two months - since hearing that their despotic ruler, now calling himself King Henri I, had suffered a stroke. Christophe could expect no mercy.

1869 Death of Franklin Pierce, 14th US president.

1871 A great fire started in Chicago - believed to have begun in one Mrs O'Leary's barn in Dekoven Street, when a cow upset a lantern. People fled their homes. The Great Fire burned until the October 11th, killing over 250 people and making 95,000 homeless.

1897 A New York news agency came up with the novel idea of charting the general trends in the trading of stocks and bonds on Wall Street. The company, Dow Jones & Co, Inc, computed a daily industrials average by using a list of 12 stocks and dividing their total price by 12. The creator of this unique statistical measure was the highly respected financial journalist Charles Henry Dow, 46, the founder and editor of the Wall Street Journal.

1905 A permanent waving machine was first used on a woman's hair, by Charles Nessler.

1915 The Battle of Loos, in World War I, ended.

1939 Western Poland was incorporated in the Third Reich.

1952 "The Complete Book of Etiquette" was first published.

1952 A rail crash in Harrow, Britain involving three trains killed 112 and injured more than 200 people.

1953 British contralto Kathleen Ferrier died at a nursing home in London after a long fight against cancer. She was 41. A late starter, Ferrier reached the summit as a singer in a remarkably short time, thanks to a beautiful voice that was rich in tone and character. She established herself in the first rank of concert singers during the war years. Her stage debut came in 1946, in the world premiere of Britten's “The Rape of Lucretia at Glyndebourne”. The title part in Gluck's Orfeo became closely identified with her and, together with appearances at the Edinburgh and Salzburg festivals, won her international acclaim.

1957 Jerry Lee Lewis recorded "Great Balls of Fire" at the Sun Studios in Memphis.

1959 In Harold-Wealdstone two express trains crashed into a commuter train and 112 were killed.

1962 In England Little Richard began his gospel tour.

1965 Britain's new tallest building, the Post Office Tower in London, opened, offering a revolving restaurant and viewing galleries.

1967 Death of Clement Attlee, British Statesman.

1967 The first British speeding motorist to be breathalysed to test alcohol consumption was stopped in Somerset.

1969 "Let it Be" by the Beatles hit the number 1 spot in the British albums chart.

1973 LBC (London Broadcasting), Britain's first legal commercial radio station began broadcasting.

1976 EMI signed the Sex Pistols and the band stayed with the label for only a couple of months in an ill fated relationship.

1980 Reggae singer Bob Marley performed his last live concert when he collapsed on stage. He died a year later from lung and brain cancer on 1st May 1981.

1984 The death of the fifth wife of singer Jerry Lee Lewis, 49, was the topic of a major article in the Rolling Stone magazine. Shawn Lewis, 25, died in August, apparently of a methadone overdose. Rolling Stone now revealed that bloodstained clothes were found in the room where she died and that blood and bruising were found on her body. Shawn's mother was reported to have said that her daughter had called her the day before her death and said she was going to leave the violent Lewis - nicknamed "The Killer". Lewis had many problems on his plate, not least the Internal Revenue Service, after him for back taxes.

1987 Chuck Berry got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1989 Exon agreed to pay an extra $25 million penalty for the "Exon Valdez" oil spill.

1992 Death of Willy Brandt, former German federal chancellor.

2003 Arnold Schwarzenegger vows to restore trust in government after being elected California's new governor. He also vowed to terminate California's budget woes.

2003 Police in Spain and France arrested 34 people suspected of links to the Basque separatist group ETA.

2003 England's players called off their bycot for the match against Turkey, but criticised the Football Association for banning Rio Ferdinand after he failed to show for a drugs test.

2003 An explosion hit the main British headquarters in Basra in a suspected mortar attack. There were no reported casualties.

2003 The BBC sign a deal with Buena Vista for the terrestrial rights to "Calendar Girls" and "Chicago".

2003 Arsenal's Sol Campbell was fined £20,000 for kicking out at Man Utd's Eric Djemba-Djemba in the Community Shield.

2003 It was announced that Nigeria wanted Bryan Robson as their manager, but the former England captain said he had not had the deal confirmed.

2004 British hostage Kenneth Bigley was killed by his kidnappers in Iraq.

2004 Leeds reached the Super League Grand Final with a comfortable 40-12 win over Wigan.

2005 Pakistani officials said more than 3,000 people are feared dead in the strong quake that hit the region.

2005 The European Space Agency confirmed that its ice mission satellite Cryosat had crashed in the Arctic Ocean.

2005 David Beckham was sent off as England stuttered towards World Cup qualification by beating Austria.

2005 Holland beat the Czech Republic to ensure that England would be playing at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

2005 Musician Boy George was charged with possessing cocaine after being arrested at his home in New York.

BIRTHDAYS (for 08 October 2006)

Sir Alfred Munnings, 128 (born 08 October 1878)
English artist, critic and president of the Royal Academy whose speciality was horses and sporting pictures.

Juan Perón, 111 (born 08 October 1895)
Argentinian general and president who was deposed in 1955 and returned to office in 1973.

Klaus Kinski, 80 (born 08 October 1926)
Died 1991. Actor.

Cesar Milstein, 79 (born 08 October 1927)
British molecular biologist who in 1984 shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on techniques to produce antibodies in order to immunise against specific diseases.

Bill Maynard, 78 (born 08 October 1928)
Actor 'Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt' 'Heartbeat'.

Betty Boothroyd, 77 (born 08 October 1929)
Politician.

Ray Reardon MBE, 74 (born 08 October 1932)
Welsh-born World Professional Snooker Champion in 1970, and from 1973 to 1976

David Carradine, 70 (born 08 October 1936)
Actor - 'Kung Fu'.

Kate O'Mara, 67 (born 08 October 1939)
Actress - 'Dynasty' 'Dr Who'.

Paul Hogan, 67 (born 08 October 1939)
Australian actor 'Crocodile Dundee'.

Reverend Jesse Jackson, 65 (born 08 October 1941)
American politician and black civil rights campaigner.

Chevy Chase, 63 (born 08 October 1943)
Comedian - 'Saturday Night Live' 'Fletch' 'Foul Play' 'Caddyshack'.

Tony Wilson, 59 (born 08 October 1947)
Songwriter of Hot Chocolate fame.

Hamish Stuart, 57 (born 08 October 1949)
Member of Average White Band.

Sigourney Weaver, 57 (born 08 October 1949)
Actress - 'Alien' 'Gorillas in the Mist'.

Robert 'Kool' Bell, 56 (born 08 October 1950)
Member of Kool and the Gang.

Stephanie Zimbalist, 50 (born 08 October 1956)
Actress 'Remington Steele'.

Quiztime 011006

1. In which year did Top Gear begin on BBC TV - 1976, 1978 or 1981?
1978
2. Who is the MP for Dunfermline East who has been in the cabinet since the nineties?
Gordon Brown
3. When the airship R101 crashed in 1930 where was it travelling?
India
4. Which character in the Wizard Of Oz held a chopper in his hand?
The Tin Man
5. Which was the first Irish pop group to have five number one hits?
Boyzone
6. What is the name of the currency in Afghanistan - The Kabul, The Kurd or The Afghani?
The Afghani
7. How long does the Islamic fast of Ramadan last?
One Month
8. Which page three blonde is Swindon’s most famous export?
Melinda Messenger
9. In which English county will you find a place called Great Snoring?
Norfolk
10. Who wrote the 1929 novel ‘The Seven Dials Mystery’?
Agatha Christie
11. Which US state’s shores have yielded the most sunken treasure?
Florida
12. How long did it take the Beatles to record their first album - 12 hours, 12 days or 12 months? Twelve Hours
13. True or False - The first fairground merry-go-rounds used real stuffed horses?
False
14. The steps at the end of Downing Street in London lead to which park?
St James
15. Which wood are violins mostly made from?
Sycamore
16. Which Premiership club won the FA Cup in 1901 whilst they were in the Southern League?
Tottenham Hotspur
17. The colours red, yellow, black and green are significant for which religious cult?
Rastafarians
18. In which part of London is the Natural History Museum?
South Kensington
19. Which musical instrument is sometimes known as a liquorice stick?
Clarinet
20. Quiztime Survey Question - Other than the Quizmaster, name something that requires wind?
Kite / Sails / Balloon / Bagpipes / Washing Line

21. Which Year - The musical "Cats" opened on Broadway, Princess Grace of Monaco died in a car crash, The Epcot Centre was opened in Florida, Death of Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader and The largest mass wedding took place in Seoul, South Korea, when 5,837 couples were married simultaneously?
1982
22. Which word appears immediately under the word ‘lager’ on the front of a can of Carlsberg?
Pilsner
23. In which TV series did Gary Waldorn and James Fleet play David and Hugo Horton?
The Vicar Of Dibley
24. On which river is the market town of Settle in N.Yorkshire?
River Ribble
25. In which year was Tony Blair chosen to lead the Labour Party?
1994 (July)
26. What replaced the letters CQD in 1906?
SOS - Morse distress signal
27. Where in London can you see 2,000 tons raised in less than two minutes?
Tower Bridge
28. Which actor was the fifth Dr Who in the TV sci-fi series?
Peter Davison
29. Which Rugby Union side play at the Recreation Ground?
Bath
30. ‘Loft Story’ was the title of the French version of which C4 TV programme?
Big Brother
31. Who is the author of the books ‘Digital Fortress’ ‘Deception Point’ and ‘Angels & Demons’?
Dan Brown - author of The Da Vinci Code
32. At what weight did Audley Harrison box before becoming a heavyweight?
Super-Heavyweight
33. True or False - The Blackpool Tower was first built in Manchester?
True
34. What in American slang is a ‘Sky Bear’?
Police Helicopter
35. In which Lancashire town would you have found the main locomotive works for the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company?
Horwich
36. What colour is pitchblende?
Black
37. If you have booked a holiday to Malia or Sitia, on which meditteranean island will you be?
Crete
38. G. Leroy Parker was the real name of which outlawed cowboy?
Butch Cassidy
39. Which product have you purchased if you find a Crazy Croco or a Teeny Terrapin?
Kinder Surprise
40. Which British musical has not featured Telly Savalas, Yul Brynner or Duncan Goodhew?
Hair

Tiebreaker - In which year did the Vienna Boys Choir start?
1498

Groups Of Animals - Reference

Apes Shrewdness
Antelope Herd
Ants Colony / Army
Bass Shoal
Bears Sleuth
Badgers Cete (set)
Boars Sounder
Crocodiles Float
Caterpillars Army
Cattle Herd
Cobras Quiver
Donkeys Herd
Doves Dule (Duel)
Dogs Pack
Ducks Paddling or Team
Emus Mob
Elephants Herd
Elks Gang
Elephant Seals Pod
Flies Swarm
Ferrets Business
Finches Charm
Foxes Skulk
Goldfinches Charm
Gorillas Band
Gnats Cloud
Greyhounds Leash
Hens Brood
Hawks Cast
Hares Down
Herons Hedge
Jellyfish Smack
Kangaroos Troop
Leopards Leap
Lions Pride
Larks Ascension
Locusts Plague
Monkeys Troop
Mules Barren
Magpies Tiding
Mallards Sword
Oysters Bed
Owls Parliament
Partridges Covey
Penguins Colony
Parrots Company
Peacocks Muster
Quail Covey
Rabbits Nest
Rattlesnakes Rhumba
Roebucks Bevy
Ravens Unkindness
Sparrows Host
Sheep Flock
Starlings Murmuration
Seals Herd
Teal Spring
Toads Knot or Army
Turtles Bale
Turkeys Rafter
Walrus Pod
Wolves Route
Woodpeckers Descent
Whales School
Vipers Nest

Telly-grams

Can you unscramble the titles of ten TV shows from these anagrams?

1. True bleep?
2. It quotes mine?
3. Needs tears?
4. Bright Robe?
5. Excited shanty
6. V A T on housewife orgy?
7. Do rye cakes today?
8. Wore three drums?
9. Soft quiet soprano
10. Blow or the ItaIian womans Iies?

Answers - Highlight Below

Blue Peter
Question time
Eastenders
Big Brother
Sex in the city
Have I got news for you
Ready steady cook
Murder she wrote
A question of sport
Who wants to be a millionaire?

Quiztime Quiz Vault - 100 Quiz

1 In which film did Daryl Hannah play a mermaid? SPLASH
2 Who stood trial and was acquitted for the murder of Ronald Goldman? OJ SIMPSON
3 In the year 2000 who was found guilty of the M25 murder? KENNETH NOYE
4 Who has been played on film by Ellen Barkin, Jane Russell and Doris Day? CALAMITY JANE
5 In which American state is Magnum PI set? HAWAII
6 When Kevin Costner played Robin Hood who played Will Scarlett?CHRISTIAN SLATER
7 What was the only film of the 20th century with four letters in its name to win the Best Film Oscar? GIGI
8 Who won a Best Song Oscar for the film Philadelphia? BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
9 On which island is former Labour leader John Smith buried? IONA
10 Which city is served by Turnhouse Airport? EDINBURGH
11 In 1909 which holiday resort adopted the motto, Its so bracing? SKEGNESS
12 In which city would you find the University of Western England? BRISTOL
13 In which town do Grimsby FC play their home matches? CLEETHORPES
14 In the world of sport what has a diameter of 18 inches and stands 10 feet above the floor?
BASKETBALL HOOP
15 Who was the first snooker player to be a subject on This Is Your Life? RAY REARDON
16 Which British golfer won the US Masters in 1991? IAN WOOSNAM
17 Which TV series features a minicab firm called Cresta Cabs? ROGER ROGER
18 How is Sydenham’s Chorea more commonly known? ST VITUS DANCE
19 In what year was Channel 5 launched? 1997
20 What name did Lovejoy give to his Morris Minor? MIRIAM
21 What is the character surname of the oldest member of Dad’s Army? GODFREY
22 Which TV programme provided the world’s best selling calendar in 1999? SOUTH PARK
23 In which country did the Pied Piper play his pipes? GERMANY
24 What novel is subtitled A Romance In Exmoor? LORNA DOONE
25 Which singer’s autobiography is entitled Laughter In The Rain? NEIL SEDAKA
26 Who wrote the novel The Hunt For Red October? TOM CLANCY
27 The novel Cider With Rosie is set in which county? GLOUCESTERSHIRE
28 Which American singer had0s hits with Lydia and Lucky Stars? DEAN FRIEDMAN
29 How did Danbert Nobacon make news headlines at eh 98 Brit Awards? TIPPED A BUCKET OF WATER OVER JOHN PRESCOTT
30 Which film director had a 1984 hit with The Hitler Rap? MEL BROOKS
31 Which classical composer wrote the music on which the song A Whiter Shade Of Pale was based? JS BACH
32 What was the name of the cruise liner in the 70s TV series The Love Boat? PACIFIC PRINCESS
33 What breed of dog shares its name with the largest bus company in the USA? GREYHOUND
34 How is an Alpine Mastiff more commonly known? ST BERNARD
35 What opened on May 6, 1994? CHANNEL TUNNEL
36 What was the Supreme Council of Ancient Rome called? SENATE
37 Aspirin was originally obtained from the bark of which tree? WILLOW
38 What is the religious language of all Muslims? ARABIC
39 What was the name of the cat who left Downing Street in 1997? HUMPHREY
40 What is the closest country on mainland Europe to the island of Corfu? ALBANIA
41 If sand is melted with sodium carbonate and limestone what is formed? GLASS
42 What mammal has species called Black, White, Indian and Sumatran? RHINO
43 Montrose, Beryl and Thelma are all the names of what? NORTH SEA OIL FIELDS
44 Who played the title role in the film Shirley Valentine? PAULINE COLLINS
45 Who wrote the poem Paradise Lost JOHN MILTON
46 The Beehive is the name of the parliament building of which country? NEW ZEALAND
47 The German city of Hamburg lies on which river? ELBE
48 What is the capital of Tenerife? SANTA CRUZ
49 What country completely surrounds the Sea of Marmara? TURKEY
50 In which 1996 film did Jim Carrey play a TV engineer? THE CABLE GUY
51 Who represented the UK at the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest? JESSICA GARLICK
52 What song did Whitney Houston record for the 1988 Olympics? ONE MOMENT IN TIME
53 In the Monkees hit Daydream Believer at what time is the alarm clock set? SIX O’CLOCK
54 Under what name did Gaynor Hopkins top the singles charts in 1983? BONNIE TYLER
55 In Happy Days what is the name of the diner frequented by the cast? ARNOLDS
56 Henry Park Hospital provides the setting for which TV drama? MEDICS
57 When Jeremy Brett played Sherlock Holmes who played Watson? EDWARD HARDWICKE
58 Which Blue Peter regular died in 1977 aged 15? PETRA
59 Which Carry On film revolved around a seaside beauty contest? CARRY ON GIRLS
60 In which 1986 film did Kathleen Turner travel back in time to 1960? PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED
61 Who did Ronald Reagan play in the film Santa Fe Trail? GENERAL CUSTER
62 Who was the first film star to appear on the front cover of Time magazine? CHARLIE CHAPLIN
63 What country is nicknamed the Switzerland of Africa? SWAZILAND
64 What does the S stand for in the name of the author CS Lewis? STAPLES
65 Which part of the intestine is similar in shape to a horseshoe? DUODENUM
66 Who married Roger Cawley in 1975? EVONNE GOOLAGONG
67 In which city was the first ever cricket test match played? MELBOURNE
68 What river is depicted in John Constables painting The Haywain? STOUR
69 Who did Robin Givens divorce in 1989? MIKE TYSON
70 In 1812 which Prime Ministers last words were Oh I am murdered? SPENCER PERCIVAL
71 What was the last Bond film in which Lois Maxwell portrayed Miss Moneypenny? A VIEW TO A KILL
72 In which city was the first Cadillac made? DETROIT
73 Which English town witnessed a major rail crash in March 2001? SELBY
74 In a current TV ad for Carlsberg Lager which football pundit can be seen cleaning a pair of boots? ALAN HANSEN
75 Which player scored the first hat trick of the 2002 World Cup? MIROSLAV KLOSE
76 Which comedy actor was born William Rowbotham? BILL OWEN
77 Who was the second actor to play Dr Who on TV? PATRICK TROUGHTON
78 Who played Daniel Reece in Dynasty? ROCK HUDSON
79 Which famous novel features extracts from the diary of Jonathan Harker? DRACULA
80 Who recorded the 2001 album Songs From The West Coast? ELTON JOHN
81 Which actress played the wife of Rocky Balboa? TALIA SHIRE
82 Who did Val Kilmer play in the film Tombstone? DOC HOLLIDAY
83 On which river does Washington DC stand? POTOMAC
84 Which US President’s middle name was Delano? FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT
85 What is the first name of Captain Pugwash? HORATIO
86 Which was the first cartoon character to feature on a US postage stamp? BUGS BUNNY
87 In which country is the source of the River Amazon? PERU
88 From which country does Emmanthal cheese originate? SWITZERLAND
89 What musical instrument was originally called a sackbut? TROMBONE
90 Who was the first Peter to be a presenter on Blue Peter? PETER PURVES
91 Which bone of the body is named after the Italian for flute? TIBIA
92 Which rock and roller’s autobiography is entitled Killer? JERRY LEE LEWIS
93 What was opened by Adolf Hitler on August 1, 1936? THE BERLIN OLYMPICS
94 Which convicted murderer had a mistress called Ethel Le Neve? DR CRIPPEN
95 Which world leader was excommunicated in 1962? FIDEL CASTRO
96 Who was the first American President to appear on colour television? DWIGHT EISENHOWER
97 In which country was Patrick Viera born? SENEGAL
98 What was London’s first railway station? EUSTON
99 Who designed Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding gown? NORMAN HARTNELL
100 Found on a restaurant menu what is the Indian word for bucket? BALTI
Quiztime UK Quiz Vault

Cryptic Pop

Guess the Pop Group

POPULAR DOCTOR
Who
SINGLE BLOKES
Bachelors
COLOURED SWEATING CAPSICUMS
Red Hot Chili Peppers
REVERSE MALE REVOLVING IN TOP GEAR
Bachmann Turner Overdrive
LADS AREA
Boyzone
SKINNY BOND CHARACTER
Boney M
BUTCHERS BREAD
Meat Loaf
JUNGLE SWINGERS
Monkees
DIRTY, BREEZY & HOT
Earth, Wind and Fire
A SENIOR TEACHER SPEAKING
Talking Heads
BIG BAND MOVING AT NIGHT
Orchestral Manoeurvres in the Dark
CHANGED PICTURES
Altered Images
SKINNY BETTY
Thin Lizzy
FUN PARK MAGNETIC EFFECT
Fairground Attraction
GET PASTE FROM A TUBE
Squeeze
AVIATION STRIKERS
Flying Pickets
EAST END REVOLUTIONARY
Cockney Rebel
NUCLEAR COCKEREL
Atomic Rooster
NOSY DEAD PUSSY
Curiosity Killed the Cat
ROBERT PEELS MEN
Police

Quiztime UK Vault

Today's the Day - 7th October

7th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Justina of Padua,
St Artaldus or Arthaud,
and St Osyth.

History Test for October 7th

Born today in 1912, Joseph Cooper presented which popular TV music quiz? -`Face The Music'

Established today in 1919, which is the world's oldest surviving airline? -KLM - the national airline of the Netherlands

Which music hall star, whose songs included `I'm One of the Ruins that Cromwell Knocked About a Bit', died today in 1922? -Marie Lloyd

A long-running radio series began today in 1946, featuring which 'Special Agent'? -Dick Barton

Today in 1806, Ralph Wedgwood secured a patent for his device for `producing duplicates of writings'. What was it called? -Carbon paper

Events today...

1571 A Holy League of naval forces from Spain, Venice and the Vatican exploded the myth of Turkish military invincibility by annihilating their fleet at the battle of Lepanto in the eastern Mediterranean. The Turkish commander, Ali Pasha, was killed in the bloody fray along with 25,000 of his men. The fleets were evenly matched with about 200 galleys and 80,000 men on either side. Christian galley slaves accounted for half of the Turkish fleet's manpower;12,000 of them were freed at the end of the battle. Turkish galley losses were estimated at about 150 to the allies' 15. The architect of the Holy League's victory was the dashing Don John of Austria, 24, who has managed to weld disparate fleets into an effective force. It remained to be seen whether the same high degree of co-operation could be maintained.

1806 The first carbon paper was patented by its English inventor, Ralph Wedgwood.

1849 The poet, short-story writer and critic Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore after a heavy drinking bout. He was 40. In 1845 Poe won fame throughout the United States for his poem "The Raven". His gift for writing in many different styles found expression in, at one extreme, horror and detective stories and, at the other, pseudo-learned discourses. Controversial though he could be - with a libel suit brought by the subject of one of his gossipy sketches on the "Literati of New York" - Poe could also be humorous, kind and gentle as well as ascerbic and self-centred.

1858 A non-stop mail coach reached Los Angeles 20 days after leaving St Louis - having travelled 2600 miles (4160km).

1894 Death of Oliver Wendell Holmes, US writer.

1904 Isabella Bird Bishop, the first woman to be made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of London, died. She was 73. She was a sickly child so the family doctor advised her to travel, and in 1854 she made the first of many journeys overseas, to the western United States. Thereafter she travelled all over the world. After each journey she would write a detailed account of her adventures. Her first book, The Englishwoman in America, became widely known. She went on her last journey, to Morocco, aged 70. Towards the end of her life she became increasingly involved in the missionary cause and established several small hospitals in China and India.

1905 The paintings of a group of radical artists exhibiting at the “Salon d'Automne” provoked an unusually hostile response from Parisian art lovers. "A paint pot has been flung in the face of the public," said one critic. Another, Louis Vauxcelles of Gil Blas, described the room where a sculpture in the classical style by Albert Marque was displayed with the offending paintings by Henri Matisse, Andrd Derain and others, as "Donatello parmi les fauves" ("Donatello among the beasts"). Matisse's Woman with the Hat epitomised the "fauves" approach to art-deliberate disharmonies of intense colour and seemingly little attention to draughtsmanship. Parisians took to gathering in front of the painting and jeering at it. However, the American modern art collector, Leo Stein was reported to be interested in buying the painting.

1908 Crete revolted against Turkish domination, seeking unity with Greece.

1919 The Dutch airline KLM, the oldest existing airline, was established.

1922 Death of Marie Lloyd, English music hall comedienne.

1922 The Prince of Wales made the first royal broadcast on British radio.

1943 Death of Radclyffe Hall, English author.

1949 The German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, was formed.

1950 Frank Sinatra with a 5 year contract worth £250,000 a year made his television debut.

1954 The first transistor calculator was demonstrated for the first time by IBM.

1956 Death of Clarence Birdseye, aged 69, The Freezing food man.

1959 Death of Mario Lanza, aged 38, Opera singer and film star.

1959 Pictures of the far side of the moon were relayed back to Earth for the first time by the Russian spacecraft Lunik III.

1965 Charles Linster did an amazing 6,006 consecutive press ups.

1967 Mama Cass Elliot (Mamas and Papas) spent a night in a London cell after an argument about an unpaid hotel bill.

1967 The Beatles turned down an offer to play Shea Stadium in the U.S. for $1 million.

1967 Death of Clarence Birdseye, US deep-freezing inventor.

1982 Led Zeppelin star Jimmy Page was found guilty of possessing cocaine and received a 12 month conditional discharge.

1982 The musical "Cats" opened on Broadway.

1985 The "Achille Lauro" (Italian cruise liner) was highjacked by Palestinian terrorists who demanded the release of prisoners held by Israel. They killed a disabled passenger (Leon Klinghoffer) to show that they meant business.

1986 A new national newspaper, the Independent, was published in Britain.

1988 Grey whales trapped under ice in Alaska became the focus of an international rescue effort.

1989 Death of Bette Davis, US actress.

1993 Death of Agnes de Mille, US choreographer.

1995 Ted Dansen married Mary Steenburgen.

1997 A Boston court began hearing evidence in the Louise Woodward trial. The Cheshire-born nanny had been working in America and was accused of murdering toddler, Matthew Eappen, whilst in her care.

1997 In the early hours of the morning, an ‘Air Tours’ Jet landed at Manchester airport, and burst into flames, just minutes after the passengers had alighted. Luckily nobody was hurt.

1998 Paul Gasgoine took to the wheel of Middlesborough’s team coach for a prank whilst the driver wasn’t looking. He only managed to drive it for 400yards before crashing into a car.

2000 Following England’s 1-0 defeat by Germany at Wembley, manager Kevin Keegan resigned. Dietmar Hanann was the scored Germany’s goal in the last match to be played at the old Wembley stadium.

2003 Italian police arrested fugitive Mafia suspect Salvatore Sciarabba, said to be a deputy of the "boss of bosses".

2003 Rio Ferdinand was left out of the England squad after failing to attend a routine drugs test. The FA quashed speculation that several players were ready to boycott England's game with Turkey following the axing of Ferdinand.

2003 ITV firms Granada and Carlton were given permission to merge, but the £4bn deal came with conditions.

2003 It was announced that BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles was to replace Sara Cox as the host of the station's breakfast show.

2004 A salvage vessel began towing a Canadian submarine which spent two days adrift off Ireland's west coast, to Faslane Naval base.

2004 The UK music industry began legal action to sue 28 people it said were swapping music illegally over the internet.

2004 Austrian novelist Elfriede Jelinek was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature.

2005 Network Rail and Balfour Beatty were fined millions over the Hatfield train crash, in which four people died.

2005 Rio Ferdinand was set to be left out of England's World Cup qualifier with Austria, in favour of Sol Campbell.

BIRTHDAYS (for 07 October 2006)

Heinrich Himmler, 106 (born 07 October 1900)
German head of the Gestapo and, from 1929, Hitler's second-in-command.

June Allyson, 83 (born 07 October 1923)
American actress of stage and screen who could play a tomboy or a tease and appeared in the film Best Foot Forward and in numerous musicals such as Two Girls and a Sailor and The Glenn Miller Story.

Al Martino, 79 (born 07 October 1927)
The First UK Chart Topper with 'Spanish Eyes'

Reverend Desmond Tutu, 75 (born 07 October 1931)
South African archbishop of Cape Town and general secretary of the South African Council of Churches who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

Thomas Keneally, 70 (born 07 October 1936)
Australian author whose novel Schindler's Ark, based on a true story, won him the Booker Prize.

Ann Jones, 68 (born 07 October 1938)
Tennis player.

Clive James, 67 (born 07 October 1939)
TV Presenter and writer.

Oliver Laurence North, 63 (born 07 October 1943)
US Marine Corps Lt. Colonel.

Kevin Godley, 61 (born 07 October 1945)
Member of original 10CC and Godley & Creme.

John 'Cougar' Mellancamp, 55 (born 07 October 1951)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Jack and Diane'.

Tico Torres, 53 (born 07 October 1953)
Drummer with Bon Jovi.

Jayne Torville, 49 (born 07 October 1957)
British ice-skating champion who dominated the sport in the mid-'80s with her partner Christopher Dean.

Michael W Smith, 49 (born 07 October 1957)
Singer.

Sam Brown, 42 (born 07 October 1964)
Singing daughter of Joe Brown

Toni Braxton, 39 (born 07 October 1967)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Breathe Again'.

Thom Yorke, 38 (born 07 October 1968)
Lead singer with Radiohead.

Nicole 'The Fonz' Appleton, 32 (born 07 October 1974)
Member of All Saints.

Today's The Day - 6th October

6th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Mary prances of Naples,
St Faith of Agen,
St Nicetas of Constantinople,
and St Bruno.

History Test for October 6th

Born today in 1820, which famous soprano was known as 'The Swedish Nightingale'? -Jenny Lind

The first talking feature film opened in New York today in 1927. Starring Al Jolson, what was the film called? -`The Jazz Singer' (354 words are spoken in two talking sequences)

Born today in 1939, which TV presenter wrote the novel 'A Time to Dance'? -Melvyn Bragg

Which country in the Pacific Ocean comprises over 800 islands and was declared a republic today in 1987? -Fiji

`Carry On' star Hattie Jacques died today in 1980. What was the title of the first 'Carry On' film? -`Carry On Sergeant'

QUOTE “You ain't heard nothin' yet, folks.” -A line from the film The Jazz Singer, the first picture with sound, which hit the screen today, 1927.

Events today...

1014 The Byzantine emperor Basil II brought his country's 28-year-war with Bulgaria to an end with an act of unprecedented savagery. Tsar Samuel's defeated army of 15,000 men had been blinded. One eye had been left to each 100th man to ensure that the army found its way back to the Tsar. Meanwhile, the whisker-twirling Basil was looking for further lands to incorporate into his already vast empire. Sicily, now in the hands of the Arabs, was next on his list of military conquests.

1536 English reformer and Bible translator William Tyndale was strangled and burnt at the stake at Vivarde near Brussels on the orders of Henry VIII.

1769 English naval explorer Captain James Cook, aboard the Endeavour landed in New Zealand.

1807 Sir Humphrey Davy discovered a new metal, and named it potassium.

1860 The Franco-British force captured Peking.

1883 The Orient Express completed its first run from Paris to Constantinople (now Istanbul) in nearly 78 hours.

1889 Thomas Edison demonstrated his first motion picture kinetoscope which he had patented in 1887.

1890 The Mormon Church outlawed polygamy.

1891 Death of Irish nationalist politician Charles Stewart Parnell, described as the "uncrowned king" of Ireland.

1891 Death of William Henry Smith, English newsagent, bookseller and Statesman.

1892 Death of Alfred, aged 83, Lord Tennyson, great English poet who won the Chancellor's medal for English as a young man with the poem "Timbuctoo", and later wrote the famous "The Charge of the Light Brigade".

1895 Promenade concerts, initiated by Sir Henry Wood, began at the Queen's Hall in London.

1896 Death of George du Maurier, English novelist.

1902 A 2000-mile (3200 km) railway line running from Cape Town in South Africa to Beira, Mozambique, was completed.

1908 Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1927 New York was abuzz with the latest entertainment phenomenon - a film with sound, called a "talkie". Warner Brothers premiered their revolutionary film, The Jazz Singer, at the Warner Theatre. The omens were good for the company, which had taken a considerable risk in pioneering talkies and in particular the Vitaphone sound process. The star of The Jazz Singer was the hugely popular stage entertainer, Al Jolson. People were expected to come in droves to hear him sing on film and speak a couple of lines of dialogue. Warner Brothers hoped to release their first all-talking film the following year. The film industry was hoping that talkies would revive its flagging fortunes.

1928 Nationalist General Chiang Kai-shek became president of China.

1939 Addressing the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler said he had no intention of war against Britain or France.

1941 Two men with the unfortunate names of Willburn and Frizzel went to the electric chair in Florida.

1962 Death of Tod Browning, aged 80, Director 'Dracula'.

1966 Death of Johnnie Kidd, aged 26, Singer of Johnny Kidd & the Pirates.

1968 British drivers Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and John Surtees came first, second and third in the US Grand Prix.

1973 Death of Dennis Price, aged 58, Actor.

1973 One of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur ("Day of Atonement"), turned into one of the bloodiest. As Israelis were beginning Yom Kippur (when past sins are atoned for through fasting and prayer), a joint Egyptian-Syrian invasion force attacked their country on two fronts. After initial confusion, the Israeli defence force had been mobilised. The Arabs were unlikely to win this latest round of hostilities on the battlefield, such was Israel's military superiority. The wily Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat believed that a bloody nose might persuade Israel to negotiate seriously over the Arab territory lost during the 1967 Six-Day War.

1976 A cyclist completed a world tour having cycled in every continent in the world. John Hathaway had cycled 50,600 miles.

1978 London Underground's first woman driver started work.

1978 Mick Jagger apologised to the Reverend Jesse Jackson for the song "Some Girls" which was claimed to be racist. However he refused to change the lyrics.

1979 Pope John Paul II became the first Pontiff to visit the White House. President Jimmy Carter was the host.

1980 Comedy Actress Hattie Jacques died at the age of 56.

1981 The president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, was assassinated while attending the military parade marking the anniversary of Egyptian successes in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Sadat, 62, was rushed to the Maadi Armed Forces Hospital, south of Cairo, but died soon after arrival. Sadat and other ministers were watching a fly-past when men dressed as soldiers opened fire with grenades and automatic weapons from a truck that had stalled in front of the reviewing stand. Seven other senior Egyptian officials and guests were also killed. Sadat's signing of the Camp David treaty with Israel in 1979 won him a host of enemies in the Arab world. Chief among these was the exiled opposition leader Lieutenant General Saad El-Shazli, who was thought to have masterminded the killing.

1985 Death of Nelson Riddle, aged 64, Bandleader.

1989 Death of Bette Davis, aged 81, Actress 'Jezebel' 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane'.

1991 Liz Taylor married for the 8th time. This time she married Larry Forensky.

1992 Death of Denholm Elliott, aged 70 Actor 'A Room with a View' 'Indiana Jones'.

1992 Death of Eddie Kendrick, aged 52, Singer.

1993 Death of Cyril Cusack, French actor.

1996 Country music stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw married.

1997 ABTA stepped in to make arrangements to fly stranded British tourists back home, following the collapse of the ‘Sun Tours’ travel company.

1997 Michael Foale, the British-born astronaut, who had spent several months onboard the troubled Russian space station, Mir, returned to Earth.

1997 The trial began in Boston, Massachusettes, of Louise Woodward, the Nanny from Chester who was accused of murdering a toddler left in her care.

2003 President Bush said Israel's right to defend itself must not be restricted, a day after an Israeli air strike on Syria.

2003 Pro-Moscow leader Akhmad Kadyrov won by a landslide in war-torn Chechnya, amid criticism of the poll.

2003 Poland's PM Leszek Miller said he might call a referendum on the EU constitution if changes Poland proposed were not accepted.

2003 A Sky News reporter who resigned after faking an item on the Iraq war was found dead at home.

2003 Actor Denis Quilley, who starred in Privates on Parade and Murder on the Orient Express, died aged 75.

2003 Tim Henman beat Stefano Pescosolido in the first round of the CA Trophy in Vienna.

2004 A French couple were prosecuted for failing to stop a drunk friend driving home and killing a family in a crash.

2004 Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi appealed for the British hostage in Iraq Ken Bigley to be freed.

2004 The man who killed John Lennon in 1980, Mark Chapman, failed in his third attempt for release on parole.

2004 Poet Kathleen Jamie won the £10,000 Forward Prize, the UK's biggest annual poetry award.

2005 Peter Snow announced he was to step down from his role in the BBC's General Election coverage.

BIRTHDAYS (for 06 October 2006)

Jenny Lind, 186 (born 06 October 1820)
Swedish operatic soprano dubbed the `Swedish Nightingale'.

Le Corbusier, 119 (born 06 October 1887)
French architect born in Switzerland who promoted the idea of the house as `a habitable machine' and was commissioned at home and abroad to devise town-planning schemes.

Janet Gaynor, 100 (born 06 October 1906)
Died 1984. Actress - 'A Star is Born'.

Carole Lombard, 98 (born 06 October 1908)
Died 1942. Actress.

Thor Heyerdahl, 92 (born 06 October 1914)
Norwegian explorer and anthropologist who led a 5000-mile (8000-km) expedition on the raft Kon-Tiki from the western coast of South America to the islands east of Tahiti.

Eileen Derbyshire, 76 (born 06 October 1930)
Actress - Emily Bishop in Coronation Street.

Richie Benaud OBE, 76 (born 06 October 1930)
Australian cricket commentator.

Melvin Bragg, 67 (born 06 October 1939)
Presenter and novelist.

Britt Ekland, 64 (born 06 October 1942)
Actress - Peter Sellers ex-wife.

Millie (Millicent Smith), 59 (born 06 October 1947)
Singer 'My Boy Lollipop'.

Bobby Farrell, 57 (born 06 October 1949)
Singer with Boney M - biggest UK hit 'Rivers of Babylon'.

Thomas McClary, 56 (born 06 October 1950)
Member of The Commodores.

Kevin Cronin, 55 (born 06 October 1951)
Lead singer with REO Speedwagon - biggest UK hit 'Keep on Loving You'.

Stephanie Zimbalist, 50 (born 06 October 1956)
actress.

Richard Jobson, 46 (born 06 October 1960)
Skids

Today's The Day - 5th October

5th October 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Flora of Beaulieu,
St Maurus
St Magenulf or Meinulf,
St Apollinaris of Valence,
and St Galla.

History Test for October 5th

`Monty Python's Flying Circus' was first seen on TV today in 1969. Name four of the six team members. -Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin

Today in 1989 a film version of 'Henry V' was premiered in London. Kenneth Branagh played the king, but who directed it? -Kenneth Branagh

Today in 1917, it was announced that which residence was to be given to the nation for the use of British Prime Ministers? -Chequers, near Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire

Born today in 1951, which pop star and celebrity has daughters called Fifi Trixibelle and Peaches? -Bob Geldof

Born today in 1923, which Canadian actress and celebrity became a popular panellist on TV's `What's My Line'? -Barbara Kelly

Events today...

1285 Death of Philip III ('the Bold'), King of France.

1524 Death of Joachim Patinir, Dutch painter.

1796 Spain signed the Treaty of San Ildefonso, throwing in her lot with Revolutionary France.

1864 70,000 were killed by a cyclone in Calcutta.

1880 Death of Jaques Offenbach, French composer who wrote The Tales of Hoffman.

1880 The earliest `ball pen', with its own ink supply and retractable tip, was patented by Alonzo T Cross.

1908 Bulgaria declared its independence from Turkey.

1911 Italian troops occupied Tripoli, in Libya, during its war with Turkey.

1914 The first air battle took place between French and German aircraft during World War I; both sides suffered losses.

1917 Sir Arthur Lee donated the country residence Chequers to the nation as a retreat for British prime ministers.

1930 The R-101 rigid airship crashed on the edge of a wood near Beauvais, France, killing 48 passengers including Air Minister Lord Thompson, who didn’t help things by bringing luggage on board equivalent to the weight of 24 people.

1934 Death of Jean Vigo, French film director.

1936 In the formerly prosperous Tyneside ship-building town of Jarrow, which now had a permanent jobless rate of two-thirds of its population, 200 unemployed were given a rousing send-off, joining in a hunger march, in a way of bringing public attention to the plight of the unemployed in depressed areas of the country.

1952 Her Majesty’s Government took a significant step towards reviving the nation’s addiction to tea, by removing it from the list of rationed commodities.

1962 "Love Me Do" was released by the Beatles on the Parlophone record label and was played the same evening on Radio Luxembourg.

1962 The first James Bond movie "Dr No" was released in the UK.

1962 A consortium of European countries including Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, agreed to set up The European Southern Observatory, with monitoring equipmant including three telescopes, on Cerro La Silla in Chile, 55 miles north-east of La Serena.

1965 Film composer Henry Mancini received a gold disc for the soundtrack to the movie "The Pink Panther".

1967 The first majority verdict by a jury in Britain was taken, in Brighton.

1968 Police water cannons and batons were used to break up a civil rights march in Londonderry.

1969 Monty Python's Flying Circus made its television debut on British Television.

1970 Anwar Sadat succeeded Gamal Nasser as president of Egypt.

1983 Trade and Industry Secretary Cecil Parkinson admitted having an adulterous affair with his secretary, Sarah Keays, who was expecting his baby.

1983 Lech Walesa the founder of Solidarity won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of Polish workers.

1984 Death of Leonard Rossiter, aged 57 Actor 'Rising Damp' 'Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin' '2001'.

1985 Death of Nelson Riddle, US composer and arranger.

1985 An Egyptian policeman went berserk and killed seven Israeli tourists at a Sinai beach resort.

1986 Death of Hal Wallis, aged 87 Movie producer 'Maltese Falcon'.

1989 The Moulin Rouge in Paris celebrated its centenary.

1989 TV evangelist Jim Bakker was convicted on 24 counts of mail and wire fraud and three weeks later was fined $500,000 and sent to prison for 45 years. This sentence was later reduced on appeal.

1991 Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev made sweeping cuts to nuclear weapons in response to President George Bush's arms reductions.

2003 The United Nations met in emergency session to debate an Israeli strike on an alleged militant base in Syria.

2003 Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat appointed an emergency cabinet amid renewed Israeli threats to expel him.

2003 John Paul II dispelled rumours his death was imminent, appearing alert and well at mass in Rome.

2003 One million residents spent a sleepless night in the French capital on the second all-night arts festival, the Nuit Blanche.

2003 The Tory party's opponents criticised its pension plans on the eve of its conference in Blackpool.

2003 The first gay kiss in Coronation Street's 43-year history was screened.

2003 Mind control expert Derren Brown survived a controversial Russian roulette stunt shown on television.

2003 Dalakhani held off Mubtaker's challenge to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp.

2003 Juan Pablo Angel missed a late penalty as Aston Villa were held 1-1 at home by Bolton.

2004 A fire on board a Canadian vessel sparked a major rescue operation off the coast of Ireland.

2004 Michael Howard put trust at the heart of his poll strategy and promised the Tory conference a "war on crime".

2004 Billy Connolly was criticised for making a joke about Iraq hostage Ken Bigley at a London show.

2004 The three boys who were to play Billy Elliot in the musical version of the hit film were announced.

2004 Singer Bob Dylan revealed in his memoirs his anger at fans' invasion of his family's privacy in the 1960s.

2004 Ex-England midfielder Paul Gascoigne left his player-coach role at Boston.

2005 Rap star Eminem's publishing companies went to court to stop his songs being sold as mobile phone ringtones.

2005 It was disclosed that Ronnie Barker's son Adam would be arrested if he attended his father's funeral after skipping bail the previous year.

2005 Lord Moynihan was selected as the new chairman of the British Olympic Association.

BIRTHDAYS (for 05 October 2006)

Chevalier d’Éon, 278 (born 05 October 1728)
French spy who conducted missions for his country disguised as a woman; a brilliant fencer, he gave exhibitions in London and was fatally wounded in 1810, when an autopsy revealed his masculinity.

Louis Jean Lumiere, 142 (born 05 October 1864)
Died 1948. French photography pioneer.

Pablo Picasso, 125 (born 05 October 1881)

Donald Pleasance, 87 (born 05 October 1919)
Died 1995. British character actor best known for his threatening roles in films such as Hallowe’en.

Robin Bailey, 87 (born 05 October 1919)
actor

Glynis Johns, 83 (born 05 October 1923)
Actress - 'Mary Poppins'.

Barbara Kelly, 82 (born 05 October 1924)
actress & TV personality

Diane Cilento, 73 (born 05 October 1933)
Actress.

Vaclav Havel, 70 (born 05 October 1936)
Czech playwright and human rights spokesman who was jailed four times before the collapse of the Communist regime in December 1989, when he was made the nation’s president.

Stephanie Cole, 65 (born 05 October 1941)
Actress - 'Keeping Mum'.

Richard Street, 64 (born 05 October 1942)
Member of The Temptations.

Steve Miller, 63 (born 05 October 1943)
Singer musician - biggest UK hit 'The Joker'.

Brian Connolly, 62 (born 05 October 1944)
Died 1997. Member of The Sweet.

Brian Johnson, 59 (born 05 October 1947)
Member of AC/DC.

Karen Allen, 55 (born 05 October 1951)
Actress - 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.

Harold Faltermeyer, 54 (born 05 October 1952)
Musician - 'Beverley Hills Cop'.

Clive Barker, 54 (born 05 October 1952)
Author of horror.

Sir Bob Geldof, 52 (born 05 October 1954)
Irish pop musician who was lead singer with the Boomtown Rats and the instigator of Live Aid, an international pop concert to raise funds for famine relief; he received an honourary knighthood and was nominated for the Nobel Prize for his efforts.

Leo Barnes, 51 (born 05 October 1955)
Hothouse Flowers

Russell Mael, 51 (born 05 October 1955)
Member of Sparks.

Lee Thompson, 49 (born 05 October 1957)
Madness

Caron Keating, 44 (born 05 October 1962)
(Died 2004) TV presenter

Kevin Hitchcock, 44 (born 05 October 1962)
footballer

Michael Mario Andretti, 44 (born 05 October 1962)
Racing car driver.

Hugh Morris, 43 (born 05 October 1963)
cricketer

Kate Winslet, 31 (born 05 October 1975)
Actress - 'Titanic'.

Today's The Day - 4th October

4th October 2006
National Day of Lesotho.

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Petronius of Bologna,
St Francis of Assisi,
and St Ammon.

History Test for October 4th

Born today in 1895 which silent movie star called his autobiography `My Wonderful World of Slapstick'? -Buster Keaton

Name the world's first man-made satellite sent into orbit by the Russians today in 1957. -Sputnik 1- Russian for `fellow traveller'. It was officially designated `Satellite 1957 Alpha 2'

Today in 1830, Belgium declared its independence. What is the country's currency? -The Belgian franc

Who reached Number One in the UK pop charts today in 1975 with `Hold Me Close'? -David Essex

Name the founder of the Habitat Group, who was born today in 1931. -Sir Terence Conran

Events today...

1497 Death of Benozzo Gozzoli, Italian painter.

1535 Miles Coverdale's English translation of the Bible was published.

1669 The Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn died in Amsterdam at 63. In his 30s Rembrandt earned large sums from painting portraits of Amsterdam's upper crust. After his wealthy wife died in 1642 he gradually went bankrupt. However, he continued to paint and to receive commissions and he left a vast legacy of about 600 paintings, 1500 drawings and 350 etchings.

1821 Death of John Rennie, Scottish civil engineer.

1824 Mexico became a republic.

1854 Abraham Lincoln made the first of his great speeches at the Illinois State Fair and became known as "Honest Abe Lincoln".

1859 Death of German publisher Karl Baedeker, whose series of travel guides became internationally famous.

1883 In Glasgow, Sir William Alexander Smith founded the Boys' Brigade.

1895 American Horace Rawlins won the first US Open Gold tournament, played at Newport, Rhode Island.

1895 Deadpan hero of the silent screen Buster Keaton was born in Kansas. His parents were acrobats in vaudeville, and by the time he was three, Buster was in on the act

1895 The first European edition of the New York Herald was published in Paris.

1904 Death of French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty.

1905 Orville Wright became the first to fly an aircraft for over 33 minutes.

1910 Portugal was proclaimed a republic when King Manuel II was driven from the country by a revolution.

1911 Britain's first public escalator was switched on, at London's Earl's Court underground

1931 The cartoon character "Dick Tracy" made his debut in newspapers.

1948 Death of Arthur Whitten Brown, pioneer aviator.

1952 An external device called a pacemaker developed by Dr Paul Zoll of the Harvard Medical School was fitted to David Schwartz to control his heartbeat.

1957 Russia launched its first satellite "Sputnik 1" and circled the Earth every 90 minutes.

1958 British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) began the first trans-Atlantic crossings between London and New York.

1959 The first pictures of the far side of the moon were sent back to Earth by the 'Luna 3' Russian space craft.

1961 Death of the painter Max Weber.

1962 Bob Dylan performed in concert to 53 people.

1965 Pope Paul VI visited New York to address the UN, becoming the first pope to visit the USA.

1970 Janis Joplin died from a drugs overdose aged 27 and was found in a hotel in Hollywood. She became an icon with hits like "Down on Me", "Pearl" (which was her nickname), "Me and Bobby McGee". The movie "The Rose" starring Bette Midler was based on her life.

1981 The IRA called off the seven-month old hunger strike that had already cost the lives of ten republicans held in H-block of the Maze Prison in Belfast.

1983 A world record speed of 663.5 mph was achieved by Richard Noble in his jet-powered car Thrust II, in Nevada.

1988 Bavarian environment minister Alfred Dick asked people not to yodel in the Bavarian Alps as it was harmful to the environment. The noise scared the chamois and drove off golden eagles and other rare birds.

1989 Death of Graham Chapman, aged 48, Comedian 'Monty Python'.

1992 In Amsterdam an Israeli Boeing 747 cargo plane crashed into an apartment building killing 43 people.

1994 David Crosby fell ill while on tour with his group Crosby Stills and Nash and the rest of the tour was cancelled as he needed a liver transplant.

1996 Prince Charles announced he was parting company with his private secretary, Cdr Richard Aylard.

2003 A woman suicide bomber killed herself and at least 19 others at a restaurant in the Israeli city of Haifa.

2003 Police investigating the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl by Premiership footballers said a very useful witness had come forward.

2003 Eight police officers were suspended a day after an inquest said a detained man had been unlawfully killed.

2003 Alex Parks won the second series of the BBC's Fame Academy, beating Alistair Griffin in the final.

2003 Illusionist Roy Horn, of the superstar duo Siegfried and Roy, had surgery after a tiger mauled him in Las Vegas.

2003 The author and illustrator of Shrek, William Steig, died at his Boston home at the age of 95.

2003 Bradford book their place in the Super League Grand Final with a 30-14 win over Leeds.

2003 Celtic move to the top of the SPL with a deserved 1-0 victory at champions Rangers.

2003 Paul Scholes, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ryan Giggs scored as Man Utd beat Birmingham 3-0.

2004 A legal challenge to the indefinite detention in Britain of foreign citizens suspected of terrorism was being heard.

2004 Shares in Manchester United rallied as the club confirmed it had received a takeover approach.

2004 Actress Janet Leigh, best known for the shower stabbing scene in thriller film Psycho, died aged 77.

2004 Sir Elton John accused Madonna of cheating fans by miming on stage, while collecting a Q Award.

2004 UK broadcaster Channel 4 had six nominations for the International Emmy Awards.

2004 Crystal Palace moved off the foot of the Premiership with a deserved 2-0 win over 10-man Fulham.

2005 Leading names in entertainment paid tribute to comedian Ronnie Barker, who died at the age of 76.

2005 Artist Jack Vettriano dismissed claims that he privately copied some of his most famous works.

BIRTHDAYS (for 04 October 2006)

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 286 (born 04 October 1720)
Italian architect and engraver.

Millet, 192 (born 04 October 1814)
French painter, chiefly of romanticised scenes of peasant life.

Rutherford B. Hayes, 184 (born 04 October 1822)
American statesman and Republican president from 1877 to 1881, during which time he supported the welfare of minority groups and reformed the civil service.

Damon Runyon, 122 (born 04 October 1884)
Died 1946. Writer - 'Guys and Dolls'.

Buster Keaton, 111 (born 04 October 1895)
Died 1966. American actor, director and screenwriter who began his career at the age of three as a human mop in the family comedy act and went on to make some masterful Hollywood comedies such as The Navigator and The General.

Charlton Heston, 82 (born 04 October 1924)
Actor - 'Ben Hur' 'Planet of the Apes' 'El Cid'.

Sir Terence Conran, 75 (born 04 October 1931)
designer and businessman

Basil D'Oliveira, 75 (born 04 October 1931)
cricketer

Jackie Collins, 69 (born 04 October 1937)
novelist

Nona Hendrix, 62 (born 04 October 1944)
Singer.

Patti Labelle, 62 (born 04 October 1944)
(Born Patricia Holt) Singer 'Lady Marmalade' - biggest UK hit 'On My Own'.

Nona Hendryx, 62 (born 04 October 1944)
singer

Susan Sarandon, 60 (born 04 October 1946)
Actress- 'Thelma and Louise' 'Bull Durham' 'Dead Man Walking'.

Armande Assante, 57 (born 04 October 1949)
Actor.

Anneka Rice, 48 (born 04 October 1958)
TV personality - 'Treasure Hunt' 'Challenge Anneka'.

Chris Lowe, 47 (born 04 October 1959)
Member of The Pet Shop Boys - biggest UK hit 'West End Girls'.

Tony Meo, 47 (born 04 October 1959)
snooker player

Jon Secada, 45 (born 04 October 1961)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Just Another Day'.

Lena Zavaroni, 43 (born 04 October 1963)
(Died 1999) Singer

Melua's deep sea gig sets record

The gig took place at the bottom of one of the rig's legs

Singer Katie Melua has entered the record books by playing the world's deepest underwater concert.

Melua and her band performed for workers 303 metres below sea level on the Statoil Troll A gas rig in the North Sea.

"This was definitely the most surreal gig I have ever done," Melua said.

The 22-year-old singer underwent extensive medical tests and survival training in Norway before flying by helicopter to the rig.

"It took nine minutes to go from the main part of the gas platform down to the bottom of the shaft in a lift," said Melua.

"Giving a concert to the workers there was something really extraordinary and an occasion that I will remember all my life."

Deep sea set-list

The songs Melua performed included Closest Thing To Crazy and Nine Million Bicycles.

Melua underwent survival training before the gig

Guinness World Records has confirmed the gig sets a new record.

The concert was held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of gas production on Troll A and was filmed for Norwegian TV channel NRK.

Melua is currently the UK's biggest-selling female artist.

Greene King to close Hardys & Hansons' brewery

As widely anticipated, Greene King has announced that Hardys & Hansons’ (H&H) Kimberley brewery is to close at the end of the year.

Following its acquisition of H&H in June the Suffolk brewer undertook a review of the business and concluded it would not be “economic” to keep the brewery open.

Greene King chief executive Rooney Anand said: “The review has given us a very detailed understanding of the company and has underlined the quality of the business we’ve acquired.

“We’re pleased to announce that cellar service and distribution will continue at Kimberley, playing a crucial role in Greene King’s development in the Midlands and north.”

Anand welcomed H&H’s pub operators and free trade sales teams into the business “and we look forward to working with them to build our company’s reputation in the area”.

However he noted that it “didn’t make economic sense to continue brewing at Kimberley and sadly this means the brewery will close at the beginning of the year”.

Brewing of H&H’s ales will transfer to Bury St Edmunds, as will its head office functions, he added.

“This decision in no way reflects on the dedication and commitment of the Hardys and Hansons employees, which has been underlined by their professionalism since the acquisition announcement,” he said.

Around 80 jobs are at risk, out of a total H&H workforce of 2,200.

“We have had to make some tough decisions but are as convinced as ever that Hardys and Hansons, Greene King, our licensees and our customers will really benefit from combining the two businesses,” he concluded.