Today's The Day - 31st December

31st December 2006
New Year's Eve.

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Silvester I, pope,
St Melania the Younger,
and St Columba of Sens.

History Test for December 31st

Today in 1983, the final edition of TV's `The Good Old Days' was broadcast. Which theatre was home to the programme? -The City Varieties Theatre, Leeds

Born today in 1720 and known as `The Young Pretender', what was Charles Edward Stuart's Scottish name? -Bonnie Prince Charlie

Today in 1969, what coin ceased to be legal tender at midnight? -The half crown

Born today in 1948, who had seventies UK pop hits with `Love's Unkind' and `Macarthur Park'? -Donna Summer

Name the religious reformer who issued the first English translation of the Bible and died today in 1384. -John Wycliffe

QUOTE “I'd not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the sea-shore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whalst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” - Isaac Newton, 1726.

Events today...

1687 The first Huguenots set sail from France for the Cape of Good Hope, where they would later create the South African m wine industry with the vines they took with them on the voyage.

1695 The window tax was imposed in Britain, which resulted in many being bricked up.

1719 Death of John Flamsteed, the astronomer for whom King Charles II built the Greenwich Observatory.

1857 Ottawa became the new capital of Canada on the orders of Queen Victoria.

1877 Death of Gustave Courbet, French painter.

1891 It was announced that the new year would see the opening of the US government's new depot for handling immigrant arrivals to New York. The year before, the government assumed sole responsibility for the screening of arrivals, a task formerly performed in the New York area by the state of New York as the government's local agent. The new depot on Ellis Island in the upper bay area, would be the nation's major immigration station. It was being trumpeted as a major improvement on the old reception facilities at the Battery on Manhattan Island and better able to cope with massive numbers of arrivals. The island was named after Samuel Ellis, who owned it in the 1770s.

1903 Five employees of the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago were arrested for manslaughter after the previous day's fire.

1922 The French government turned down a German offer of a non-aggression pact.

1923 The BBC started to use the Big Ben Chimes in its broadcasts.

1936 Death of Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish writer.

1942 Potatoes were rationed in Holland.

1948 Death of Malcolm Campbell, British racing driver.

1951 Death of Maxim Litvinov, Soviet leader.

1953 A team from Britain set off to search for the 'Abominable Snowman'.

1960 The farthing coin, which had been in use in Great Britain since the l3th century, ceased to be legal tender.

1961 The Beach Boys played their first gig.

1964 Donald Campbell set the world water speed record (276.33 mph).

1973 The miners strike caused a three day working week.

1977 American serial killer Ted Bundy escaped from custody.

1977 The Cambodian government announced that it was breaking off diplomatic relations with neighbouring Vietnam and also suspending all air services between them. The two Communist countries were at loggerheads over which of them was to blame for the recent outbreaks of intense fighting along their borders. Full-scale battles at regimental level were reported to have taken place in the region known as Parrot's Beak which juts into South Vietnam. Much of the problem seemed to have its roots in the movement of Cambodians across the frontier in the Mekong Delta soon after the fall of Saigon and before the North Vietnamese could establish full control in the area. The conflict was being exacerbated by ideological differences, with the Chinese-sponsored Cambodian regime laying claim to a more "revolutionary" outlook than that of Soviet-backed Vietnam.

1981 Former flight lieutenant Jerry Rawlings overthrew the government of President Hilla Limann and seized power again in Ghana. In a radio broadcast to the nation, Rawlings described Limann and his associates as "a pack of criminals who bled Ghana to the bone" and said that they had brought about the country's "total economic ruin". Rawlings gave no indication of how long his Provisional Military Council would retain power, but he did remind his fellow citizens of the fact that he voluntarily returned the government to civilian rule three months after he toppled the military government of Lieutenant-General Fred Akuffo in June 1979.

1984 A car crash resulted in Rick Allen a drummer with Def Leppard having an arm amputated.

1985 Death of Sam Spiegel, aged 84, Movie producer 'Bridge Over River Kwai'.

1985 American rock and country singer Rick Nelson was killed, along with his fiancee and four band members. when a chartered DC3 carrying them between concerts in Guntersville, Alabama and Dallas, Texas caaught fire and crashed.

1986 The oil company Esso announced it was disinvesting in South Africa.

1988 In Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, prime ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto signed the first agreement between India and Pakistan in 16 years.

1988 The award of an MBE to former darts' world champion Eric Bristow in the Queen's New Year Honours List did not hit the bull's eye. One MP said, "To give someone an MBE just because he is good at throwing darts is unbelievable". Bristow retorted that "the award is on behalf of the sport and the millions of working-class people who enjoy it".

1990 The giant Christmas tree in London's Trafalgar Square was attacked by a man with a chainsaw early in the morning. Police came upon Patrick Harward-Duffy, a 36-year-old Glaswegian, at 2.30 am as he was making his protest against the unfairness of the Norwegian legal system. Harward-Duffy had sliced one-third of the way through the trunk of the 70-ft (23 m) pine, a present from the people of Oslo who since 1947 have expressed their gratitude for British liberation from the Nazis by sending a tree each year.

1990 Titleholder Gary Kasparov of the USSR won the world chess championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.

1997 Death of Floyd Cramer, aged 64, Pianist.

1997 At midnight the Morse Code “S.O.S.” ceased to be the international distress call.

1999 Boris Yeltsin resigned as from his post of President of Russia.

2002 A record-breaking 125 million text messages were sent on New Year's Eve in the UK.

2003 Parcels sent from Italy's Bologna region to European Union institutions were being blocked after a spate of letter bombs.

2003 The Hogmanay concert in Edinburgh was cancelled as gales and heavy rain hit New Year parties across the UK.

2003 Actress Joan Plowright, who became a dame, headed the showbusiness personalities on the New Year Honours list.

2004 Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych resigned but refused to admit defeat in the presidential election.

2004 Comedian Eric Sykes, actress Anna Massey and rock star Roger Daltrey received New Year honours.

2004 One of the most famous American band leaders of the swing era, clarinettist Artie Shaw, died aged 94.

2004 Ellen MacArthur remained on record pace as she passed the halfway mark of her round-the-world attempt.

BIRTHDAYS (for 31 December 2006)

Charles Edward Stuart, 286 (born 31 December 1720)
Scottish royal known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or the Young Pretender whose attempt to regain the Scottish throne ended in failure.

Henri Matisse, 137 (born 31 December 1869)
French painter and sculptor who initiated the vibrantly coloured style known as Fauvism.

George Marshall, 126 (born 31 December 1880)
American general and statesman who, as secretary of state, devised the Marshall Plan for post-war economic recovery in Europe.

Sir Anthony Hopkins, 69 (born 31 December 1937)
British actor who won an Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs.

Sarah Miles, 65 (born 31 December 1941)
Actress.

Alex Furguson OBE, 65 (born 31 December 1941)
Football manager.

Andy Summers, 64 (born 31 December 1942)
Member of The Police.

Ben Kingsley (Krishna Bhanji), 63 (born 31 December 1943)
British actor best-known for his performance as Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's film of the same name.

Sarah Miles, 63 (born 31 December 1943)
Actress

John Denver, 63 (born 31 December 1943)
Died 1997. Singer.

Tim Matheson, 59 (born 31 December 1947)
Actor and cartoon voice 'Animal House'.

Donna Summer, 58 (born 31 December 1948)
Singer.

Tom Hamilton, 55 (born 31 December 1951)
Member of Aerosmith.

Val Kilner, 48 (born 31 December 1958)
Actor best-known as `Batman'

Steve Bruce, 46 (born 31 December 1960)
Soccer Player / Manager

Today's The Day - 30th December

30th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Sabinus of Spoleto,
St Anysia,
and St Anysius.

History Test for December 30th

Today in 1905, the operetta `The Merry Widow' was performed for the first time in Vienna. Who composed it? -Franz Lehar

Actor Jack Lord celebrates a birthday today. Which character did he play in the TV series `Hawaii 5-0'? -Steve McGarett

Named from the Russian for `debauched one', which infamous confidant of the Russian Royal Family was murdered today in 1916? -Rasputin

Irish chemist Robert Boyle died today in 1691. His Boyle's Law relates to what substance? -Gas

Tracy Ullman was born today in 1959. In which comedy series did she star alongside Lenny Henry? -`Three of a Kind'

Events today...

1460 At the Battle of Wakefield, in the Wars of the Roses, the Duke of York was defeated and killed by the Lancastrians.

1691 Death of Robert Boyle, Irish physicist and chemist.

1809 In Boston, U.S. the wearing of masks at Balls was prohibited.

1879 'The Pirates of Penzance' a play by Gilbert and Sullivan was premiered in Paignton Devon.

1880 The Transvaal was declared a republic by Paul Kruger, who became its first president.

1887 A petition to Queen Victoria with over one million names of women appealing for public houses to be closed on Sundays was handed to the home secretary.

1894 Death of Amelia Bloomer, US social reformer.

1919 The first female law student was admitted to the Lincoln's Inn legal society.

1922 Soviet Russia was renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

1924 The existence of other galactic systems was announced by Edwin Hubble.

1941 Dutch physicians were forced to join the Nazi party.

1947 King Michael of Romania abdicated in favour of a Communist Republic.

1965 Ferdinand Marcos was elected as President of the Philippines.

1967 Peter Tork a member of the Monkees pop group paid $160,000 to opt out of his contract with the band, this left him broke.

1968 Death of Trygve Lie, Norwegian politician and diplomat.

1970 Paul McCartney sued John, George and Ringo to dissolve the Beatles.

1979 Emerson, Lake and Palmer disbanded.

1979 Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert went to great lengths to secure the copyright of their operatic offering The Pirates of Penzance.

1979 Richard Rogers, one of this century's best-known composers of musicals died in New York at the age of 77.

1985 Arab terrorists threw grenades and opened fire with automatic weapons on queues at El Al check-in desks in Rome and Vienna airports, killing twelve and wounding over 100.

1988 President Regan and Vice President Bush were asked to testify at the Irangate hearings by Colonel Oliver North.

1988 In Moscow, Yuri Churbanov, son-in-law of former president Brezhnev, was sentenced to 12 years in jail for corruption.

1989 Negotiations between Washington and the Vatican restarted to bring an end to the refuge of the Panamanian dictator General Manuel Noriega in the Vatican embassy in Panama City.

1996 Death of Lew Ayres, aged 88, Actor.

1999 Former Beatle, George Harrison was attacked as he slept in his Oxfordshire home. He suffered serious knife wounds as his wife Olivia smashed a lamp over his attackers head.

2003 An Italian judge ruled that former Parmalat boss Calisto Tanzi was to stay in jail as investigators probed the food giant's accounts.

2003 Michael Jackson's chief spokesman resigned over "strategic differences" with others in his entourage.

2003 Former film actress Patricia Roc, one of Britain's top 1940s box office stars, died aged 88.

2004 Ukraine's Supreme Court rejected all of PM Yanukovych's complaints about the presidential election.

2004 Complaints by the Women's Institute prompted the BBC to make changes to hit comedy show Little Britain.

BIRTHDAYS (for 30 December 2006)

Rudyard Kipling, 141 (born 30 December 1865)
Died 1936. English novelist and poet, most of whose works were concerned with India, where he was born.

Sir Carol Reed, 100 (born 30 December 1906)
Died 1976. British film director best-known for Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol, The Third Man, and the Oscar-winning Oliver!.

Bert Parks, 92 (born 30 December 1914)
former Miss America Pageant emcee.

Jack Lord, 86 (born 30 December 1920)
Died 1998. Actor 'Hawaii Five-0'.

Bo Diddley, 78 (born 30 December 1928)
American rhythm and blues singer who was a major influence on pop groups such as the Rolling Stones in the 1960s.

Russ Tamblyn, 72 (born 30 December 1934)
Actor dancer - 'West Side Story' 'Tom Thumb'.

Del Shannon, 67 (born 30 December 1939)
Died 1990. Singer.

James Burrows, 66 (born 30 December 1940)
TV producer - 'Cheers'.

Michael Nesmith, 64 (born 30 December 1942)
Member of The Monkees.

Davy Jones, 60 (born 30 December 1946)
Member of The Monkees.

Jeff Lynne, 59 (born 30 December 1947)
Member of Electric Light Orchestra.

Suzy Boggus, 50 (born 30 December 1956)
Country singer.

Tracy Ullman, 47 (born 30 December 1959)
British comedienne who transplanted successfully to America, where she scored a hit with the Tracy Ulman Show.

Jay Kay, 37 (born 30 December 1969)
Member of Jamiroquai.

Today's The Day - 29th December

29th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Thomas of Canterbury,
St Ebrulf or Evroult,
St Trophimus of Arles,
and St Maroellus Akimetes.

History Test for December 29th

oday in 1845, Texas achieved statehood. What is the state's capital? -Austin

Born today in 1928, which comedy actor had a sixties hit with the song 'Hole in the Ground'? -Bernard Cribbins

Who reached the top of the UK pop charts today in 1990 with `Saviour's Day'? -Cliff Richard

Victorian Prime Minister William Gladstone was born today in 1809. What was his middle name? -Ewart

How many knights murdered Thomas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral today in 1170? -Four

QUOTE “In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the state.” - Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Soviet novelist, 1974.

Events today...

1170 Four of King Henry II's knights murdered the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas à Becket, in Canterbury Cathedral. The Archbishop had only recently returned from a six-year exile in France after incurring Henry's displeasure over the question of church vs crown rights in England. The tussle between the two had led to excommunication for the bishops Roger of York and Foliot of London and several royal servants hostile to Becket, and the fear that the Pope might slap an interdict on England. There was little doubt that Henry was the unwitting architect of the Archbishop's murder. It seemed that Henry's exclamation "Will no one rid me of this troublesome cleric?"- uttered in a moment of extreme duress - was interpreted by the four knights who carried out the execution as a call to action.

1689 Death of Thomas Sydenham, English physician.

1825 Death of Jacques Louis David, French painter.

1860 The world's first true ironclad warship, HMS Warrior, was launched at Blackwall on the river Thames. The 9,210-ton battleship was the first capital ship in the world to be built of iron throughout. The British Admiralty first showed interest in the idea of iron-built warships as a consequence of the calamitous showing of wooden-built vessels during the Crimean War. The decision to build such a vessel was not taken until 1859, however, when the launch of the French ironclad La Gloire threatened British naval supremacy. La Gloire (displacement 5600 tons) was built of oak but with a belt of iron extending from the upper deck to 6 ft (1.8 m) below the waterline.

1879 Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen seemed to have a knack for hitting the raw nerves of polite society. His play The Doll's House, which opened at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen on December 21, had become a major talking point. The play ended with the main character, Nora, a pampered wife, leaving the family home. She literally slamed the door on her successful lawyer/banker husband and, most controversially of all, her children. The play had been denounced by some as militant suffragist propaganda.

1885 Gottlieb Daimler patented the first bike in Germany.

1890 An attempt to disarm Miniconjou Sioux Indians on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, ended in bloodshed. Trouble flared unexpectedly when a force of about 500 US cavalrymen, commanded by Colonel James W. Forsyth, rode into the Indian camp at Wounded Knee Creek, where the authorities had placed Big Foot and about 350 of his people. According to the Seventh Cavalry, a medicine man incited the young braves to resist disarmament. Big Foot was among more than a hundred Sioux that died in the action; 44 were wounded. About half of the Sioux casualties were women and children, lending weight to claims that the encounter was a massacre, not a battle. The violence came as a further blow to General Nelson A. Miles, who had been hoping to settle the recent Indian unrest peacefully. News of the incident prompted thousands of Indians to barricade themselves in a large camp north of Pine Ridge Agency.

1891 "Transmission of signals electrically (radio)" was patented by Edison.

1894 Death of Christina Georgina Rossetti, English poet.

1895 The Jameson Raid from Mafeking into Transvaal, which attempted to overthrow Kruger's Boer govemment, Started.

1911 Sun Yat-sen became the first president of a republican China, following the Revolution.

1926 Death of Rainer Maria Rilke, German poet.

1952 Death of James Fletcher Henderson, US jazz pianist and composer.

1955 Barbra Striesand recorded her first ever song at the age of 13.

1967 "The Trouble With Tribbles" episode of Star Trek was first transmitted.

1967 Death of Paul Whiteman, aged 76, Bandleader.

1972 Ten of the 16 survivors from a Uruguayan aircraft that crashed in the Andes mountains ten weeks earlier admitted at a press conference in Montevideo that they ate the raw flesh of their dead companions in order to stay alive. The Old Christians rugby team - pupils or old boys of the exclusive Catholic Stella Maris College in Montevideo - had chartered the aircraft for a tour of Chile. Fifteen of the 45 passengers died as a consequence of the crashlanding; eight died later in an avalanche. Starvation and cold killed another six. The survivors were rescued after two of them found their way down to an upland pasture where a farmer was checking his stock.

1980 Death of Tim Hardin, aged 39, Folk singer.

1982 The Jamaican post office issued a Bob Marley stamp.

1986 Death of Harold MacMillan, aged 92, British Prime Minister 1957-1963.

1989 Following Hong Kong's decision to forcibly repatriate some Vietnamese refugees, thousands of Vietnamese `boat people' battled with riot police.

1993 Courtney Love sued doctors for revealing details of her medical treatment for drug abuse.

1997 Chickens were killed in Hong Kong in order to prevent the spreading of bird flu.

1997 An airliner travelling from Tokyo to Honalulu hit an airpocket shortly after take off and plummetted 1000ft. Hostess trolleys were thrown around and a 32-year-old woman was killed and many injured, as those not wearing their seat belts hit the ceiling.

2003 Ayatollah Khamenei vowed to rebuild the Iranian town of Bam after the quake which destroyed the historic city, killing at least 25,000.

2003 The US Government said foreign airlines would be required to place armed guards on certain flights to the US.

2003 Police investigating the killing of a police officer in Leeds intensified the search for a nightclub doorman.

2003 The British airline pilots' union demanded talks with ministers on plans to put undercover armed marshals on flights.

2003 Tributes were paid to comedian and television host Bob Monkhouse, who died of cancer aged 75.

2004 Romanian doctors said a 67-year-old woman, pregnant with twin girls, was set to be the oldest recorded mother.

2004 Law and Order and Dirty Dancing actor Jerry Orbach died of prostate cancer at the age of 69.

BIRTHDAYS (for 29 December 2006)

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, 285 (born 29 December 1721)
Marquise de Pompadour, French mistress if King Louis XV and as such the holder of political influence and notable patron of artists and scholars

Charles Goodyear, 206 (born 29 December 1800)
Died 1860. Inventor Goodyear Co and Blimp founder.

Andrew Johnson, 198 (born 29 December 1808)
Died 1875. 17th US President.

William Ewart Gladstone, 197 (born 29 December 1809)
Died 1898. English statesman and liberal prime minister who dominated British politics in the latter part of the 19th century

Pablo Casals, 130 (born 29 December 1876)
Died 1973. Spanish cellist of great stature who refused to live or play in Spain while Franco ruled the country

Bernard Cribbins, 78 (born 29 December 1928)
Actor.

Mary Tyler Moore, 69 (born 29 December 1937)
American actress who co-starred in The Dick Van Dyke Show and went on to have her own television series and appear in films such as Ordinary People

John Voight, 68 (born 29 December 1938)
American actor who first found fame in 'Midnight Cowboy' and went on to win an Oscar for 'Coming Home'

Harvey Smith, 68 (born 29 December 1938)
Show jumper.

Ray Thomas, 64 (born 29 December 1942)
Member of The Moody Blues.

Marianne Faithfull, 60 (born 29 December 1946)
Singer - Mick Jagger's ex-wife.

Ted Danson, 59 (born 29 December 1947)
Actor - 'Cheers' 'Three Men and a Baby'.

Cozy Powell, 59 (born 29 December 1947)
Died 1998. Drummer.

Robert Parissi, 56 (born 29 December 1950)
Lead of Wild Cherry 'Play That Funky Music'.

Yvonne Elliman, 55 (born 29 December 1951)
Singer 'If I Can't Have You'.

Martin Offiah, 40 (born 29 December 1966)
Rugby Ace

Jennifer Ehle, 37 (born 29 December 1969)
Actress

Today's The Day - 28th December

28th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of the Holy Innocents,
St Antony of Lerins,
and St Theodore the Sanctified.

History Test for December 28th

Today in 1950, which area was designated Britain's first national park? -The Peak District

Scottish outlaw Robert MacGregor died today in 1734. By what name was he better known? -Rob Roy

Oueen Mary II died today in 1694. She shared the throne with her husband. Who was he? -William III - William of Orange

Born today in 1934, who won an Oscar for her role in the film `The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'? -Dame Maggie Smith

Today in 1966, the BBC screened a version of `Alice in Wonderland'. Which distinguished actor played the Mock Turtle? -Sir John Gielgud

Events today...

1065 Westminster Abbey was consecrated under Edward the Confessor.

1694 Queen Mary II died of Smallpox.

1734 Death of Rob Roy (Robert Macgregor), the Scottish outlaw whose exploits were romanticized by Sir Walter Scott in the novel Rob Roy.

1836 Mexico's independence was recognised by Spain.

1869 Chewing gum was patented.

1879 Part of Tay Bridge in Scotland collapsed as a train passed over it killing 75 people.

1899 "Cyrano De Bergerac" was premiered in Paris.

1904 The first weather reports by wireless telegraphy were published in London.

1908 An a earthquake killed over 75,000 at Messina in Sicily.

1908 The most violent earthquake ever recorded in Europe destroyed the city of Messina in Sicily, killing more than half the 150,000 inhabltants and causing a giant tidal wave.

1923 Death of Alexander Gustave Eiffel, aged 91, The Eiffel tower architect.

1926 The highest recorded cricket innings score of 1107 runs was hit by Victoria, against New South Wales, in Melboume.

1931 A team of scientists lad by Professor Harold Urey of Columbia University and including F.G.Brickwedde and G.M.Murphy announced the discovery of a heavy form of hydrogen known as heavy water of deuterium.

1937 Death of Maurice Ravel, French composer of the Impressionist school whose works include The Bolero, the ballet Daphnis and Chloe, and two piano concertos, one for the left hand only.

1937 The Irish Free State became the Republic of Ireland when a new constitution established the country as a sovereign State under the name of Eire.

1944 The musical "On The Town" was premiered in New York.

1949 Ahmed Sukarno, the leader of the Indonesian Nationalist Party, arrived in Batavia (Djakarta) and took up residence in the magnificent palace of the Dutch governors general.

1949 The movie studio 20th Century Fox announced that it was going to start producing television programmes.

1950 The Peak District became Britain's first designated National Park.

1963 The governors of the BBC decided that this edition of the satirical TV series That Was the Week That Was, affectionately known as TW3, would be the last. The premature demise of the hugely popular Saturday-night show, which attracted some 12 million viewers, was due to political sensitivity.

1971 Death of Max Steiner, aged 83, Composer 'Gone With the Wind'.

1974 5200 people died in an earthquake in Pakistan.

1976 Death of Freddie King, aged 42, Singer.

1983 Death of Dennis Wilson, aged 39, Member of Beach Boys.

1984 Death of american film director Sam Peckinpah, aged 59, maker of films such as Ride the High Country and The Wild Bunch.

1989 Alexander Dubcek, secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in 1968 and instigator of liberal reforms which were crushed by a Soviet invasion earlier in the year, was elected chairman of the communist-dominated parliament after 20 years of political obscurity.

1989 An earthquake in New South Wales, Australia, killed 11 and injured more than 100 people.

1991 Death of Cassandra Harris, aged 39, Actress Pierce Brosnan's wife.

1994 Tammy Wynette was admitted to hospital.

2003 A huge bomb blast killed at least six people - including four police officers - near the airport in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

2003 Undercover armed air marshals were to be introduced to some UK flights for the first time early in the week.

2003 Actor Sir Alan Bates - a star of stage, screen and television - died aged 69 after a battle with liver cancer.

2003 Westlife singer Shane Filan celebrated his marriage to his childhood sweetheart in County Mayo.

2003 Man Utd have Darren Fletcher sent off but beat Middlesbrough 1-0 through a Danny Mills own goal.

2003 Paul Gallagher's goal earns victory for Blackburn against out-of-sorts Newcastle.

2004 International relief began to arrive in Asia following the quake that has killed more than 50,000 people, and British charities launched a huge aid effort for victims of the Asian tsunami.

2004 Author Susan Sontag, widely regarded as one of America's leading intellectuals, died aged 71.

2004 Actress and singer Liza Minnelli was treated in hospital after falling out of bed at her Manhattan home.

BIRTHDAYS (for 28 December 2006)

John Molson, 243 (born 28 December 1763)
patriarch of Molson brewery family.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 150 (born 28 December 1856)
Died 1924. American statesman and Democratic president 1913-21, whose Fourteen Points peace plan in 1918 contained a proposal for a League of Nations that was incorporated into the Versailles Treaty.

Earl Hines, 103 (born 28 December 1903)
Died 1983. Jazz pianist.

Earl `Fatha' Hines, 101 (born 28 December 1905)
American jazz pianist, composer and bandleader.

Lew Ayres, 98 (born 28 December 1908)
Died 1996. American actor whose films included All Quiet on the Western Front and The Carpetbaggers.

Bernard Youens, 92 (born 28 December 1914)
Died 1984. Actor - Stan Ogden in 'Coronation Street'.

Roebuck "Pops" Staples, 91 (born 28 December 1915)
Member of The Staple Singers.

Johnny Otis, 85 (born 28 December 1921)
Singer and bandleader.

Stan Lee, 84 (born 28 December 1922)
Creator of Spiderman, Incredible Hulk etc.

Martin Milner, 75 (born 28 December 1931)
Actor.

Roy Hattersley, 74 (born 28 December 1932)
Labour MP

Dame Maggie Smith, 72 (born 28 December 1934)
British actress who won Oscars for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite.

Nichelle Nichols, 70 (born 28 December 1936)
Actress - Uhura in Star Trek.

Charles Neville, 67 (born 28 December 1939)
Member of The Neville Bros.

Keith Floyd, 63 (born 28 December 1943)
TV cook

Chas Hodges, 63 (born 28 December 1943)
Singer of Chas and Dave fame.

Edgar Winter, 60 (born 28 December 1946)
Musician and singer 'Freeride'.

Alex Chilton, 56 (born 28 December 1950)
Singer who formed The BoxTops.

Richard Clayderman, 53 (born 28 December 1953)
French pianist.

Denzel Washington, 52 (born 28 December 1954)
Actor 'Philadelphia' 'Crimson Tide'.

Nigel Kennedy, 50 (born 28 December 1956)
Violinist

Today's The Day - 27th December

27th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St John the Evangelist,
St Fabiota,
Saints Theodore and Theophanes Graptoi,
and St Nicarete.

History Test for December 27th

Opened today in 1932, which is the largest cinema in the world? -Radio City Music Hall in New York

American comedian Jack Benny died today in 1974. What was his musical trademark? -A violin

Today in 1904, 'Peter Pan' was first performed in London. Name the family featured in the story. -The Darlings

Born today in 1948, which French actor played Christopher Columbus in the film `1492: Conquest of Paradise'? -Gerard Depardieu

Born today in 1879 which British character actor made his film debut in 'The Maltese Falcon'? -Sydney Greenstreet

QUOTE “I am going to build the kind of nation that President Roosevelt hoped for, President Truman worked for and President Kennedy died for.” - Lyndon B. Johnson, US president, 1964.

Events today...

1703 The Methuen Treaty was signed between Portugal and England, giving preference to the import of Portuguese wines into England.

1831 'The Beagle' set sail with Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage of discovery.

1831 The Royal Navy vessel HMS Beagle under the command of Captain Robert Fitzroy set sail from Devonport on a five-year scientific expedition round the world. The purpose of the trip was to survey the coasts of Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, Chile and Peru, to visit some Pacific islands and to set up a network of chronometrical stations. The official naturalist on board is recent BA graduate Charles Darwin, 22, whose task it was to study the rocks and life of the places visited and to collect specimens. The post was unpaid but provided a unique opportunity for studying a wide range of phenomena.

1834 Death of Charles Lamb, English essayist and critic.

1836 An avalanche killed 8 people in Lewis, Sussex.

1871 The Crystal Palace in south London was the venue for the world's first cat show.

1904 'Peter Pan' written by J.M Barrie opened in London at the Duke of York Theatre.

1904 The Abbey Theatre in Dublin, the first state-subsidized theatre in the world, had its opening night.

1927 Defeated in his Struggle for power against Stalin, Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.

1927 Impresario Florenz Ziegfeld had yet another hit on his hands in `Showboat’. The two-act musical, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and music by Jerome Kern, captivated the audience at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway. The showboat of the title was Cotton Blossom, run by husband and wife team Cap'n Andy and Parthy Ann. The story, based on Edna Ferber's novel of the same title, centred on the lives and loves of the people who inhabited this floating playhouse. The unique aspect of Showboat was its unashamed American authenticity - the setting was l9th-century America and the songs used American musical idioms.

1929 The All-India National Congress in Lahore threatened civil disobedience if independence is not granted.

1932 New York's "Radio City Hall" opened.

1941 Manila in the Philippines was bombed by the Japanese.

1945 The last obstacle to the signing of the historic Bretton Woods agreements was removed when the British signified their willingness to take part in the 28-nation ratification ceremony at the State Department in Washington the following day. The Bretton Woods agreements provided for the establishment of an international monetary fund and a world bank. The purpose of the IMF was to bring about stability in the relative values of national currencies, thereby avoiding a repeat of the disastrous depreciations which followed World War I, and to free international trade from exchange control. The world bank was intended to help rebuild the economies of countries ravaged by war and supply the needs of industrially undeveloped nations.

1950 Death of Max Beckmann, German painter.

1965 In the North Sea the BP oil rig capsized with the lost of thirteen lives.

1972 Death of Lester Pearson, Canadian statesman, Liberal prime minister 1963-8, chairman of Nato and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for the part he played in settling the Suez Crisis in 1956.

1978 Death of Houari Boumbdienne, Algerian politician.

1978 With the adoption of a new constitution, Spain became a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship.

1979 The Soviet Union executed Afghan president Hafizullah Amin in a bid to restore order in the country. Babrak Karmal, a former deputy prime minister in exile in Czechoslovakia, was installed in his place. Thousands of Soviet troops were now heading into the countryside to deal with the Muslim rebellion which the Kremlin feared would spread to the USSR if it was not put down quickly.

1980 Egypt and Syria resumed full diplomatic relations after a ten-year break.

1981 Death of Hoagy Carmichael, aged 82, Composer 'Stardust'.

1983 Mehmet Ali Agca begged the Pope's forgiveness when the Pope visited his would-be assassin in jail.

1984 In Poland, four policemen went on trial for the murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko.

1985 20 people died and 110 were injured in Rome and Vienna when terrorists struck.

1985 The marriage of Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran and Yasmin took place.

1989 Death of Hal Ashby, aged 59, Director 'Shampoo'.

1992 Singer Harry Connick Jnr was arrested when he was caught carrying a gun at JFK Airport.

1992 French novelist and photographer Herve Guibert died of AIDS at the age of 36.

2003 European Commission President Romano Prodi was unhurt after opening a letter bomb.

2003 Calisto Tanzi, former chairman of troubled Italian food firm Parmalat, was detained in Milan by finance police.

2003 The British team behind the Beagle 2 mission to Mars has failed to contact the landing craft for the fifth time.

2003 A total of £25,000 was offered for information to catch a man who shot dead one PC and injured another in Leeds.

2003 Actress Kate Winslet became a mother for the second time after giving birth to a son in New York.

2003 The Christmas ratings war was won by the BBC with the latest instalment of Only Fools and Horses.

2004 Ukraine's PM Yanukovych refused to admit defeat in the presidential poll, claiming election abuses.

2004 A tape attributed to Osama Bin Laden urged Iraqis to boycott general elections scheduled for 30 January.

2004 Presenter Keith Chegwin was recovering after emergency surgery to remove his appendix on Christmas Day.

BIRTHDAYS (for 27 December 2006)

Johannes Kepler, 435 (born 27 December 1571)
Died 1630. German astronomer who discovered that planetary orbits were elliptical in shape.

Louis Pasteur, 184 (born 27 December 1822)
French chemist and microbiologist whose many discoveries included the process of pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax and rabies.

Dr Louis Pasteur, 184 (born 27 December 1822)
Died 1895. French chemist.

Sydney Greenstreet, 127 (born 27 December 1879)
Died 1954. British actor who made his main claim to fame playing heavies in films such as The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca.

Marlene Dietrich, 105 (born 27 December 1901)
Died 1992. German actress and entertainer who made her mark in Hollywood with films such as The Blue Angel, Shanghai Express and Destry Rides Again.

Mike Pinder, 64 (born 27 December 1942)
Member of The Moody Blues.

Mick Jones, 62 (born 27 December 1944)
Member of Foreigner 'Waiting for a Girl Like You'.

Janet Street Porter, 60 (born 27 December 1946)
TV presenter and executive.

Gerard Depardieu, 58 (born 27 December 1948)
French actor who came to international fame in the film Green Card.

Karla Bonoff, 54 (born 27 December 1952)
Singer.

Today's The Day - 26th December

26th December 2006
Boxing Day

Religious events today...
Saint Stephen's (patron of horses) Day.
Feast day of St Stephen,
St Dionysius, pope,
St Archelaus of Kashkar,
St Vicentia Lopez,
St Zosimus, pope,
and St Tathai or Athaeus.

History Test for December 26th

Born today in 1716, whose first poem was called 'Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College'? -Thomas Gray

Which American President coined the phrase: `If you can't stand the heat, keep out of the kitchen' and died today in 1972? -Harry S. Truman

What was the name of the German battlecruiser sunk by the British battleship 'Duke of York' today in 1943? -The Scharnhorst

Who directed the classic films 'The Big Sleep' and 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' and died today in 1977? -Howard Hawks

Born today in 1891, which American author wrote the novels 'Tropic of Cancer' and 'Tropic of Capricorn'? -Henry Miller

Events today...

1797 Death of John Wilkes, British politician and journalist.

1865 The Coffee percolator was patented by James H. Nason, Franklin, MA.

1890 Death of Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist.

1898 Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium.

1900 Auguste Strindberg's play Dance of Death was premiered in Sweden.

1904 Following months of unrest and riots, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia decreed that the conditions of the people, and particularly the peasants, would be improved.

1907 The first session of the Indian National Congress was suspended after clashes between moderates and extremists.

1908 Texan boxer 'Galveston Jack' Johnson knocked out Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia, to become the first black boxer to win the world heavyweight title.

1909 The documentary artist and reporter Frederic Remington died near Ridgefield, Connerticut. He was 40. The son of a wealthy newspaper publisher, Remington decided upon the precarious career of an artist after a trip to the West, his spiritual homeland. By his late 20s Remington had built up an enviable reputation as an illustrator of the Western scene. His work appeared in books and magazines, often as accompaniments to his own text. Remington broadened his artistic ambition in 1895 when he discovered his talent for sculpture and produced pieces such as The Bronco Buster.

1911 More than 50 people in a municipal shelter in Berlin died of poisoning.

1922 Judy Garland made her debut in showbiz as "Baby Francis".

1928 Johnny Weissmuller retired from amateur swimming and went onto become "Tarzan" in movies.

1943 The German battlecruiser Scharnhorst was sunk in the North Sea, during the Battle of North Cape.

1956 An attempt to overthrow the Batista regime by Fidel Castro failed when most of of his supporters were killed.

1957 Death of Charles Pathe, aged 94, French pioneer of motion picture equipment.

1957 Thousands of teddy bears were donated to the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis by Elvis Presley.

1959 The first charity walk took place, along Icknield Way, in aid of the World Refugee Fund.

1963 The Beatles released "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in the U.S.

1964 Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, the "Moors Murderers" claimed their last victim.

1967 "Magical Mystery Tour" received its British television premiere.

1972 A search for Bianca Jagger's relatives in Nicaragua after an earthquake was carried out by Mick and Bianca.

1972 Death of Harry S Truman, aged 88, 33rd US President 1945-53.

1973 The film 'The Exorcist' was first premiered.

1974 Death of American comedian Jack Benny, aged 80, whose act was based around his parsimony and his violin-playing.

1977 Death of Howard Hawks, aged 81, Movie producer/director.

1986 Death of Elsa Lanchester ,aged 84, Actress.

1989 Death of Sir Lennox Berkeley, British composer whose works include Serenade for Strings and Four Poems of St Teresa.

1989 Nobel Prize-winning Irish dramatist Samuel Beckett died in Paris at the age of 83.

1990 Gary Kasparov defeated Anatoly Karpov and retained his title of chess champion.

1990 The exiled King of Romania was back in Switzerland after spending less than 12 hours in the homeland he left at the point of a gun in 1947. Ex-King Michael, 69, landed at Bucharest airport in a private plane the day before with his wife, Princess Anne of Bourbnn-Parma, and his daughter Sophia. Two hours later, en route to the Curtea de Afges monastery where family members were buried, Michael's car was stopped by police and escorted to Bucharest. After several hours of argument over the validity of their travel documents, the family were flown back to Geneva.

1991 The Soviet Union's parliament formally voted the country out of existence.

2003 At least 20,000 people were said to have died as a big earthquake flattened a city in south-east Iran.

2003 The latest attempt to contact the Mars lander Beagle 2 failed, but scientists said they had not given up hope.

2003 An unauthorised biography of Catherine Zeta Jones was shelved after letters from her lawyers.

2003 Man Utd return to the top of the Premiership by beating Everton 3-2 at Old Trafford.

2004 Many died across Asia in massive waves triggered by the largest earthquake in 40 years.

2004 Thousands of British tourists were stranded in south and east Asia after an earthquake sent massive waves flooding across the region.

BIRTHDAYS (for 26 December 2006)

Thomas Gray, 290 (born 26 December 1716)
English poet best-known for "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard".

Charles Babbage, 214 (born 26 December 1792)
Died 1871. English professor who invented the calculating machine.

Henry Miller, 115 (born 26 December 1891)
Died 1980. American novelist who wrote Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, both originally banned as pornography.

Mao Tse-tung, 113 (born 26 December 1893)
Died 1976. Chinese Communist statesman who, as chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Irene Handl, 105 (born 26 December 1901)
Died 1987. Comedic actress.

Cab Calloway, 99 (born 26 December 1907)
singer

Richard Widmark, 92 (born 26 December 1914)
American actor whose many films include The Alamo and Madigan.

Steve Allen, 85 (born 26 December 1921)
Comedian.

Denis Quilley, 79 (born 26 December 1927)
Died 2003. Actor.

Abdul "Duke" Fakir, 71 (born 26 December 1935)
Member of The Four Tops.

Phil Spector, 66 (born 26 December 1940)
American songwriter and record producer whose distinctive sound was to be heard on many records of the 1960s.

Jane Lapotaire, 62 (born 26 December 1944)
English actress

Paul Anthony Quinn, 55 (born 26 December 1951)
Member of Saxon.

Today's The Day - 25th December - Happy Christmas!

25th December 2006
Christmas Day.

Religious events today...
Feast day of The Martyrs of Nicomedia,
St Eu enia,
St Alburga,
and St Anastasia of Sirmium.

History Test for December 25th

On Christmas Day 1950 what was stolen from Westminster Abbey? -The Stone of Scone - or Coronation Stone - from under the Coronation Chair

In which year did the Queen present her first Christmas TV broadcast? (And you're allowed two years either way.) -1957

Charlie Chaplin died on Christmas Day 1977. What was the title of his 1940 film in which he satirised Adolf Hitler? -`The Great Dictator'

Born on Christmas Day 1642, who became the first scientist to be buried in Westminster Abbey? -Sir Isaac Newton

Who acceded to the Japanese throne on Christmas Day 1925? -Hirohito

Events today...

440AD The leaders of the Christian Church decided that the date of the birth of Jesus Christ should be fixed. Some people observed it in May, some in January and some combined it with the feast of Epiphany. The date mooted was December 25, the day that the Romans celebrated the winter solstice. The Celtic and Germanic tribes as well as the Norsemen also held this period dear. The Church authorities did not want their celebration to be tainted by an association with heathen customs, however, and were thought to be engaged in the task of creating rites that would underline the differences between their faith and any of an ungodly nature.

597AD England adopted the Julian calender. 1066 At Westminster Abbey William The Conqueror was crowned King of England.

800AD In Rome, Charlemagne, King of the Franks, was crowned Emperor of the West by Pope Leo III.

1066 William the Conqueror was crowned king of England at Westminster Abbey.

1085 King William I ordered a complete survey of England. Seven or eight groups of commissioners would gather detailed information of the accounts of the estates of the King and of those who hold land by direct services to him, his tenants-in-chief in each county of the realm. The subjects of William's "description of England" were already referring to the impending investigation as "Domesday". From each manor information was to be collected on the dimensions and the ploughing capacity of the land, the number of workers, and any extra amenities such as mills and fishponds. The King and his officers would then have an estimate of what every holder of land in the kingdom is worth.

1497 Florentine friar and charismatic preacher Giralomo Savonarola denounced the Pope for corruption and accused Leonardo da Vinci of sodomy.

1741 The centigrade (celcius) temperature scale was introduced by astronomer Anders Celcius.

1800 Britain's first Christmas tree was put up at Windsor by Queen Charlotte.

1896 John Philip Sousa composed "Stars and Stripes Forever".

1913 In New York, a couple were arrested for kissing in the street.

1914 The famous football match was played between English and German troops during World War One in "No Man's Land" during an unofficial truce on the Western Front.

1926 Hirohito acceded to the throne of Japan on the death of his father, Emperor Yoshihito.

1941 Hong Kong surrendered to the Japanese.

1946 Death of W C Fields (aged 67) Comedian, US actor and screenwriter.

1950 The 15-year-old Dalai Lama, the temporal and religious leader of Tibet, was thought to have fled the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, to enlist further help for his country's struggle to maintain its status as the only country in the world entirely under the control of priests. The crisis deepened since October when China first invaded Tibet. The Indian government tried putting pressure on the Chinese to reach agreement with Tibet, but to little effect. In November the Tibetan government took the unusual step of investing the Dalai Lama with full powers of office three years before he was due to receive them. It remained to be seen whether this further legitimization of his rule would deter the Chinese from "liberating Tibet by force".

1950 The Coronation Stone was stolen from its resting place beneath the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey. Scotland Yard believed that the thieves were Scottish nationalists. The 336 lb (152 kg) Stone of Scone, on which all Scottish kings were crowned, was brought to England as a trophy by King Edward I in 1296, a symbol of the English monarch's claim to Scottish rule. Many Scots would like to see the Stone returned permanently to Scotland.

1959 A momentous day in the life on Richard Starkey when he received his first drum kit. He of course went on to become known as Ringo Starr and the rest as they say is history.

1964 Paul McCartney and Jane Asher announced their engagement (...I wonder if Jane baked a nice cake?....).

1967 Jane Fonda's movie "Barbarella" was released.

1972 The Nicaraguan capital Managua was devastated by an earthquake which killed over 10,000 people.

1977 Sir Charles Chaplin, KBE, died at his home in Switzerland. He was 88. Chaplin's career in the cinema spanned 50 years but his reputation as a comic genius was to rest most securely on a core of films made between 1916 and 1928, which included the Oscar-winning The Circus. The star's love-hate relationship with Hollywood was resolved in 1973 when, after a 20-year exile in Europe, he was awarded a special Oscar for his lifetime contribution to film and commemorated with a statue at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. In 1975 he was made KBE in the New Year's Honours list.

1983 Death of Spanish Surrealist artist Joan Miro, whose painting was infiuenced by dreams and by poetry.

1987 Israeli forces cracked down on Arab rioters.

1989 Dissident playwright Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia.

1989 President Ceausescu and his wife were executed by the Romanian army.

1991 French actress Orane Demazis, known for her roles in Marcel Pagnol's Marseilles Trilogy, died aged 87.

1991 Unable to maintain control over a disintegrating Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignation as president.

1995 Death of Dean Martin (aged 78) Singer, actor, comedian

1997 Death of Denver Pyle (aged 77) Actor.

2003 A suicide bomber killed four Israelis, as five Palestinians, including three militants, died in a strike in Gaza.

2003 Two bomb blasts killed 14 people in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, narrowly missing President Musharraf.

2003 Scientists failed to pick up a signal from the Beagle 2 spacecraft telling them it had landed safely on Mars. Anxious scientists hoped the huge Jodrell Bank telescope would tell them if the craft had landed safely on Mars.

2003 The Queen spoke of her "respect and admiration" for the armed forces in her traditional Christmas speech.

2004 Pope John Paul II used his annual Christmas message to voice his concerns about continuing global conflicts.

2004 The Queen spoke of tolerance and understanding in her traditional Christmas speech.

2004 Bookmakers lost out after snow fell on Christmas Day in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and northern England.

2004 Ellen MacArthur endured torrid seas as she continued her round-the-world record bid.

2004 BBC topped the Christmas Day ratings, with EastEnders and the Vicar of Dibley leading the way.

BIRTHDAYS (for 25 December 2006)

Sir Isaac Newton, 364 (born 25 December 1642)
Died 1727. English mathematician and scientist.

Charles Pathe, 143 (born 25 December 1863)
(Died 1957) French film pioneer.

Maurlce Utrillo, 123 (born 25 December 1883)
French painter, iilegitimate son of the artist Suzanne Valadon, known for his Parisian street scenes.

Humphrey Bogart, 117 (born 25 December 1889)
Died 1957. American actor whose legendary films include Casablanca, To Have and Have Not and The Maltese Falcon.

Cab Calloway, 99 (born 25 December 1907)
(Died 1994) Bandleader.

Sir Lew Grade, 99 (born 25 December 1907)
(Died 1998) Producer.

Quentin Crisp, 98 (born 25 December 1908)
Writer and gay icon.

Anwar Sadat, 88 (born 25 December 1918)
(Died 1981) Egyptian head of state.

Noele Gordon, 83 (born 25 December 1923)
(Died 1985) Actress 'Crossroads'.

Rod Serling, 82 (born 25 December 1924)
(Died 1975) of Twilight Zone fame.

Stuart Hall, 77 (born 25 December 1929)
TV presenter - 'It's a Knockout'.

O'Kelly Isley, 69 (born 25 December 1937)
(Died 1986) Member of The Isley Brothers.

Bob James, 67 (born 25 December 1939)
Jazz musician producer - wrote the 'Taxi' theme.

Kenny Everett, 62 (born 25 December 1944)
(Died 1995) DJ and TV comedian.

Noel Redding, 61 (born 25 December 1945)
Member of Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Jimmy Buffett, 60 (born 25 December 1946)
Singer 'Margaritaville'.

Barbara Mandrell, 58 (born 25 December 1948)
Country singer.

Sissy Spacek, 57 (born 25 December 1949)
American actress who appeared in Coalminer's Daughter, Badlands and The Shining among other films.

Annie Lennox, 52 (born 25 December 1954)
Singer - solo and Eurythmics - biggest solo UK hit 'No More I Love You's'.

Steve Wariner, 52 (born 25 December 1954)
Country singer.

Robin Campbell, 52 (born 25 December 1954)
Member of UB40.

Shane McGowan, 49 (born 25 December 1957)
Member of The Pogues.

Anita Dells, 35 (born 25 December 1971)
Member of 2 Unlimited.

Today's The Day - 24th December

24th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Gregory of Spoleto,
Saints Tharsilla and Emiliana,
St Adela,
St Irmina,
St Delphinus,
and St Sharbel Makhlouf.

History Test for December 24th

Today in 1888, Vincent Van Gogh cut off part of his ear. Was it his left ear or his right ear? -His left ear

Born today in 1922 which film actress was once married to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra? -Ava Gardner

Today in 1871, the opera `Aida' was first performed in Cairo. Who composed it? -Giuseppe Verdi

Born today in 1167, which future King of England was the brother of Richard the Lionheart? -King John

Born today in 1818, which English physicist has a unit of energy named after him? -James Joule

QUOTE “I am very sorry to know and hear how unreverently that most precious jewel, the Word of God, is disputed, rhymed, sung and jangled in every ale-house and tavern, contrary to the true meaning and doctrine of the same.” - King Henry VIII comments on the translation of the Bible into English, 1545.

QUOTE “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.” - Jane Austen, British novelist, in a letter, 1798.

Events today...

1508 London houses received piped water for the first time.

1515 Thomas Wolsey was appointed English Lord Chancellor.

1524 Death of Vasco da Gama Portuguese explorer and navigator.

1814 In Ghent representatives of Britain and America signed a peace treaty ending the two-and-a-half-year conflict between the two countries. The nub of the agreement was that the two sides were to stop fighting. This stalemate treaty was appropriate to the position on the ground in North America, where neither side had made gains. The issue of maritime rights, the main cause of the war, had been a dead letter since the ending of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, hence British willingness to settle the dispute with America.

1818 Fran Joseph Gruber composed that famous Christmas ditty "Silent Night".

1828 William Burke who, with his partner William Hare, dug up the dead and murdered to sell the corpses for dissection, went on trial in Edinburgh.

1851 Fire destroyed part of the Capitol building in Washington and the whole of the Library of Congress.

1863 Death of W. M. Thackeray, English novelist.

1871 After a year of delay the Italian Theatre in Cairo staged the first performance of Giuseppe Verdi's long-awaited opera Aida. The first-night audience was unequivocal in its enthusiasm for this most personal of grand operas. The work was commissioned by the Khedive of Egypt, Ismail Pasha, last year. Verdi had turned down several requests for a new opera from the Khedive before his interest was aroused by a 23-page synopsis of Aida devised by Mariette Bey, the eminent Egyptologist. With the Khedive's generous terms (150,000 francs/£15,000/$27,600 for the Egyptian rights) safely committed to a contract, Verdi set to work with a will, finishing the opera in under five months. The delay in the production was caused by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, which prevented the shipping of the French-made costumes and scenery to Egypt. The composer was not in Cairo to witness the triumph of his new opera. He would be present in Milan, however, for the opera's European debut seven weeks alter.

1914 The first air raid on Britain was made when a German airplane dropped a bomb on the grounds of a rectory in Dover.

1920 Opera singer Enrico Caruso gave his final public performance.

1922 The London Coliseum opened.

1924 Death of Leon Bakst, Russian painter and Stage designer.

1924 Eight people died in Britain's worst air crash as an Imperial Airways plane dived into a housing estate at Croydon immediately after take-off.

1935 Death of Alban Berg, Austrian composer.

1942 The first powered flight of a V-1 buzz bomb. Tested in Germany.

1943 President Roosevelt appointed General Dwight D. Eisenhower commander-in-chief of the invasion of Europe.

1951 King Idris I formally declared the independence of Libya in a broadcast from the balcony of the Mahara palace in Benghazi. It was just over two years since the United Nations set a time limit for Libya's independence at January 1, 1952. For the preceding six years, since the defeat of Axis forces in the area, the country had been administered by the French and the British. The new constitution of the federal democratic kingdom provided for two legislative chambers: one elected on a proportional representation basis, and the other nominated. Elections to the new parliament would be held early the following year. King Idris, 61, was chosen as ruler of the new state by a Libyan National Assembly which met in 1950.

1961 Death of Frank Richards, English writer.

1965 Elvis Presley proposed to Priscilla Beaulieu.

1965 A meteorite landed on Leicestershire; it weighed about 100lbs.

1968 The Apollo 8 astronauts read passages from the Book of Genesis (no not Phil, Mike and Tony!!).

1970 The premiere of Disney's "Aristocats".

1972 Death of Charles Atlas (aged 78) Body builder

1974 John Stonehouse, the former British Labour minister who was thought to have drowned off Miami Beach, Florida, in November, turned up in Melbourne, Australia. Police, suspicious of the Englishman who made regular trips to the post office to collect mail, apprehended Stonehouse in the belief that he was the Earl of Lucan, wanted in Britain for the murder of his children's nanny. Stonehouse disappeared after telling associates he was going for a swim. Shortly afterwards it emerged in Britain that overdrafts had been raised in his name, funds of companies he headed had been plundered and life insurance policies had been taken out. In his fight against extradition, Stonehouse was expected to claim to be a victim of blackmail and persecution in Britain. Under Australian law British MPs are entitled to enter the country freely, so the fact that Stonehouse used a forged passport would not count against him.

1974 The Beatles' partnership is legally dissolved.

1975 Death of Bernard Herrmann (aged 64) Film composer

1979 Afghanistan was invaded by Soviet troops as the Kabul govemment fell.

1980 Death of German commander Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, who was briefly Fuhrer in 1945.

1984 Death of Peter Lawford (aged 61) Actor

1989 Deposed Panamian leader Manuel Noriega gave himself up to the papal nuncio in Panama City, having dodged American troops determined to capture him.

1990 A cyclone swept the Queensland coast of Australia with wind speeds of 150 mph (241 kph).

1994 Death of Rossano Brazzi (aged 78) Actor.

2003 Air France canceled six flights between Paris and Los Angeles after US warns of 'credible threat'.

2003 A growing list of countries are banning US beef imports over the first suspected American case of "mad cow" disease.

2003 The British-built spacecraft Beagle 2 was entering the final and most risky phase of its journey to Mars.

2003 Spanish authorities said they had foiled a Basque separatist plot to blow up a train at a Madrid rail station.

2003 Italian food firm Parmalat went into administration as investigators prepared fraud charges against former executives.

2003 Rock star Bruce Springsteen was named 2003's highest-earning touring performer in the US.

2003 Tottenham agreed a deal to sign Sheffield United midfielder Michael Brown on 1st January.

2003 Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson called for the introduction of a mid-season break in England.

2004 Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven was voted the best rock song of all time by radio listeners.

BIRTHDAYS (for 24 December 2006)

King John, 839 (born 24 December 1167)
Died 1216. English monarch who was forced by his rebellious barons to sign the Magna Carta at Runnymede.

Ignatius Loyola, 515 (born 24 December 1491)
Spanish founder of the Jesuit order.

Christopher "Kit" Carson, 197 (born 24 December 1809)
Died 1868. American frontiersman and Indian agent at Taos.

Michael Curtiz, 108 (born 24 December 1898)
(Died 1962) Film director - 'Casablanca'.

Howard Hughes, 101 (born 24 December 1905)
(Died 1976) Movie producer and aviator.

Frank Waxman, 100 (born 24 December 1906)
(Died 1967) German composer.

Ava Gardner, 84 (born 24 December 1922)
Died 1990. American actress who appeared in The Barefoot Contessa, The Sun Also Rises and Night of the Iguana among other films.

Lee Dorsey, 82 (born 24 December 1924)
(Died 1986) Singer - 'Working in a Coal Mine'.

Norman Rossington, 78 (born 24 December 1928)
Actor.

Jill Bennett, 75 (born 24 December 1931)
(Died 1990) Actress - 'For Your Eyes Only'.

Sir Colin Cowdrey, 74 (born 24 December 1932)
Cricketer.

Woody Herman, 62 (born 24 December 1944)
(Died 1989) Bandleader.

Lemmy, 61 (born 24 December 1945)
Lead of Motorhead.

Mike Curb, 60 (born 24 December 1946)
Singer (of Congregation fame) and president of MGM records.

Jan Akkerman, 60 (born 24 December 1946)
Dutch guitarist and member of Focus - biggest UK hit 'Sylvia'.

Ian Burden, 49 (born 24 December 1957)
Member of Human League.

Carol Vorderman, 46 (born 24 December 1960)
TV presenter.

Mary Ramsey, 43 (born 24 December 1963)
Member of 10,000 Maniacs.

Today's The Day - 23rd December

23rd December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of The Ten Martyrs of Crete,
St Dagobert II of Austria,
St John of Kanti,
Saints Victoria and Anatolia,
St Fritheben,
St Serwlus,
and St Thorlac.

History Test for December 23rd

American prophet Joseph Smith was born today in 1805. He founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What are its members called? -Mormons

Today in 1972, Little Jimmy Osmond reached Number One in the UK pop charts. What was the hit song? -`Long-Haired Lover from Liverpool'

Who patented his famous `safety cab' today in 1834? -Joseph Hansom

First performed today in 1893, which opera by Humperdinck is based on a story about two children and a gingerbread house? -`Hansel and Gretel'

Which song took Band Aid II to the top of the UK pop charts today in 1989? -`Do They Know It's Christmas'

Events today...

1631 Death of Michael Drayton, English poet.

1834 Death of Thomas Robert Malthus, English economist.

1834 English architect Joseph Hansom patented his 'safety cab' better known as the Hansom cab.

1863 Death of William Makepeace Thackeray (aged 52) Novelist 'Vanity Fair'

1872 Death of George Catlin, US painter and explorer.

1886 William Makepeace Thackeray, author of the best-selling novel Vanity Fair died in England at the age of 52. He was born in Calcutta, but his family sent him home to be educated at Charterhouse, the Trinity College Cambridge.

1888 Following a quarrel with Paul Gauguin, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh cut off part of his own earlobe in a fit of madness.

1912 The release of the first Keystones Kops movies "Hoffmeyer's Legacy".

1922 In Britain, the world's first regular radio broadcasts, intended purely for entertainment were transmitted by the BBC.

1930 Actress Bette Davis arrived in Hollywood to start her movie career.

1938 Whilst shooting the movie "The Wizard of Oz" a costume worn by actress Margaret Hamilton caught fire.

1939 Death of Anthony Herman Gerard Fokker (aged 49) Dutch aircraft designer

1944 Death of Charles Dana Gibson, US artist and illustrator.

1948 General Tojo and six other Japanese military leaders were executed, having been found guilty of crimes against humanity.

1953 Soviet secret police chief Lavcenti Beria and six of his associates were shot for treason following a secret trial.

1964 At the start of a tour Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys suffered a nervous breakdown.

1965 A 70-mph speed limit was introduced in Britain.

1966 The final episode of the pop show "Ready Steady Go" on ITV.

1968 Astronauts Borman, Lovell and Anders became the first to orbit the Moon and see the Dark side.

1972 Survivors from an air crash were rescued after 70 days. They had survived by resorting to cannibalism.

1973 Charles Atlas, the original strongman, died at the age of 79.

1973 The Shah of Iran doubled oil prices.

1981 Geoffrey Boycott became the leading run-scorer in Test matches with 8033 runs.

1982 Death of Jack Webb (aged 62) Actor 'Dragnet'

1986 Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager made the first non-stop flight around the world without refuelling, piloting the US plane Voyager.

1986 Soviet dissident and physicist Dr Andrei Sakharov and his wife Yelena Bonner returned to Moscow on this day, after being released from the closed city of Gorky on December the 19th.

1987 Death of Henry Cotton, British golfer.

1989 The Romanian army announced the capture of President Ceausescu and his wife Elena.

1990 Elections in Yugoslavia ended, leaving four of six republics with non-Communist govemments. The republic of Slovenia voted in favour of becoming an independent state.

1991 Viennese-born composer Ernst Krenek, best-known for the jazz opera Jonny Spielt Auf , died in California, aged 91.

1996 Death of Ronnie Scott (aged 69) Jazz performer

1997 Death of Toshiro Mifune (aged 77) Japanese actor.

2003 Italian food company Parmalat went into administration after it became embroiled in an Enron-style crisis.

2003 Released British hostage Mark Henderson was preparing to fly home in time for Christmas with his family.

2003 One person was killed and about 51 injured as a coach was involved in a head-on collision in Surrey.

2003 Singer Michael Jackson was ordered to supply "documented confirmation" that he planned to visit the UK.

2003 Rock star Ozzy Osbourne was moved out of intensive care two weeks after a serious quad bike accident.

2003 The quality of programmes on ITV1, Channel 4 and Five came under fire from the ITC in its final report.

2003 Lleyton Hewitt and Kim Clijsters announced that they were to get married.

2003 Fulham insisted striker Louis Saha was going nowhere, despite interest from Man Utd and a number of other clubs.

2004 The dollar fell to a new record low against the euro as data fueled new concerns about the US economy.

BIRTHDAYS (for 23 December 2006)

Sir Richard Arkwright, 274 (born 23 December 1732)
English inventor and industrialist who invented mechanized spinning processes such as the spinning frame powered by water.

Alexander 1st, 229 (born 23 December 1777)
Russian tsar who defeated Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812.

Joseph Smith, 201 (born 23 December 1805)
American founder of the Mormons.

Samuel Smiles, 194 (born 23 December 1812)
English writer who wrote biographies of Josiah Wedgewood and George Stephenson, but is best known for self-improvement books such as Self-Help and Thrift.

Maurice Denham, 97 (born 23 December 1909)
British stage and screen actor whose many films include Sunday, Bloody Sunday, Our Man in Havana, and Julia.

Helmut Schmidt, 84 (born 23 December 1922)
German statesman and former chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Ruth Roman, 82 (born 23 December 1924)
Actress 'Long Hot Summer' 'Knots Landing'.

Harry Guardino, 81 (born 23 December 1925)
(Died 1995) Actor.

Chet Baker, 77 (born 23 December 1929)
(Died 1988) Jazz trumpeter.

Esther Phillips, 71 (born 23 December 1935)
(Died 1984) Singer.

Johnny Kidd, 67 (born 23 December 1939)
(Died 1966) Singer of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates.

Eugene Records, 66 (born 23 December 1940)
Member of The Chi-Lites 'Have you Seen Her'.

Tim Hardin, 65 (born 23 December 1941)
(Died 1980) Singer songwriter.

Harry Shearer, 63 (born 23 December 1943)
Actor comedian - voice of Simpsons' Mr Burns.

Bill Rogers, 59 (born 23 December 1947)
marathon runner.

Dave Murray, 48 (born 23 December 1958)
Member of Iron Maiden.

William Sinnott, 46 (born 23 December 1960)
(Died 1991) Member of The Shamen.

Carol Smillie, 45 (born 23 December 1961)
TV presenter.

Eddie Vedder, 40 (born 23 December 1966)
Member of Pearl Jam.

Jamie Murphy, 31 (born 23 December 1975)
Member of Space.

Today's The Day - 22nd December

22nd December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Flavian of Tuscany,
St Zeno,
St Chaeremon and Others,
and St Ischyrion.

History Test for December 22nd

Which radio show, first broadcast today in 1967, features speakers who mustn't hesitate, deviate or repeat themselves? -`Just A Minute'

Born Mary Ann Evans, who wrote the novels `The Mill on the Floss' and 'Silas Marner' and died today in 1880? -George Eliot

Born today in 1907 who won an Oscar for her role as Mrs Moore in the film `A Passage today India'? -Dame Peggy Ashcroft

Today in 1808, Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth symphonies were premiered in Leipzig. In which city was Beethoven born? -Bonn

Which members of the Bee Gees were twin brothers, born today in 1949? -Maurice and Robin Gibb

Events today...

1715 James Edward Stuart, son of James II, the deposed Roman Catholic King of England, landed at Peterhead in north-east Scotland to lead a Jacobite rebellion.

1810 The British frigate Minotaur sank and 480 died.

1870 Jules Janssen flew in a balloon to study a solar eclipse.

1880 Death of George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), English novelist who wrote Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda.

1894 Alfred Dreyfus, the French officer who was falsely convicted for selling military secrets, was sent to Devil's Island.

1895 Willhelm Rontgen photographed his wife's hand to reveal the bones underneath the skin using his newly discovered X-rays. This discovery was made quite by accident while Rontgen was experimenting with electrical discharges in an evacuated glass tube. In the experiment electrons were accelerated to high velocities, then struck the walls of the tube, giving rise to penetrating radiation. It seemed this invisible electromagnetic radiation was of much shorter wavelengths than visible light. X-rays could pass through objects or substances with a low density but are stopped by heavier or denser materials, so skin and muscles allow rays to pass through, while bone reflects them. The medical applications for this discovery had already sparked much interest.

1910 In Lancashire, 350 miners lost their lives in Britain's second worst mining disaster.

1910 In Leipzig, British officers Lieutenant Trench and Captain Brandon were found guilty of spying.

1917 The Bolshevik government began peace talks with Germany at Brest-Litovsk while the Allies made accusations of Russian betrayal.

1919 British prime minister David Lloyd George announced that Ireland would have self-government with two parliaments.

1921 The US Congress set up a $20 million (£10.8 million) fund to aid the 20 million Soviet citizens facing starvation.

1940 American novelist Nathaniel West, author of The Day of the Locust and Miss Lonely-Hearts, died with his wife in a car crash.

1943 Beatrix Potter, the creator of Peter Rabbit and many other well loved children's book characters, died. Born an only child of wealthy parents, Miss Potter was never sent to school and as a result led a lonely life as a child. To amuse herself, she taught herself to draw and paint small natural objects. Her first book, the Tale of Peter Rabbit, was written for the son of her former governess in 1893, in the form of letters. Beatrix Potter illustrated the book herself and went on to write many more books. She lived at Sawrey in the Lake District from 1905 and in 1913 married William Heelis, a solicitor in the area. The rest of her life was chiefly devoted to her farms and to the newly established National Trust which aimed to preserve Britain's heritage.

1944 Death of Harry Langdon (aged 60) Silent movie comedian

1961 US soldier James Davis became the first American to die in Vietnam since America's involvement in the conflict. US involvement was initially limited to military advisers - some 200 Air Force members were joined by 700 Army training personnel in providing military advice, including bomber training. However, President Kennedy announced that the US would increase the number of advisers by as many as 16,000 over the following two years, giving rise to fears that American participation in the war would become entrenched and that direct military activity would soon follow.

1965 The speed limit of 70 m.p.h. was introduced in Britain.

1965 Death of Richard Dimbleby, British broadcaster.

1975 Palestinian terrorists seized more than 70 hostages at the Austrian Opec summit held in Vienna. Led by Venezuelan killer Carlos, the terrorists took a number of oil ministers and demanded a plane to fly them to an undisclosed destination. It seemed that the authorities were willing to comply with the terrorists' wishes.

1978 Kenny Jones joined The Who and replaced Keith Moon who had died.

1979 Death of Darryl F Zanuck (aged 77) Movie Mogul

1981 General Galtieri was sworn in as Argentine President.

1983 Egyptian leader Mubarak and PLO leader Yasser Arafat met for talks.

1984 "Like a Virgin" by Madonna went to number one in the U.S. and stayed in that position for 6 weeks. This was her first big international hit.

1984 Dom Mintoff resigned as prime minister of Malta.

1988 South Africa, Angola and Cuba signed treaties for the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola.

1989 Death of Samuel Beckett, Irish author and dramatist.

1989 The civil war in Romania ended, with it the 24-year-long reign of terror by one of Europe's worst dictators, Nicolae Ceausescu. The dictator and his wife fled from the roof of their burning palace by helicopter to an unknown destination. Their flight followed the fighting which exploded after Laszlo Tokes, a priest, was threatened with arrest in Timisoara. Around 5000 were killed in Timisoara alone, but accurate numbers of fatalities on both sides was difficult to determine. Securitate forces had been fighting the Romanian army, who supported the protesters, leaving hundreds dead. Tanks were deployed to try to quell the uprising but the protesting forces held the TV and radio stations, and set up a Committee for National Salvation. The previous night Ceausescu spoke to the people from the balcony of his palace demanding the return of peace, but was met with jeers from the crowd.

1990 Lech Walesa was sworn in a Poland's President.

1991 Eleven of the 12 Soviet republics (excluding Georgia) agreed, in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, on the creation of a Commonwealth of Independent States.

1995 Borge Ousland reached the South Pole. He had achieved the record for skiing to both Poles alone and without aid.

1999 After losing his libel case against Mohamed Al Fayed, former MP Neil Hamilton faced legal fees of £1million.

1999 Scottish Widows agreed to a £7billion takeover by Lloyds TSB.

1999 A Korean Cargo plane caught fire and crashed in woods after takeoff from San Francisco, killing all four crew.

2003 Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher was taken to hospital after a confrontation with angry Palestinians in Jerusalem.

2003 A Briton and four Israeli hostages were released by their Colombian rebel captors after three months.

2003 Fifteen people went on trial in Serbia, accused of direct involvement in the murder of PM Zoran Djindjic.

2003 The final instalment of The Lord of the Rings made more than $125m (£71m) in five days in the US.

2003 Substitute Antoine Sibierski's late equaliser earned Man City a 1-1 draw against Leeds.

2003 Juventus midfielder Pavel Nedved was named European Footballer of the Year.

2003 Crystal Palace named former Oldham boss Iain Dowie as their new manager.

2004 A former landscape gardener who cut rare maps from atlases at the National Library of Wales was jailed.

2004 Little Britain and Ant and Dec were among the winners at the 15th British Comedy Awards.

2004 TV stars Jill Halfpenny and her dance partner won a live festive edition of Strictly Come Dancing.

2004 The sixth Potter book topped bookseller Amazon's chart less than 24 hours after its release date was announced.

BIRTHDAYS (for 22 December 2006)

Giacomo Puccini, 148 (born 22 December 1858)
Died 1924. Italian composer of operas such as La Boheme, Tosca and Manon Lescaut.

Lord J Arthur Rank, 118 (born 22 December 1888)
(Died 1972) Film producer.

Dame Peggy Ashcroft, 99 (born 22 December 1907)
Died 1991. English stage and screen actress superlative both in classical roles and in films such as David Lean's A Passage to India.

Patricia Hayes, 95 (born 22 December 1911)
(Died 1997) Actress.

Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson, 94 (born 22 December 1912)
wife of Lyndon Baines.

Hector Elizondo, 70 (born 22 December 1936)
Actor - Chicago Hope's Dr Philip Walters.

Noel Edmunds, 58 (born 22 December 1948)
Ubiquetous TV presnter

Maurice Gibb, 57 (born 22 December 1949)
(Died 2003) A Bee Gee.

Robin Gibb, 57 (born 22 December 1949)
Another Bee Gee (twin of Maurice).

Alan Williams, 56 (born 22 December 1950)
Member of The Rubettes - biggest UK hit 'Sugar Baby Love'.

Chris Mills, 49 (born 22 December 1957)
Founder of Quiztime UK

Ralph Fiennes, 44 (born 22 December 1962)
Actor 'English Patient' 'Quiz Show'.

Richey Edwards, 39 (born 22 December 1967)
Member of Manic Street Preachers (the one who disappeared in Wales in '95!).

Vanessa Paradis, 34 (born 22 December 1972)
Singer/model - biggest UK hit 'Joe le Taxi'.

Today's The Day - 21st December

21st December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Thomas the Apostle,
Saints Themistocles and Dioscorus,
St John Vincent,
St Anastasius II of Ancioch,
St Peter Canisius,
and St Glycerius.

History Test for December 21st

Who played TV's Dr.Finlay in the sixties and seventies and died today in 1986? -Bill Simpson

Today in 1980 Fred Housego won the 'Mastermind' title. What was his occupation? -Taxi-driver

Born today in 1804, Benjamin Disraeli accepted a peerage in 1876. What title did he take? -Earl of Beaconsfield

What was first published in the New York World today in 1913? -A crossword

Author F Scott Fitzgerald died today in 1940. Name his best known novel, made into a film starring Robert Redford.-`The Great Gatsby'

Events today...

1375 Death of Giovanni Boccaccio, Italain writer and poet who wrote Decameron, a collection of a hundred stories told by people escaping the plague in Florence in 1348.

1620 The Pilgrim Fathers, aboard the Mayflower, landed at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts.

1824 Death of James Parkinson, British neurologist.

1846 Anaesthetic was used for the first time in a British hospital by Scottish physician Robert Liston. (He amputated a leg at University College hospital in London.)

1879 Ibsen's A Doll's House was first performed in Copenhagen, with a revised happy ending.

1909 American doctor and explorer Frederick Cook was publicly disgraced when his claim to be the first to reach the North Pole was rejected by experts in favour of Commander Robert Peary.

1910 An explosion kills 344 mine workers in Hulton.

1914 The first full length silent movie was released. It was called "Tillie's Punctured Romance" starring Charlie Chaplin, Marie Dressler and Mabel Normand.

1925 Eisenstein's film Battleship Potemkin was first shown in Moscow.

1930 The former British Labour government minister, Oswald Mosley, published a set of policy proposals, which he was convinced would provide an answer to the country’s economic ills.

1932 5 year old Shirley Temple was signed to a studio contract.

1937 Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was shown in Los Arsgeles, the first full-length animated talking picture.

1940 Death of F. Scott Fitzgerald, aged 44, American author who chronicled the Jazz Age in books such as Tender Is the Night and The Great Gatsby.

1945 Death of General Patton (aged 60) Warfare expert

1946 An earthquake struck Japan and 1,086 were killed.

1958 Charles de Gaulle became President of France.

1961 The Beatles record "Sweet Georgia Brown" and "Reddy Teddy".

1963 Death of Jack Hobbs, English cricketer.

1964 Britain banned the death penalty.

1968 David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash premiered in California.

1969 Diana Ross made her final television as one of The Supremes on the "Ed Sullivan Show".

1983 Fifteen French soldiers died in Beirut when a lorry carrying bombs was driven into their post.

1988 En route from Heathrow to New York, a Pan American jumbo jet blew up and crashed in the Scottish border town of Lockerbie (killing all 259 passengers on board and at least 11 people on the ground, making this) the worst air disaster Britain has suffered.

1988 Soviet cosmonauts Musa Manarov and Vladimir Titov returned to Earth after a record 365 days in space.

1989 American troops invaded Panama and ousted dictator Manuel Noriega, installing a new government led by Guillermo Endara.

1990 In a German television interview, Saddam Hussein declared that he would not withdraw from Kuwait by the UN deadline.

1991 Actress Jane Fonda married media tycoon Ted Turner at a ceremony held at Turner’s Capp’s Florida ranch.

1992 Death of Albert King (aged 69) Blues singer

1995 Jack Charlton quit as manager of the Ireland Football Team.

1999 Former MP Neil Hamilton lost his libel case against Mohamed Al Fayed.

2003 Libya's decision to abandon its WMD programmes prompted calls from Arab states for Israel to follow suit.

2003 John O'Shea and Ruud van Nistelrooy scored as Man Utd beat Spurs 2-1.

2004 An inquiry found that David Blunkett did speed up his ex-lover's nanny's visa application - leading the Tories to attack "grubby" Labour.

2004 More than £20m was stolen in a raid at a bank's headquarters in Belfast.

2004 The sixth Harry Potter book was complete and ready to be published on 16 July the following year.

2004 Velimir Zajec was confirmed as the new manager of Portsmouth.

2004 England completed their eighth straight Test win in the series opener against South Africa.

2004 Darren Bent's 89th-minute strike put Ipswich top of the Championship.

BIRTHDAYS (for 21 December 2006)

Benjamin Disraeli, 202 (born 21 December 1804)
(Died 1881) Former British P.M.

Joseph Stalin, 127 (born 21 December 1879)
(Died 1953) Russian Head of State.

Pat Hughes, 104 (born 21 December 1902)
(Died 1997) Tennis player.

Anthony Powell, 101 (born 21 December 1905)
British novelist best-known for the novel sequence `The Music of Time'.

Heinrich Böll, 89 (born 21 December 1917)
German Noble Prize-winning novelist whose books include The Train Was on Time and The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum.

Paul Winchell, 84 (born 21 December 1922)
Actor - the voice of Dick Dastardly Tigger!.

Phil Donahue, 71 (born 21 December 1935)
US talk show host.

Peter Tinniswood, 70 (born 21 December 1936)
author

Jane Fonda, 69 (born 21 December 1937)
American actress whose many fin films include Coming Home, The China Syndrome and On Golden Pond.

Greville Starkey, 67 (born 21 December 1939)
jockey

Frank Zappa, 66 (born 21 December 1940)
Died 1993. American rock musician and singer.

Albert Lee, 63 (born 21 December 1943)
Guitarist.

Michael Tilson Thomas, 62 (born 21 December 1944)
conductor

Doug Walters, 61 (born 21 December 1945)
cricketer

Carl Wilson, 60 (born 21 December 1946)
(Died 1998) Member of the Beach Boys.

Samuel L Jackson, 58 (born 21 December 1948)
Actor.

Steve Perryman, 55 (born 21 December 1951)
footballer/coach

Betty Wright, 53 (born 21 December 1953)
soul singer

Chris Evert-Lloyd, 52 (born 21 December 1954)
Tennis player.

Katherine Rogers, 46 (born 21 December 1960)
Actress - Firewoman Josie Ingham in 'London's Burning'.

Martin Bayfield, 40 (born 21 December 1966)
Rugby Star

Keifer Sutherland, 40 (born 21 December 1966)
Actor 'Young Guns' 'Lost Boys'.

Jamie Theakston, 36 (born 21 December 1970)
Live and Kicking presenter

Delious Kennedy, 36 (born 21 December 1970)
Member of All 4 One.

Jamie Theakston, 36 (born 21 December 1970)
TV presenter - 'Live and Kicking'.

Today's The Day - 20th December

20th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Dominic of Silos,
St Ammon and his Companions,
St Ursicinus,
and St Philogonius.

History Test for December 20th

Born today in 1952, Jenny Agutter played Bobby in the film `The Railway Children'. Who played her mother? -Dinah Sheridan

Today in 1986, which group reached Number One in the UK pop charts with `Caravan of Love'? -The Housemartins

The novel `Of Mice and Men' was written by which American author, who died today in 1968? -John Steinbeck

Born today in 1901, which American physicist invented a high-voltage electrostatic generator? -Robert van de Graaff

Who resigned as Soviet Foreign Minister today in 1990? -Edvard Shevardnadze

QUOTE “A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse to rest on inference.” - Thomas Jefferson, US statesman, in a letter, 1787.

Events today...

1192 Richard the Lionheart was captured in Vienna.

1560 The first General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was held.

1803 The United States and France concluded the biggest land deal in history - some 831,321 square miles were bought from France for a mere £8.2 million, doubling the size of the United States in the stroke of a pen. The Louisiana Purchase, as it was called, was offered for sale by French foreign Minister Talleyrand in a surprise move.

1828 The Cherokees ceded their lands in Arkansas to the USA and agreed to migrate west of the Mississippi.

1860 South Carolina seceded from the American Union, and joined the Confederacy.

1892 The pneumatic tyre was patented.

1915 The ANZACS, Australian and New Zealand forces with British troops were evacuated from Gallipoli, after their expedition against the Turks went seriously wrong.

1920 Bob Hope became a U.S. citizen. He was born in Great Britain.

1924 Adolf Hitler was paroled after serving eight months of a prison sentence imposed for high treason.

1928 Harry Ramsden started his fish and chip restaurant in a hut near Bradford, which soon became the most famous in the world

1933 The smash hit film Flying Down to Reo looked as though it would make stars of its leading man and lady, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. A former vaudeville song and dance man who teamed up with his sister Adele on stage, Astaire didn't look to have the stuff stars are made of - the verdict of his Hollywood screen test was "can't act, slightly bald, can dance a bit". But Astaire managed to get a part opposite Joan Crawford in Dancing Ladies, then was paired with new-comer Ginger Rogers for Rio with undeniably fantastic results.

1937 Death of Erich Ludendorff, German general.

1954 Death of James Hilton, English novelist.

1957 Elvis Presley, at the height of his stardom, received his draft papers.

1963 21 guards from the Auschwitz. went on trial.

1963 The Berlin Wall opened for the first time to West Berliners.

1967 The group Jethro Tull was formed by Ian Anderson and Glenn Cornick.

1968 Death of American novelist John Steinbeck, aged 66, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature for books such as The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden.

1971 Death of Roy Disney (aged 78) Walt's brother and co-founder of Disney empire

1971 The movie "A Clockwork Orange" was released. It was directed by Stanley Kubrick.

1973 Death of Bobby Darin (aged 37) Singer

1981 Poland's ambassador to the US is granted political asylum in Washington.

1982 Death of Arthur Rubinstein (aged 95) Polish classical pianist

1982 Two Townsend Thoresen ferries collided off Harwich with the loss of six lives.

1983 Death of Bill Brandt, British photographer.

1983 Yasser Arafat, leader of the split and beleaguered Palestinian Liberation Organization, retreated from Lebanon. Surrounded by the Syrian army and rebel Palestinian guerillas, Arafat and 4000 of his loyal followers left their last Lebanese stronghold in Tripoli. This evacuation came at the end of three weeks' fighting in the camps, leaving 700 dead. The UN Security Council arranged the safe passage out of the camps for Arafat and his men, in an attempt to bring the fighting to an end.

1988 Harrods in London was fire bombed by animal rights activists.

1989 At the end of a year noted for the resurgence of nationalist feeling throughout the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian Communist Party voted to break away from the Soviet Communist Party.

1989 General Noriega, Panama's former dictator, was overthrown by a US invasion force invited by the new civilian government.

1989 Troops surrender to demonstrators in the Romanian city of Timisoara after 4000 people are killed.

1990 Drugs trafficker, Kathryn Smith (aged 19), was sentenced to 25 years in Thailand.

1990 Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze, one of Mikhail Gorbachev's closest allies, resigned, citing incipient dictatorship of the Soviet Union as his reason.

1990 The Football Association banned referees Graham Pooley and Mangel Singh over misinterpretation of the professional foul after sending off players for handball in league and reserve team matches respectively.

1990 The UN passed a vote of censure against Israel for the killing of 21 Arab rioters by Israeli troops on Temple Mount in October 1989.

1991 It was announced that American and Egyptian archaeologists had discovered a fleet of 500-year-old ships buried 8 miles (13 km) from the Nile.

1991 President Boris Yeltsin announced that Russia wanted to join Nato.

1991 Yugoslav midfielder Dejan Savicevic was sold for a then world record £11.5million to AC Milan from Atletico Madrid. Under the deal, Savicevic would receive about £7m over four years

1994 Gordon Taylor, of the Football Association, said that Nottingham Forest captain Stuart Pearce was to apologise for allegedly racist remarks made to Manchester United's Paul Ince.

1996 Middlesbrough cancelled their Premiership game with Blackburn as manager Bryan Robson claimed he had 23 players ill or injured, but the club were later punished at an inquiry and had three points deducted.

1996 The Ulster Unionists - vital to the Conservatives' Commons survival - announced a link-up with Sir James Goldsmith's anti-EU Referendum Party.

2003 At least 90 were feared dead in landslides triggered by heavy rains in remote parts of the southern Philippines.

2003 Sudan's Government and rebel leaders agreed to share oil resources, paving the way for a deal to end the civil war.

2003 At least 12 people were killed in Belgium when a German coach hit a motorway barrier near a French border crossing.

2003 Libya's pledge to give up its weapons of mass destruction was hailed as "courageous" by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

2003 A Virgin Atlantic pilot was charged with attempting to operate an aircraft while under the influence of alcohol.

2003 Glaswegian Michelle McManus won the final of Pop Idol, beating rival Mark Rhodes.

2003 Substitute Henrik Pedersen grabbed a deserved late equaliser for Bolton in a 1-1 draw with Arsenal. But Hernan Crespo's winner against Fulham puts Chelsea level on points with Arsenal.

2004 A play that led to violent protests among the Sikh community was dropped by a Birmingham theatre.

2004 Exeter University's ruling council voted to close its chemistry and music departments.

2004 Coronation Street bosses gave actor Jimmi Harkishin time off to seek help after revelations about his private life.

2004 Actor Jimmy Nail lost his bid for an increase in £30,000 libel damages at the Court of Appeal.

2004 Barcelona's Ronaldinho was named FIFA World Player of the Year.

BIRTHDAYS (for 20 December 2006)

George Galvin (Dan Leno), 146 (born 20 December 1860)
(Died 1904) English music hall comedian.

Harvey Samuel Firestone, 138 (born 20 December 1868)
US industrialist.

Sir Robert Menzies, 112 (born 20 December 1894)
Australian statesman, prime minister as leader of the United Australia Party and then the Liberal Party.

Irene Dunne, 105 (born 20 December 1901)
(Died 1990) Actress.

George Roy Hill, 84 (born 20 December 1922)
Film director - 'Great Waldo Pepper' 'Butch Cassidy' 'Sting'.

James Leasor, 83 (born 20 December 1923)
English author

Errol John, 82 (born 20 December 1924)
Trinidadian dramatist and actor who wrote Moon on a Rainbow Shawl.

Lord Howe of Aberavon, 80 (born 20 December 1926)
former Cabinet Minister Sir Geoffrey Howe

Uri Geller, 60 (born 20 December 1946)
Israeli psychic/illusionist

Patti Smith, 60 (born 20 December 1946)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Because the Night'.

Leslie Judd, 60 (born 20 December 1946)
Former Blue Peter presenter.

Malcolm Cooper, 59 (born 20 December 1947)
Olympic gold-medal marksman

Jenny Agutter, 54 (born 20 December 1952)
British actress whose films include `I Start Counting’, `The Railway Children’ and `Walkabout’.

Jimmy Nicholl, 50 (born 20 December 1956)
football manager

Bo Derek, 49 (born 20 December 1957)
actress

Anita Baker, 49 (born 20 December 1957)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Sweet Love'.

Anita Ward, 49 (born 20 December 1957)
Disco singer - biggest UK hit 'Ring My Bell'.

Billy Bragg, 49 (born 20 December 1957)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'She's Leaving Home'.

Simon Hughes, 47 (born 20 December 1959)
cricketer/journalist

Ian Sharrock, 47 (born 20 December 1959)
Actor - Jackie Merrick in 'Emmerdale'.

Chris Robinson, 40 (born 20 December 1966)
Member of Black Crowes.

Oh! Yes It Is... Quiztime's Pantomime Quiz!!!

1. Which word, associated with Christmas comes from a Greek word meaning 'we can act anything'?
Pantomime
2. What is odd about the principal boy and the dame in a pantomime?
They're both played by a member of the opposite sex
3. In the Pantomime ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, Jack receives beans in exchange for what?
His Mother’s Cow - mother called Dame Trott
4. Which Pantomime features the character Maid Marion?
Babes in the Wood
5. Its name will ring a bell with members of the legal profession; in 1716 which London theatre put on England's first pantomime ?
Lincoln's Inn (Theatre)
6. In the pantomime Aladdin what was the name of Aladdin’s brother?
Wishy Washy
7. Dressed as which pantomime villain did Leslie Grantham, allegedly, indulge in sex play on his webcam in 2004?
Captain Hook - Amanda, the 23-year-old blonde with whom Leslie Grantham played online sex games was known as The Halo Polisher!
8. In traditional pantomime who is the sweetheart of Harlequin?
Columbine
9. In which Christmas pantomime does buttons appear?
Cinderella
10. Which pantomime character marries Alice Fitzwarren?
Dick Whittington
11. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Sinbad The Sailor and Aladdin all derive from which collection of Middle East tales?
The Arabian Nights
12. In the original pantomimes, what were breeches roles?
Male roles played by women
13. What is the name of the father of Cinderella and The Ugly Sisters?
Baron Hardup
14. Which wooden bat, originally used as a prop by the character Harlequin, came to give its name for a type of comedy used in pantomime?
Slap Stick
15. Which famous clown pioneered the use of pantomime dames during the 19th century?
Joseph Grimaldi
16. Charles Perrault wrote whose book of Fairy Tales which included Puss In Boots, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Red Riding Hood?
Mother Goose's
17. Fe Fi Fo Fum I smell the blood of an Englishman is a classic line from which pantomime?
Jack & the Beanstalk
18. In which Pantomime does Idle Jack appear?
Dick Whittington
19. Which two pantomimes did Cliff Richard record soundtracks of in the 60s?
Aladdin and Cinderella
20. The last lines of a pantomime have two traditions associated with them - name either?
They should be in rhyming couplets and they should never be spoken in rehearsal

21. Which traditional pantomime features a character called Dandini?
Cinderella
22. What is the name of the cow in the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk?
Old Buttercup
23. What name is given to the leading male role in a pantomime, usually played by a woman?
Principal Boy
24. Which pantomime contains the goose that lays the golden egg?
Jack & the Beanstalk
25. Medieval English Christmas pantomimes did not include which character - St. Nicholas, The Bold Slasher, Father Christmas or The Turkish Knight?
St. Nicholas - In Medieval England, Nicholas was just another saint - he had not yet metamorphosed into Santa Claus and had nothing to do with Christmas
26. In pantomime, what is Aladdins surname?
Twankey (his mother was widow Twankey)
27. In Pantomime, who is Princess Marcella?
Sleeping Beauty
28. Which Pantomime character slaps his thigh every time he speaks his name?
Dick Whittington
29. What does Cinderella's Fairy Godmother turn into a coach?
A Pumpkin
30. Who eat the Gingerbread House?
Hansel and Gretel
31. In pantomime who was the son of mustafa a poor tailor of China?
Aladdin
32. What told Dick Whittington to 'turn again'?
The Bells of London
33. Who took the Babes into the Wood?
Their Father
34. What is the occupation of the Seven Dwarfs who befriend Snow White?
Miners
35. In which pantomime would you meet a ticking crocodile?
Peter Pan
36. Which pantomime character shares their name with a brand of children’s confectionary?
Buttons
37. In which pantomime would you find King Rat?
Dick Whittington
38. Does the Fairy Godmother come on stage right or stage left?
Stage right
39. Which is the most popular Pantomime?
Cinderella
40. In which year was the first pantomime produced in Britain?
1717
- In which year did Frank Bruno retire after losing to Mike Tyson leaving him plenty of time for Panto?
1996

First published in 1697 by Charles Perrault, though can be traced back to 9th century China. Disney included a dress-making mouse called Gus. The 'pantoufles' are probably mis-translated, but to get married you still have to put your foot in it.
Cinderella
First written has a pantomime by Charles Dibdin in 1803. Charles Dickens is reputed to have said "I should have known perfect bliss" if he had been able to marry the heroine. In different versions Dickens' bride-to-be has been eaten, saved, rescued and escaped - sometimes even her elderly relative gets away too.
Little Red Riding Hood
James was born May 9, 1860 in Kirriemuir, Scotland. When James was only six years old, his older brother David (their mother's favourite son) died. James spent the rest of his childhood trying to replace his brother for his mourning mother. This attempt to replace a forever-young David would influence the rest of James's adult life and his writing. Before it was a play, this story was a small story in a 1902 book called The Little White Bird. In 1906, the section that originated this tale was published separately as a book called "Peter Pan
Although the most famous version of the tale today is Disney's classic animated film, the tale has existed in many versions for many centuries - the Grimms collected the tale from two sisters but it had also appeared with little variation from Ireland to Asia Minor to Central Africa. Disney actually resurrected some of the more gruesome aspects of the tale which had been edited out in previous versions intended for children, especially the queen's demand the heart be delivered to her as proof of the child's death. Some would say the Disney version is a miner classic!
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
The first literary version of the tale appeared in 1734 as a story about a young ne'er-do-well horticulturalist with lofty aspirations called Jack Spriggins. Hi smother was less than pleased with his bovine bartering, however.
Jack and the Beanstalk

Sun StarOffice 7

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The suite also includes a simple HTML editor and drawing program. And there's a database component within most applications, which lets you (for example) connect to a data source, then build queries to populate a spreadsheet. Plenty of features, then, but strong integration makes the program particularly easy to use. Click File > New in the spreadsheet, say, and you can create a text or HTML document, graphic or presentation, without having to open another application.

Working with individual documents is very straightforward. If you're used to Office, then you'll feel at home right away, as the menu structures are quite similar. Applications like the StarOffice Spreadsheet provide all the functions and formulae you need, so you'll be quickly producing useful documents with just a few minutes of exploration.

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DOWNLOAD LINK

You’ll need to get your serial code from ww w.avanquest.co.uk/vnu/staroffice/register

Christmas Quizzes

Looking for Christmas Quiz Questions?
Check out my December 2005 Archive for Hundreds of Free Questions!
Merry Christmas from Quiztime!

Today's The Day - 19th December

19th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Timothy,
St Gregory of Auxene,
St Anastasius of Antioch,
and St Nemesius of Alexandria.

History Test for December 19th

Today in 1955, who recorded `Blue Suede Shoes' - his own compostition? -Carl Perkins

Born today in 1922, which Irish celebrity, once a boxing cham- pion, received a Papal knighthood for charitable works? -Eamonn Andrews

Born today in 1902, which distinguished Thespian and motorbike fanatic described acting as "the ability to keep an audience from coughing"? -Sir Ralph Richardson

Which larger than life character reached Number One in the UK pop charts today in 1993? -Mr. Blobby

Gordon Jackson was born today in 1923. He starred as Hudson in TV's `Upstairs Downstairs', but what was the character's first name? -Angus

Events today...

1154 Henry II became King of England.

1562 The Battle of Dreux was fought between the Huguenots and the Catholics, beginning the French Wars of Religion.

1741 Vitus Bering, the Danish explorer in the service of the Russian Tsar, died of scurvy after being shipwrecked along the Commander Islands off the Alaskan coast. An excellent navigator and explorer, he was credited with having discovered Alaska and the strait between it and Russia. In his first journey of exploration he discovered the strait while exploring a route around Siberia to China. On a second expedition he managed to map much of the Siberian coast. His third and fateful trip this year, using two ships, reached and explored the south-west coast of Alaska and some of the Aleutian Islands before the two ships were separated. The crews of both ships were wracked with scurvy, and after Bering's ship was wrecked he died of the disease.

1842 Hawaii's independence was recognised by the USA.

1848 Emily Bronte, English author of Wuthering Heights, dies of tuberculosis at the age of 30.

1851 Death of Joseph Turner, English painter.

1851 Illustrious English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner, renowned for his luminous and atmospheric landscapes in the Romantic tradition, died at the age of 76.

1871 Corrugated paper was patented by Albert Jones in the U.S.

1900 In France, the National Assembly passed a bill granting an amnesty to all those involved in the Dreyfus Affair.

1905 The first-ever motorized ambulance service for road accident victims was set up in London.

1927 In China, 600 communists were executed by the Nationalists.

1932 The British Broadcasting Corporation inaugurated its Empire shortwave broadcasting service to the farflung corners of the globe via its new Daventry transmitter. Now news from home could reach every corner of the British Empire. This new service was the brainchild of director general John Reith who also developed radio broadcasting throughout the British Isles.

1950 General Eisenhower was named NATO commander.

1953 Death of Robert Andrews Millikan, US physicist.

1955 'Blue Suede Shoes' was recorded by Carl Perkins in Memphis, Tennessee.

1957 Elvis received his draft papers for the Army.

1957 An air service between London and Moscow was inaugurated.

1960 Frank Sinatra made his first recordings for Reprise Records.

1965 President De Gaulle was re-elected.

1980 Death of Alexei Nikolaievich Kosygin, Soviet politician.

1984 Britain and China signed an agreement in Beijing, in which Britain agreed to transfer full sovereignty of Hong Kong to China in 1997.

1984 Ted Hughes was appointed Poet Laureate.

1985 Senator Edward Kennedy announced that he would not run in the 1988 presidential campaign.

1987 Gary Kasparov, the reigning world chess champion from the USSR, retained his crown in Seville against former champion and fellow countryman Anatoly Karpov. Although the series was tied at 12 games each, Kasparov as challenger won the title under international rules. He first took the title from Anatoly Karpov in 1985, becoming the youngest world chess champion ever. Karpov had held the title from 1975 to 1985.

1988 Violence erupted during the presidential elections in Sri Lanka.

1989 Death of Stella Gibbons, English author.

1991 Boris Yeltzin took control of the Kremlin.

1991 Bob Hawke was deposed as Australia's prime minister by his parliamentary colleagues and replaced by Paul Keating.

1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the United Soviet Socialist Republics, a country which ceased to exist on December 12. Although he survived the hardline coup in the summer of 1990, his position became weaker as independence for all the republics looked certain and leaders within the republics took more responsibility upon themselves. His former ally and rival Boris Yeltsin had effectively backed him into a corner, making resignation the only possibility. Both perestroika and glasnost would have been impossible without his bravery and his vision.

1991 The Australian Labour Party deposed prime minister Bob Hawke after eight years in office and replaced him with his treasurer, Paul Keating.

1996 Death of Marcello Mastroianni (aged 72) Italian actor

1999 Death of Desmond LLewelyn, the actor who starred as Q in 17 James Bond films. Killed in a car crash aged 85.

1999 Death of Robert Dougall, TV newsreader/broadcaster.

2000 Richard Branson was sad, disappointed and baffled after losing out to Camelot with his bid to run the National Lottery.

2000 Singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl died after being hit by a speedboat in Mexico. She was 41.

2002 The number of armed officers on the streets in London was to rise to help tackle the growing problem of gun crime.

2002 Saints Chairman Keith Barwell offered to buy every Saints fan a drink ahead of Northampton's Cup game at Orrell.

2004 More than 60 Iraqis died as car bombs hit Najaf and Karbala, just six weeks before elections were due.

2004 A Birmingham theatre condemned a violent protest against a play which angered the Sikh community.

2004 Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie met heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio at the premiere of The Aviator.

2004 Italian opera singer Renata Tebaldi, who was a great rival to Maria Callas, died in San Marino aged 82.

2004 Former Southampton manager Gordon Strachan turned down the chance to become Portsmouth's new boss.

BIRTHDAYS (for 19 December 2006)

William Edward Parry, 216 (born 19 December 1790)
English Arctic explorer

Albert Abraham Michelson, 154 (born 19 December 1852)
US physicist

Sir Ralph Richardson, 104 (born 19 December 1902)
Died 1983. British stage and screen actor who excelled equally in Shakespearean and other classic roles and in modern dramas.

Leonid Brezhnev, 100 (born 19 December 1906)
Died 1982. Soviet statesman and president of the Soviet Union 1977-1982.

Jean Genet, 96 (born 19 December 1910)
French novelist and dramatist whose autobiographical A Thief's Journal recounts his life in prison and among the criminals and prostitutes of various European cities.

Edith Piaf, 91 (born 19 December 1915)
Died 1963. French chanteuse whose life of lovers, drugs and alcohol was reflected in her haunting and powerful voice.

Eamonn Andrews CBE, 84 (born 19 December 1922)
(Died 1987) TV presenter - 'This is Your Life'.

Gordon Jackson, 83 (born 19 December 1923)
(Died 1990) British actor who appeared in many films, notably Whisky Galore and Tunes of Glory, but is best-known for the TV series Upstairs, Downstairs.

Robert B Sherman, 81 (born 19 December 1925)
Composer - wrote with his brother Richard the songs for Mary Poppins, Jungle Book and others.

James Booth, 76 (born 19 December 1930)
Actor.

Barbara Steele, 68 (born 19 December 1938)
Actress of horror film fame.

Maurice White, 65 (born 19 December 1941)
Leader of Earth Wind and Fire.

Mike Pinder, 64 (born 19 December 1942)
Member of Moody Blues.

Syd Little, 64 (born 19 December 1942)
Comedian.

Robert Urich, 60 (born 19 December 1946)
Actor - 'Spenser:For Hire'.

Janie Fricke, 59 (born 19 December 1947)
Country singer.

Christopher "Limahl" Hamill, 48 (born 19 December 1958)
Singer of Kajagoogoo - biggest UK hit 'Too Shy'.

Jennifer Beals, 43 (born 19 December 1963)
Actress - 'Flashdance'.

Kristy Swanson, 37 (born 19 December 1969)
Actress - Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Karen Pickering MBE, 35 (born 19 December 1971)
British swimmer.

Today's The Day - 18th December

18th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of Saints Rufus and Zosimus,
St Flannan,
St 18 Winebald,
St Gatian,
and St Samthan.

History Test for December 18th

Born today in 1907, who wrote the play `The Lady's Not For Burning'? -Christopher Fry

Musician Paul Tortelier died today in 1990. What instrument was he famous for playing? -The cello

Clowns are nicknamed `Joeys' in honour of which English clown and pantomimist, born today in 1778? -Joseph Grimaldi

Today in 1975, which pop singer decided to quit `The Faces' and begin a solo career? -Rod Stewart

Born today in 1913, who was West German Chancellor from 1969 to 1974? -Willy Brandt

Events today...

1737 Master violin maker Antonio Stradivari died at his horne in Cremona, after a life spent bringing violin making to perfection. Born in 1644, Stradivari produced large violins with deep coloured varnish, and was experimenting with small details. From 1690 his long models represented a complete innovation with regard to the proportions of the instrument. In the early 1700s Stradivari broadened and improved his model, and began making fine cellos and violas as well. Stradivari created the standards by which violins can be judged and devised the current form of the bridge, also setting the proportions for the today's violin with its shallower body that yields a more powerful and penetrating tone than earlier violins.

1825 Tsar Nicholas I succeeded the Russian throne.

1829 Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet Lamarck, one of France's best scientists, died at the age of 75. His most important work had been the study of evolution. Lamarck felt that acquired characteristics are inherited, that the use of an organ or limb strengthened it, and this strengthening could be passed down by reproduction. In 1774 he became a member of the French Academy and keeper of the royal garden, where he remained for 25 years. He published his Philosophie zoologiyue in 1809.

1839 The first celestial photograph of the Moon was made in the U.S

1865 More than two years after Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation theoretically abolished slavery, the dream become a reality with the 13th Amendment. The earlier proclamation in January of 1863 applied only to areas not under Union control.

1892 "The Nutcracker Suite" ballet by Tchaikovsky was premiered.

1898 A speed record of 39 miles per hour was recorded for an automobile.

1903 The Panama Canal Zone was acquired `in perpetuity' by the USA, for an annual rent.

1912 The discovery of the Piltdown Man in East Sussex was announced; it was proved to be a hoax in 1953.

1912 The immigration of illiterate persons to the USA was prohibited by Congress.

1919 Six months after his pioneering transatlantic flight with Sir Arthur Brown, British aviator Sir John Alcock was killed in a flying accident, aged 27.

1924 Pope Pius XI denounced the USSR.

1941 Japanese troops landed in Hong Kong.

1946 Clement Attlee's Labour government won the vote on state ownership and it looked like railways and ports would be the first industries to be nationalized. Despite the prospect of severe economic handicaps, Attlee committed himself to a vigorous programme of reform. The Bank of England had already been nationalized and coal mines, civil aviation, cable and wireless services, railways, road transport and steel were to follow. The British National Health Act came into force in November, providing comprehensive medical care or every member of society. Attlee also had ideas of giving India and Burma their independence.

1957 Death of Dorothy L Sayers, English author.

1961 The Beatles were rejected for the first time by EMI Records. They later signed them.

1964 The Pink Panther cartoon series was aired for the first time.

1969 The death penalty for murder was abolished in Britain.

1970 A Polish uprising failed.

1970 Divorce became legal in Italy.

1971 Death of Bobby Jones, US golfer.

1976 Wonder Woman starring Linda Carter aired for the first time.

1979 The sound barrier on land was broken for the first time by Stanley Barrett, driving at 739.6 mph, in Califomia.

1980 Death of Ben Travers, British novelist and comic dramatist.

1980 Death of Soviet statesman Alexei Kosygin, prime minister of the USSR 1964-80.

1983 Ex-president Gerald Ford made an appearance in the soap opera Dynasty.

1987 High flying financier Ivan F Boesky was sentenced to 3 years in prison for insider trading.

1987 In South Korea, Roh Tae Woo was declared the winner of the first presidential election to be held for 16 years but students riot, claiming electoral corruption.

1989 The EEC signed a ten-year trade pact with the Soviet Union.

1990 French cellist Paul Tortelier died aged 76.

1991 Actor DeForest Kelly (Dr "Bones" McCoy in Star Trek) got his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1991 The first international project to help save rainforests was launched when the World Bank, the European Commission and the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations granted Brazil $250 million (£136 million) for conservation work in the Amazon basin. Of that sum, at least $100 million (£54.5 million) would go to scientific research. The money would also fund the establishment of national parks, tribal reserves, and the creation of new zones for non-destructive use of the rainforest's resources such as rubber tapping and collecting brazil nuts. All such projects had to be approved by the World Bank and Brazil itself would have no control over how the money was spent.

1993 Death of Sam Wanamaker (b.1919) (aged 74) Movie actor. Father of Zoe. He was the inspiration behind the rebuilding of The Globe theatre in London.

1997 Death of Chris Farley (b.1964) (aged 33) One of the stars of "Saturday Night Live" television series in the U.S. Movie roles include the lead in "Tommy Boy".

2002 Forensic tests were being carried out on a "substance" found in the car of former treasury minister Geoffrey Robinson.

2002 Sir Paul McCartney defended his decision to reverse Beatles' song-writing credits, saying Yoko Ono got her "knickers in a twist".

2002 Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson was given a hero's welcome in his native country as The Two Towers opens worldwide.

2002 A bat thought to have died out in the UK more than a decade ago was found again in southern England.

2002 An Ariane 4 rocket successfully launched from French Guiana as a commission started to look into the previous week's Ariane 5 failure.

2002 A Russian-based software firm was cleared of digital copyright violations in the first legal test of a controversial US copyright law.

2003 Pop star Michael Jackson was formally charged with seven counts of child molestation.

2003 The Lithuanian parliament began impeachment proceedings against President Rolandas Paksas.

2003 Rebel Ulster Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson left the party along with two other assembly members.

2003 Art collector Charles Saatchi launched a £10,000 award to get more children interested in modern art.

2004 Doctors saidChile's former leader Augusto Pinochet had suffered a stroke, ahead of a new ruling on his case.

2004 Sir Ian McKellen made his pantomime debut.

2004 A guitar played by George Harrison and John Lennon sold for £294,000 ($570,000) at auction in New York.

2004 England reached a powerful 227-1 in reply to South Africa's 337 after two days of the Port Elizabeth Test.

BIRTHDAYS (for 18 December 2006)

Joseph Grimaldi, 227 (born 18 December 1779)
(Died 1837, aged 57) English clown who created the white-face clown make-up.

Paul Klee, 127 (born 18 December 1879)
Swiss painter and etcher who was associated with Der Blaue Reiter group which aimed to unite the Expressionist style with symbolic and spiritual elements.

Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb, 120 (born 18 December 1886)
baseball player.

Jules Dassin, 95 (born 18 December 1911)
American film director who went to Europe during the McCarthy witch-hunts and made films such as Rififi and Never on Sunday.

Willy Brandt, 93 (born 18 December 1913)
(Died 1992, aged 78) German statesman, chancellor of West Germany 1969-74.

Betty Grable, 90 (born 18 December 1916)
(Died 1973, aged 56) American actress, singer and dancer whose famous legs made her a forces' pin-up during World War Two.

Rosemary Leach, 71 (born 18 December 1935)
Actress 'Life Begins at Forty'

Chas Chandler, 68 (born 18 December 1938)
(Died 1996, aged 57) Co founder of The Animals. Went into artist management.

Keith Richards, 63 (born 18 December 1943)
British guitarist with the Rolling Stones.

Steve Biko, 60 (born 18 December 1946)
(Died 1977, aged 30) Student leader. Anti-aparthied activist.

Steven Spielberg, 59 (born 18 December 1947)
American film director whose hugely successful films include Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET and Hook.

Buddy Gask, 58 (born 18 December 1948)
Member of Showaddywaddy

Ray Liotta, 51 (born 18 December 1955)
Movie actor. Best movie "Goodfellas"

Lori McNeil, 43 (born 18 December 1963)
Tennis player.

Robson Green, 42 (born 18 December 1964)
Actor 'Soldier Soldier' 'Grafters'

Brad Pitt, 42 (born 18 December 1964)
Movie actor. "Seven".

Kiefer Sutherland, 41 (born 18 December 1965)
Son of Donald. Movie actor.

Tracy Byrd, 40 (born 18 December 1966)
Country singer

Les Ferdinand, 40 (born 18 December 1966)
Tottenham and England player.

Casper Van Dien, 38 (born 18 December 1968)
Movie actor "Starship Troopers".

Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, 35 (born 18 December 1971)
Spanish tennis player. Won 1994 Wimbledon championships.

Lyndsay Armaou, 26 (born 18 December 1980)
Singer with B*witched

Today's The Day - 17th December

17th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of Olympiays of St Lazarus,
St Sturmi,
St Begga,
and St Wivina.

History Test for December 17th

Name the author of the novels 'Murder Must Advertise' and 'The Nine Tailors', who died today in 1957. -Dorothy L. Sayers

Today in 1903, who made the first flight in a powered aircraft? -Orville Wright - It took place at Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and lasted 12 seconds, watched by brother Wilbur

Scottish physicist Lord Kelvin died today in 1907. What is measured on his Kelvin scale? -Temperature

Actor Bernard Hill was born today in 1944. Name the character he played in the TV series `Boys From the Blackstuff'. -Yosser Hughes

Today in 1843, Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' was published. How many principal ghosts are there in the book? -Four - Ghosts of Past, Present and Future and Marley's Ghost

QUOTE “Children have no use for psychology. They detest sociology. They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff. When a book is boring, they yawn openly. They don't expect their writer to redeem humanity, but leave to adults such childish illusions.” - Isaac Baahevia Singer, writer, on winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1978.

QUOTE “The airplane stays up because it doesn't have the time to fall.” - Orville Wright explains, after making the world's first powered flight, 1903.

Events today...

1538 King Henry VIII was excommunicated by Pope Paul III.

1830 Death of Simon Bolivar, South American revolutionary who gained the name "the Liberator" by expelling the Spanish from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.

1843 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was published.

1892 Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker was first performed, in St Petersburg by the Russian Imperial Ballet.

1897 Death of Alphonse Daudet, French novelist.

1903 In spite of an underwhelming audience of five people, the Wright brothers made aviation history when their aircraft managed the first powered flight. Flyer I, or Kitty Hawk as it is more commonly called, made four flights in all, the longest lasting almost a minute, achieving 850ft (276m) of distance and an altitude of several feet. Orville and Wilbur Wright had been interested in aviation since 1896, when they learned of the European interest in sustained flight. While running a bicycle building shop, they studied aviation and built kites and gliders to learn the essentials of aircraft control before attempting powered flight. They made 900 successful glider flights in 1902 in North Carolina while they solved the problems of getting an engine light enough and powerful enough to lift a plane off the ground. In the end, the brothers built their own 12-16hp engine and propeller as well as the body of the aircraft. Kitty Hawk weighed only 605lb (300kg) and was launched off a trolley rolling along a greased 60ft (19.5m) launching track.

1907 Death of British physicist William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, after whom the Kelvin scale of temperature is named.

1909 Death of King Leopold II of Belgium.

1917 Death of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, first English woman physician.

1939 The German battleship Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled in the River Plate off Montevideo, Uruguay by British warships.

1942 German war criminals were sentenced by the Allies in London.

1957 Death of Dorothy L Sayers (b.1893) (aged 64) Author of "Lord Peter Wimsey".

1959 "On the Beach" was the first movie to be premiered on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

1962 The Beatles made their first British television appearance on a programme called "People and Places"

1965 Britain ended its oil embargo against Rhodesia.

1967 The Australian prime minister Harold Holt disappeared and was presumed to have drowned near his holiday home at Portsea, Victoria, some 30 miles (4.8 km) from Melbourne. Although Holt, 59, was a strong swimmer and diver, it was understood that he almost drowned under similar circumstances just a few beforehand. Military and civilian divers and search teams hunted for him. In the meantime, an interim prime minister had to be appointed. The son of a teacher, Holt was Minister of Labour from 1940 to 1941, then again from 1949 to 1958 and Federal Treasurer from 1958 to 1966 when he succeeded Sir Robert Gordon Menzies as prime minister.

1969 "Project Blue Book" was closed by U.S. authorities who said that there was no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings.

1973 Prime Minister Edward Heath's confrontation with striking miners as part of his campaign to control inflation provoked a crisis for the economy. Miners continued their overtime ban and as a result coal supplies to power stations were down by 40 per cent. Industry and commerce were only allowed five days' electricity in 14 until December 30, and then would be allowed three days' worth a week in the New Year. Television would shut down at 10.30 pm throughout the country. The government was cutting £1200 million ($2208 million) from public spending in response to the crisis. The chancellor also imposed tighter credit controls and tax on developmental gains were up from 30 per cent to 50 per cent. This drive to fight inflation, combined with the tough stance against the strikers just when OPEC oil prices increased by 70 per cent and production had been cut back, required Mr Heath to call a general election.

1973 Thirty-one people were killed at Rome airport after Arab guerillas hijacked a German airliner.

1983 A bomb exploded outside Harrods in London and 5 people were killed and 94 were injured.

1986 Davina Thompson made medical history when she became the first patient to receive a new heart, lung and liver in a transplant operation at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge.

1988 Death of Sy Oliver, US composer.

1989 In Romania, as many as 2000 anti-government protesters were massacred in the city of Timisoara.

1989 In the first free elections for 29 years, Brazilians chose Ferdinand Collor de Mello as president defeating Jose Sarney. The new President was faced with enormous problems, not least of which is the servicing of massive foreign debt. Interest payments on loans use up 40 per cent of the country's export income. Although Brazil had experienced rapid development, the repayments look set to destroy the economy. The International Monetary Fund forced the government to impose austerity measures to try to guarantee that the loans would be repaid. Consequently prices rose, wages were been cut and the annual inflation rate was around 700 Percent. It was the 80s economic decline that increased demands for democracy.

1990 Radical priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president of Haiti.

1991 Joseph Robert Smallwood, Canadian politician who led Newfoundland into the Canadian Confederation in 1949 and became its first premier, died just short of his 91st birthday.

1992 Israel deported over 400 Palestinians to Lebanese territory in an unprecedented mass expulsion of suspected militants.

1992 Death of Dana Andrews (b.1909) (aged 83) American movie actor.

1993 Boris Becker married Barbara Feltus.

2003 The head of Iraq's governing council said that Saddam Hussein would be tried in a special Iraqi court.

2003 The head of the radical November 17 group and its top hitman got life sentences following 25 years of crime.

2003 France's president Chirac backed a proposed ban on headscarves, skull-caps and large crucifixes in schools.

2003 Members of the European Parliament agreed to a common salary as they moved to end abuse of expenses.

2003 Ian Huntley was given two life sentences for murdering Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, as a history of sexual allegations against him emerged.

2003 The last of The Lord of the Rings films, The Return of the King, was released in the UK, US and Europe.

2003 Gavin McCann's late goal sent Aston Villa into the Carling Cup semi-finals.

2003 Struggling F1 team Minardi offered Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner a driver's seat for the following season.

2003 Man Utd defender Rio Ferdinand prepared to face a disciplinary hearing into his missed drugs test.

2004 At least six people died and dozens were hurt as hurricane-strength storms hit Paris and much of northern France.

2004 Drunken revellers facee waking up with a hangover and an £80 fine during a Christmas crackdown on binge drinking.

2004 Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie Presley agreee to sell 85% of his estate in a deal worth $100m (£51m).

2004 Millionaire businessman Tom Hunter told Bob Geldof he would donate more than £6m to Band Aid.

2004 South Africa closed on 273-7 on the first day of the first Test against England in Port Elizabeth.

2004 Ellen MacArthur broke the record for a solo trip from the English Channel to the Cape of Good Hope.

BIRTHDAYS (for 17 December 2006)

Ludwig Van Beethoven, 236 (born 17 December 1770)
Composer.

Sir Humphrey Davy, 228 (born 17 December 1778)
English chemist who invented the safety lamp for miners and discovered sodium, calcium, barium, magnesium, potassium and strontium by passing electricity through molten metal compounds.

William Lyon Mackenzie King, 132 (born 17 December 1874)
Canadian politician, Liberal prime minister three times.

Vaslav Nijinski, 117 (born 17 December 1889)
American ballet dancer.

Erskine Caldwell, 103 (born 17 December 1903)
American novelist and journalist best-known for God's Little Acre and Tobacco Road.

Willard Frank Libby, 98 (born 17 December 1908)
American chemist who developed radio-carbon dating.

Robert Robinson, 79 (born 17 December 1927)
TV presenter - 'Call My Bluff' 'Ask the Family'

Bob Guccione (Robert Charles Joseph Edwa), 76 (born 17 December 1930)
Penthouse Publisher.

Karl Denver, 72 (born 17 December 1934)
Scottish singer - biggest UK hit 'Wimoweh'

Tommy Steele, 70 (born 17 December 1936)
Real name Tommy Hicks. British entertainer who began his career as a pop singer before developing into a star of stage and screen musicals such as Half a Sixpence.

Eddie Kendricks, 67 (born 17 December 1939)
(Died 1992 aged 52) - Lead singer with The Temptations.

Dave Dee, 63 (born 17 December 1943)
Leader of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch.

Bernard Hill, 62 (born 17 December 1944)
British actor who played Yosser Hughes

Christopher Cazenove, 61 (born 17 December 1945)
British actor. "Duchess of Duke Street" and "Dynasty".

Simon Bates, 59 (born 17 December 1947)
Radio and television presenter.

Fred Talbot, 57 (born 17 December 1949)
TV Weatherman

Bill Pullman, 53 (born 17 December 1953)
Movie actor. Biggest movie "Independence Day".

Sharon White, 53 (born 17 December 1953)
Country singer.

Mike Mills, 48 (born 17 December 1958)
Bass player with R.E.M.

Kay Burley, 46 (born 17 December 1960)
TV Host

Sarah Dallin, 45 (born 17 December 1961)
Member of Bananarama.

Milla Jovovich, 31 (born 17 December 1975)
Russian movie actress/model.

Today's The Day - 16th December

16th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Irenion,
Saints Ananiah, Azariah, and Michael,
and St Adelaide.

History Test for December 16th

Born today in 1775, who wrote the novels `Persuasion' and `Northanger Abbey'? -Jane Austen

Also known as the Battle of the Ardennes, what name was given to the last German offensive on the Western Front, which began today in 1944? -The Battle of the Bulge

Name the author of the novels 'Cakes and Ale' and `The Moon and Sixpence', who died today in 1965. -William Somerset Maugham

Today in 1937, the original version of which musical featuring `The Lambeth Walk' opened in London? -`Me and My Girl'

Nicknamed `Big Bird' which West Indian fast bowler was born today in 1952? -Joel Garner

Events today...

1653 Oliver Cromwell was made Lord Protector of England, giving him the powers of an uncrowned King.

1773 Whooping and brandishing axes, a band of intrepid colonists thinly disguised as Indians boarded three ships in Boston harbour and emptied 342 chests of tea worth £9,000 into the sea. This became known as the Boston Tea Party.

1809 Napoleon divorced his wife Joséphine Beauharnais, because she could not provide him with an heir.

1838 The Zulu chief Dingaan was defeated by a small force of Boers at Blood River - celebrated in South Africa as 'Dingaan's Day'.

1850 The first immigrant ship, the Charlotte Jane, arrived at Lyttleton, New Zealand.

1859 Death of Wilheim Grimm (b.1786) (aged 73) Author of the "Grimms Fairy Tales"

1880 The Republic of South Africa was formed.

1893 "New World Symphony" by Dvorak received its premiere.

1905 "Variety Magazine" was published for the first time.

1913 Charlie Chaplin started work for Keystone.

1921 French composer, pianist and organist Camille Saint-Saëns died at the age of 86.

1922 Polish president Gabriel Narutowicz was assassinated after only two days in office.

1944 American bandleader Glenn Miller was presumed dead after his plane went missing over the English Channel.

1944 The Battle of the Bulge, in the Ardennes, began with a Strong counter-attack by the Germans under General von Rundstedt.

1962 The David Lean movie "Lawrence of Arabia" starring Peter O'Toole received its premiere.

1965 British novelist and playwright William Somerset Maugham died in Nice at the age of 91.

1969 The death penalty was abolished in Britain.

1980 Death of Colonel Harland Sanders, aged 80 (b.1890) Founder of "Kentucky Fried Chicken".

1988 Death of Sylvester (b.1947) (aged 40) Disco singer and famous transvestite.

1988 Edwina Currie, Britain's out-spoken junior health minister was forced to resign in the wake of her statement that most British eggs were infected with salmonella.

1990 Forty-five-year-old pop singer Rod Stewart married a 22-year-old model, Rachel Hunter.

1990 Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a leftist priest, was elected president in Haiti's first democratic elections.

1991 In London, the new director-general of the security service MI5 was officially named for the first time - and the name Stella Rimington, who became the first-ever female boss of the agency.

1991 The UN General Assembly voted to repeal its 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism.

1993 Shannon Doherty who played Brenda in the television series "Beverly Hill 90210" was fired.

1993 Death of Kakuei Tanaka, Japanese politician.

1997 A ban of the sale of beef on the bone came into effect, following an increasing BSE scare.

1997 Death of Nicolette Larson (b.1952) (aged 45) Country singer.

2003 It was announced that Stansted, Heathrow and Birmingham are to get extra runways under the UK's new 30-year plan for air travel.

2003 Labour's ruling board voted by 25-2 to pave the way for Ken Livingstone's readmission to the party.

2003 Sky lost its monopoly on live Premiership games after a compromise with the EU.

2003 Arsenal reached the Carling Cup semi-finals after beating West Brom 2-0 at The Hawthorns, and Henrik Pedersen's dramatic late goal also sent Bolton into the semi-finals.

2004 Saddam Hussein had his first meeting with a member of his family-appointed legal team in Baghdad.

2004 Geoff Hoon announced a major restructuring of the Army, which would see four battalions cut and regiments merged.

2004 Fairytale of New York, by The Pogues and the late Kirsty MacColl, was voted favourite Christmas song in a poll.

BIRTHDAYS (for 16 December 2006)

Catherine of Aragon, 521 (born 16 December 1485)
(Died 1536, aged 50) Famous for being the first of Henry VIII's six wives.

Ludwig Van Beethoven, 236 (born 16 December 1770)
composer.

Jane Austen, 231 (born 16 December 1775)
(Died 1817, aged 41) English novelist whose major works included Emma, Pride and Predudice, and Sense and Sensibility.

Sir Noêl Coward, 117 (born 16 December 1889)
English playwright, composer and actor whose best-known plays include Hay Fever and Blithe Spirit.

Arthur C Clarke, 89 (born 16 December 1917)
Author of "2001 A Space Odyssey".

Liv Ullman, 67 (born 16 December 1939)
Norwegian actress who has appeared most notably in Ingmar Bergman films such as Cries and Whispers and Autumn Sontana.

Tony Hicks, 61 (born 16 December 1945)
Guitarist with The Hollies.

Benny Anderson, 60 (born 16 December 1946)
Swedish. Member of Abba, pianist. Singer/Songwriter.

Christopher Biggins, 58 (born 16 December 1948)
English actor. TV baffoon. Radio and stage. Showbiz luvvie.

Billy Gibbons, 57 (born 16 December 1949)
Member of ZZ Top

Steven Irvine, 47 (born 16 December 1959)
Drummer with Lloyd Cole and the Commotions.

Donovan Bailey, 39 (born 16 December 1967)
Singer

Craig White, 37 (born 16 December 1969)
Cricketer.

Nicholas Cochrane, 33 (born 16 December 1973)
Actor Andy McDonald in 'Coronation Street'

10 things we didn't know last week

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

1. Just 20 words make up a third of teenagers' everyday speech.
More details

2. Children whose parents have an OBE can marry at St Paul's cathedral.
More details

3. Murders of prostitutes have the lowest clear-up rates of all killings.

4. The world's tallest man has arms that are 1.06m long.
More details

5. The top six high street banks in the UK made an estimated £4.5bn from penalty charges in 2005 .
More details

6. About 40% of the mango trees planted to offset the carbon emissions from Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head album have died - which releases carbon into the atmosphere.

7. About 85% of Sandhurst's cadets are university graduates.
More details

8. Half a million passengers will pass through Heathrow alone this weekend as the Christmas getaway begins.

9. There are 200 million blogs which are no longer being updated, say technology analysts.
More details

10. Half of prison inmates do not have the reading skills expected of an 11 year old child.
More details

[Sources: 3. Guardian, 13 December; 6. Observer, 10 December; 8. Times, 14 December]

Turning off the digital world

The increasing energy demands of the digital world need to be addressed if we are to avoid severe global warming, argues regular commentator Bill Thompson.

Thousands of computers will be left on standby over the holiday

This Christmas period offices will be empty of staff as the country shuts down for the extended celebration that has become the norm over the last few years.

Many staff will head home from work on 22 December, not to return until 2 January.

They'll leave behind the wreckage of the Christmas party, a pile of unopened mail and, if they are at all typical, a lot of glowing lights.

Unfortunately, the lights won't be on the office Christmas tree but on the monitors, photocopiers, fax machines, phone rechargers and PCs that will be left on standby or, worse, turned on throughout the break.

According to research carried out by office equipment supplier Canon, based on figures from the National Energy Foundation and Infosource, more than six million PCs will be left on over Christmas, consuming nearly forty million kilowatt hours of electricity.

Together with the printers and other hardware they will waste enough electricity to microwave 268 million mince pies, pumping 19,000 unnecessary tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, at a cost of around £8.6m.

To a large extent this waste is a result of carelessness and a failure to think, as few machines need to be left switched on when they aren't in use. We have, as a society, been too lazy about this for too long and it is time we became much more aware of the energy costs of our hi-tech lifestyle.

However, there is a wider problem since many of our beloved technological toys are remarkably inefficient and use more electricity than they really need to.

Power processor

PCs are probably the worst culprit, because standard power supplies have changed relatively little since the original IBM PC was launched in 1981.

At that time, power supplies had to convert high-voltage alternating current to multiple direct current voltages for the different components - an inefficient process which results in a lots of wasted energy.

Portable devices are also a problem. According to energy research and consulting firm EPRI Solutions, there are six to 10 billion mobile power supplies in use around the world, and as anyone who has tried to find the right supply for their mobile phone in a pile of cables and plugs will agree, the current situation is ridiculous.

Fortunately, there is now a movement for change, especially among large energy-users.

The cumulative effect of small changes are the key to changing our patterns of energy consumption Bill Thompson

In September, two Google engineers gave a talk at the Intel Developer Forum at which they proposed a simpler and more efficient power supply for PCs, while back in January founder Larry Page, called for a single power supply standard for portable devices.

Companies are also being asked to reduce the number of computers they use in their data centres.

One way is by running several "virtual" computers on one physical computer, a process called virtualisation. In the US Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is offering rebates on electricity bills for companies in northern and central California that do this.

According to PG&E customers can expect to save $300 to $600 in annual energy costs for each server that is removed. But these are not just small scale projects, since PG&E's maximum rebate for a project is $4m.

Interestingly enough, one of the design innovations in the "children's laptop", developed by the One Laptop per Child project, is that the CPU can be powered down when it is not in active use since the video display is driven by separate circuitry.

This reduces its energy use significantly, and was one of the aspects the project's chief technology officer, Mary Lou Jepsen, seemed most pleased with when she appeared recently on Digital Planet on the BBC World Service to talk about the laptop.

Virtual consumption

As well as the computers in our homes and offices, it is also important to think about the energy we are using - and the carbon we are producing - by creating and maintaining a presence online.

Each avatar uses the same energy as a person living in Brazil

The virtual server that hosts my weblog is on all the time, even when nobody is viewing my pages, and although its energy use is negligible, multiply that by 55 million or more blogs or 100 million MySpace profiles and you get some significant numbers.

It gets even worse with avatars. At the moment Linden Labs, who host the popular Second Life virtual world, has around 4,000 servers. Although they have two million signed up users, at any one time only around 15,000 people are logged on.

Blogger and technology writer Nicholas Carr did some rough calculations, based on the power consumption of each server being 200 watts and the power consumption of the logged-on user's own PC being 120 watts, and reckons that each avatar uses 1,752 kilowatt hours of electricity - or about the same amount as an average person living in Brazil.

This works out at 1.17 tons of carbon dioxide per year, per avatar, or the same as driving a large car 2,300 miles.

Despite the vast energy consumption of these new technologies, we have remarkably little information as consumers.

If you go into a store in a country within the European Union to buy a fridge or a cooker you can expect to see a large label on the front telling you its energy efficiency, graded from A to G. It's hard to miss, and for many people it is an important factor in their choice of brand or product.

Perhaps it is time for the same sort of labelling for phones and other hi-tech products. Our PCs and phones and music players consume so little power relative to a cooker or a washing machine that it may not seem worth worrying about the few watts of trickle charge or the extra voltage needed for a bright screen, but it all adds up.

In the end, the cumulative effect of small changes are the key to changing our patterns of energy consumption and avoiding the coming crisis of global warming and massive climate change.

So turn off the hardware as you leave the office for your Christmas break - the only shining lights in the darkness should be the ones on the tree at home.

Enter The Publican news quiz!

Test your knowledge of this year's news, and win a case of wine, courtesy of Matthew Clark

A case of Stonehaven Cellar Selection Riesling could be yours if you win The Publican Christmas news quiz.

Answer 12 questions correctly in the news quiz and you could get a case of the wine, courtesy of Matthew Clarke, delivered to your pub.

The deadline for entries is January 3 – so if you can correctly remember what has being going on over the last year then get typing.

Go to http://www.thepublican.com/newsquiz

Pub landlord Al Murray wants publicans for new show

-Al Murray

Licensees needed to star on his new prime time TV show

The Pub Landlord Al Murray is on the lookout for publicans to star in his new prime time TV show.

The brand new show will see the Guv'nor "interview" some of the biggest names in entertainment and showbiz, while a major music act will be allowed to play a recent hit...as long as they agree to finish the show with a Queen song.

Each week the Pub Landlord will welcome a guest pub, represented in the audience by its licensee, a staff member or two and a group of regulars.

So if you have an interesting pub with a famous regular or even a resident ghost contact Dan Trelfer on 020 7598 7377 dant@avalonuk.com

Concerns over New Year's Eve opening hours

Some licensees may mistakenly open illegally on New Year's Eve

Licensees up and down the country could face the prospect of mistakenly opening illegally on New Year’s Eve.

Licensees who did not apply for the 36-hour New Year extension to be carried over when the Licensing Act came in will be bound by normal hours when ushering in 2007, which falls on a Sunday.

Last year many licensees mistakenly opened their pubs illegally on New Year thinking the rights were automatically transferred with the new licensing regime.

Licensees now face a postcode lottery as to whether their local authority has warned them of the problem. Those affected will have to apply for temporary event notices (TENs) and, in some cases, will face a race against time to get them approved by local authorities.

Licensee Chris Smith at the Gate Inn in Marshside, Kent, was told by Canterbury City Council he had 10 working days to apply for a TEN or he would have to close at 11pm on New Year’s Day.

However, fellow licensee Chris Maclean, of the Railway Hotel in Faversham, Kent, only discovered he was safe after contacting Swale Council direct.

Mr Maclean said: “There’s a lot of confusion – 10 working days might not be enough, given what is classed as a working day by the council. We need some clarification.”

Samantha Potts, licensing officer for Swale, said: “We are aware that some pubs may have slipped through the net and opened illegally. We have made the police aware of this.”

Martin Rawlings, director of pub and leisure at the British Beer & Pub Association, slammed the government for not automatically carrying over the New Year extension with grandfather rights. He said: “It’s daft. It’s bureaucracy gone mad once again. The safest thing is for licensees to go along with it at this point but to raise this problem in the future.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media & Sport said: “What is written on your licence is when you can open. Nothing has changed since November 24, 2005. The guidance has always been available on our website.”

Today's The Day - 15th December

15th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Nino,
St Valerian,
St Mary di Rosa,
and St Paul of Lanos.

History Test for December 15th

Which Hollywood actor, famous for playing historical figures such as Henry VIII and Captain Bligh, died today in 1962? -Charles Laughton

Born today in 1832 which French engineer made a unique contribution to the Paris Exposition of 1889? -Alexandre Gustave Eiffel - his contribution was the Eiffel Tower

Dave Clark was born today in 1942. What was the name of his musical which featured a hologram of Sir Laurence Olivier? -'Time'

Which British fashion designer received her OBE today in 1992? -Vivienne Westwood

Name the famous American Indian chief, shot dead on South Dakota's Grand River today in 1890? -Sitting Bull

QUOTE “Our country is the world - our countrymen are all mankind.” -William Lloyd Garrison, US abolitionist, 1837.

Events today...

1612 The Andromeda galaxy was sighted through a telescope for the first time.

1654 A meteorological office established in Tuscany began recording daily temperature readings.

1675 Death of Jan Vermeer, Dutch painter.

1683 Death of Izaak Walton aged 90, best known for his treatise on fishing, The Complete Angler.

1791 The Virginia state legislature ratified the Bill of Rights, the 10th state to do so, and the Bill's 10 amendments became part of the United States constitution. President Washington accepted the new Constitution in September 1787, but its lack of a bill of rights caused wide dissatisfaction. By popular demand, the state conventions called to ratify the Constitution proposed amendments to cover individual rights. James Madison led the movement in Congress to adopt the proposals and drafted 12 amendments to the Constitution. In 1789 Congress voted to submit Madison's amendments to the states. Two were defeated, and the remaining 10 are now enshrined in law. Unlike the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen adopted in France in 1789, the US Bill of Rights provided specific protection for the basic rights of the individual to free expression and association, privacy and justice.

1840 Napoleon's body was interred at Les Invalides in Paris.

1890 Chief Sitting Bull of the Sioux Indians was shot dead. Sitting Bull fled to Canada after his victory over General Custer at Little Bighorn in 1876. He was jailed for two years on his return five years later. For several years he performed with Buffalo Bill's travelling Wild West Show, but his people's hunger and suffering drove him to join the new Ghost Dance cult, dedicated to destroying the whites and restoring the Indians' vanished world. The government sent troops to arrest the Sioux leaders and suppressed the cult, and Sitting Bull was shot in the skirmish that followed. He was 69.

1891 Basketball was invented in Canada by James Naismith.

1904 In London, British statesman Joseph Chamberlain called for curbs on immigrants from Europe, claiming they are responsible for crime and disease.

1913 The world's biggest battle-cruiser, HMS Tiger, was launched in Glasgow.

1916 The nine-month Battle of Verdun was finally over, at appalling cost and with little gain. The lines were more or less where they were in February - and more than 700,000 soldiers were dead. Meanwhile the Somme offensive had ended in a deadlock, again with little gained. It had cost the British 420,000 men, the French 195,000 and the Germans 600,000.

1918 Portuguese president Sidonio Paes was assassinated.

1920 Austria and China were admitted to the League of Nations.

1927 In China, the Nationalist government ordered the closure of the Soviet consulate in Shanghai and began rounding up communists following the attempted communist coup in Canton the day before.

1930 Australian cricket legend Don Bradman took his first test wicket in a match when Ivan Barrow of the West Indies was out leg before wicket.

1939 "Gone With The Wind" was premiered in Atlanta.

1939 Nylon was first produced commercially in Delaware, USA.

1943 Death of "Fats" Waller (b.1904) (aged 39) Jazz performer.

1944 Band leader Glenn Miller was feared dead when his aircraft went missing over the English Channel.

1944 Death of Glenn Miller (b.1904) (aged 40) Band leader and composer/arranger.

1952 The first sex change operation took place.

1961 Nazi mass murderer Adolf Eichmann showed no emotion when a Jerusalem court sentenced him to be hanged. Eichmann was found guilty of murdering millions of Jews in the Nazi death camps. After the war he escaped to Argentina, where the Jewish Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal tracked him down. In May 1960 the Israeli secret service kidnapped him and took him to Israel to face trial.

1962 Death of Charles Laughton, British actor whose most notable films are Mutiny on the Bounty and The Hunckback of Notre Dame.

1964 The maple leaf was adopted as the national symbol by Canada.

1966 Walt Disney died at the age of 65. Disney's Mickey Mouse was possibly the most famous character in the world, fictional or living. Mickey first appeared in 1928 in Steamboat Willie, the first sound cartoon film, and he was soon joined by Donald Duck and the rest of the Disney stable. In 1938 another world first, the feature-length Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was a phenomenal success. Disney also made live films such as Treasure Island, and beautifully photographed full-length nature films like The Living Desert, winning 30 Oscars for his film work. He expanded beyond his film studios with the giant amusement parks, Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Disney's brand of sentimental nostalgia has often been criticized - but the world loves him for it.

1969 The Plastic Ono Band played their only London gig at the Lyceum Ballroom.

1982 Gibraltar's frontier with Spain was opened to pedestrian use after 13 years.

1989 In Bulgaria, 50,000 demonstrators lay siege to the parliament building in Sofia to demand the end of communist rule.

1989 In Colombia, police killed Gonzalo Gacha, one of the leaders of the Medellin cocaine cartel.

1990 Rod Stewart married Rachel Hunter.

1991 A ferry sank in the Red Sea, drowning 476 people, mainly Egyptians returning from pilgrimage or work in Saudi Arabia.

1991 South African president F. W. de Klerk's government was under renewed pressure following further disclosures in the "Inkathagate" scandal over covert government support for Zulu chief Gatsha Buthelezi's Inkatha movement, the arch-enemy of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. Police admitted funding a Buthelezi rally long after De Klerk had said the support had ended. Evidence also emerged that military intelligence poured millions into Inkatha - and sent Inkatha warriors to Israel for training.

1992 Bettino Crani, the leader of ltaly's Socialist Party, was informed that he was under investigation in a burgeoning corruption scandal that had racked the northern city of Milan.

1997 A ban of the sale of beef on the bone came into effect at midnight, following the ever-increasing BSE scare.

2003 Militant Chechen fighters crossed into the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan and took hostages.

2003 Labour's mayoral candidate Nicky Gavron said she was willing to stand aside in favour of Ken Livingstone.

2003 Presenter Graham Norton signed with the BBC to develop a show for Saturday nights from April 2004.

2003 Hospital officials announced that Ozzy Osbourne was able to breathe unaided a week after his quad bike accident.

2003 Drinks company Bacardi took TV adverts featuring Vinnie Jones off the air following his air rage conviction.

2003 Zinedine Zidane beat Thierry Henry and Ronaldo to become FIFA World Player of the Year.

2003 Accrington booked their place in the third round of the FA Cup with a penalty shoot-out victory over Division Two side Bournemouth.

2004 An explosion rocked Iraq's holy city Karbala killing seven people as campaigning started for January's election.

2004 A man holding hostages on a bus in Athens threatened to blow it up if a ransom was not paid by the following morning.

2004 David Blunkett quit as home secretary after it emerged a visa for his ex-lover's nanny had been fast-tracked.

2004 Erasure singer Andy Bell, 40, revealed he was diagnosed with HIV in 1998, on a trip to Majorca.

2004 Scottish entertainer Wee Jimmy Krankie suffered a head injury after falling off a beanstalk during a pantomime.

BIRTHDAYS (for 15 December 2006)

George Romney, 272 (born 15 December 1734)
English portrait painter best-known for his studies of Lady Emma Hamilton.

Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, 174 (born 15 December 1832)
French engineer who built the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Gustave Eiffel, 174 (born 15 December 1832)
Designer and engineer of the famous tower in Paris.

Jean Paul Getty, 114 (born 15 December 1892)
(Died 1976, aged 83) American oil billionaire and founder of the J. Paul Getty Art Museum in Malibu, California.

Stan Kenton, 95 (born 15 December 1911)
(Died 1979, aged 67) Bandleader and composer.

Alan Freed, 84 (born 15 December 1922)
(Died 1965, aged 42) Radio disc jockey and man who coined the phrase "Rock & Roll".

Tim Conway, 73 (born 15 December 1933)
actor-comedian.

Dave Clark, 64 (born 15 December 1942)
Drummer and leader of the 1960s group "Dave Clark Five".

Don Johnson, 57 (born 15 December 1949)
Actor. Most famous for "Miami Vice"

Alex Cox, 52 (born 15 December 1954)
Screen/scriptwriter, movie director.

Paul Simonon, 51 (born 15 December 1955)
Bass player with The Clash until 1985

Helen Slater, 43 (born 15 December 1963)
Achieved fame in "Supergirl" movie. Her brother is actor Christian Slater.

Michael La Vell, 42 (born 15 December 1964)
Actor 'Kevin Webster' in 'Coronation Street'

Carl Hooper, 40 (born 15 December 1966)
Cricketer, West Indies..

Dennis Wise, 40 (born 15 December 1966)
Chelsea FC footballer.

Frankie Dettori, 36 (born 15 December 1970)
Italian champion jockey.

Edele and Keavy Lynch, 27 (born 15 December 1979)
Twin sisters of Boyzone's Shane Lynch, and members of B*witched

Today's The Day - 14th December

14th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St John of the Cross,
Saints Fingar or Gwinncar and Phiala,
St Spiridion,
St Venantius Fortunacus,
and St Nicasius of Reims.

History Test for December 14th

Which American state entered the Union today in 1819 and is often referred to as the `Heart of Dixie'? -Alabama

Stan Smith was born today in 1946. Whom did he beat in the 1972 Men's Singles Final at Wimbledon? -Ilie Nastase

Born today in 1503, which French physician was renowned for his predictions? -Nostradamus

Former child star Janette Scott was born today in 1938. Who is her famous mother? -Dame Thora Hird

Name the three-times British Conservative Prime Minister, who died today in 1947. -Stanley Baldwin

Events today...

1798 A nut and bolt machine was patented.

1799 George Washington died in his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia, at the age of 67.

1837 British troops crushed a rebellion in Canada.

1861 Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, died of Typhoid.

1894 American Railway Union president Eugene V. Debs was jailed for six months for ignoring a court injunction to end the Pullman strike.

1900 The German physicist Max Plank unveiled a completely new theory of energy. Science had assumed that energy flowed in a continuous stream, but Plank’s theory said that energy existed in tiny, invisible bundles, or “Quanta”, almost like the atoms of matter.

1901 London was the venue for the first table tennis tournament.

1906 The first German submarine, the U1, entered service.

1907 In St Petersburg, 38 soldiers were sentenced to life imprisonment for surrendering to the Japanese at Port Arthur.

1911 The Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole, having left the British team, led by Captain Robert Scott, far behind in the race.

1918 For the first time in Britain women (over 30) voted in a General Election.

1920 Jack Dempsey knocked out Bill Brennan in round 12 to win the heavyweight boxing title.

1926 In a puzzle as mystifying as one of her plots, the missing British thriller writer Agatha Christie was found staying under an assumed name at a hotel in Harrogate.

1927 In China, Chaing Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces put down an attempted communist coup in Canton.

1939 The League of Nations expelled Russia after it attacked Finland.

1943 Death of John Henry Kellogg (b.1852) (aged 91) Founder of the cornflake company.

1944 The U.S. congress established the rank of General of Army (5-star General).

1947 Death of Stanley Baldwin, British politician.

1959 Archbishop Makarios was elected Cyprus' first president.

1959 Death of British artist Sir Stanley Spencer, notable for his paintings of religious subjects transposed to Crookham, the Berkshire village in which he lived.

1962 Mariner II sent the first close-up pictures of the planet Venus back to Earth.

1963 Death of Dinah Washington (b.1924) (aged 39) Jazz/blues performer and pianist.

1964 Death of William Bendix (aged 58) Radio/TV/movie actor.

1967 DNA was created in a test tube.

1973 Teenager John Paul Getty II was set free by his Italian kidnappers after his oil tycoon grandfather paid a ransom of $750,000 on receiving his ear through the post.

1977 The movie "Saturday Night Fever" was premiered in New York.

1988 Eight million workers in Spain went on strike against government economic policies.

1988 PLO leader Yasser Arafat announced that he renounced all forms of terrorism and accepted Israel’s right to exist within secure borders.

1989 Death of Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and human-rights campaigner.

1989 Death of Lee Van Cleef

1990 The show "Five Guys Named Moe" opened in London.

1990 After 30 years in exile, ANC president Oliver Tambo returned to South Africa.

1991 Industry opposition delayed a proposed tax aimed at cutting European carbon dioxide emissions.

1992 Lennox Lewis gained the WBC title when Riddick Bow refused to fight him.

1997 Death of Stubby Kaye (b.1918) (aged 79) TV/movie/stage actor. Most famous role in "Guys and Dolls".

1999 Paul McCartney played his last live performance of the millennium at the famous Cavern Club, 36 years after he last played there. There were only 300 people inside, but many more watching on a large screen outside and across the world on the Internet.

1999 The jockey Richard Dunwoody announced his retirement.

2003 The ex-Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, was captured by American troops. President Bush said he would face the justice he denied millions. Tony Blair said the capture of Saddam Hussein gave the people of Iraq an opportunity to unite and move forward.

2003 Pakistan's president Musharraf narrowly escaped an assassination attempt as a bomb exploded seconds after his convoy passed by.

2003 England's Rugby World Cup hero Jonny Wilkinson won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

2003 Nicole Kidman and Jude Law attended the UK premiere of Oscar-tipped drama "Cold Mountain" in London.

2003 Ozzy Osbourne has topped the singles charts with a duet with his daughter Kelly.

2004 The US Federal Reserve raised rates for the fifth time that year, taking them a quarter percentage point higher to 2.25%.

2004 A cane twirled by silent film star Charlie Chaplin in 1936 film Modern Times sold for £47,800 at auction.

2004 The remaining members of rock band Queen announced they were to go on tour with a new frontman in Freddie Mercury's place.

BIRTHDAYS (for 14 December 2006)

Nostradamus (born Michel de Notredame), 503 (born 14 December 1503)
(Died 1566, aged 62) French astrologer and physician who, in Centuries, made a number of prophecies in rhyming quatrains.

George VI, 111 (born 14 December 1895)
(Died 1952, aged 56) English monarch who succeeded to the throne when his brother, Edward VIII, abdicated to marry Mrs Simpson.

Spike Jones, 95 (born 14 December 1911)
(Died 1965, aged 53) Comedian

Charlie Rich, 74 (born 14 December 1932)
(Died 1995, aged 62) Country singer.

Johnny Moore, 72 (born 14 December 1934)
Lead singer with The Drifters.

Lee Remick, 71 (born 14 December 1935)
(Died 1991, aged 55) American stage and screen actress whose films include Anatomy of a Murder, A Severed Head and Days of Wine and Roses.

Frank Allen, 63 (born 14 December 1943)
Bass player with The Searchers.

Stan Smith, 60 (born 14 December 1946)
American tennis player who won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon in 1972.

Jane Birkin, 60 (born 14 December 1946)
British actress who became famous in France plus her notorious hit song "Je T'aime....."

Patty Duke Astin, 60 (born 14 December 1946)
American TV/movie actress.

Dee Wallace, 58 (born 14 December 1948)
American actress the mother in 'E.T.'

Cliff Williams, 57 (born 14 December 1949)
Bass player with AC/DC

Vickie Michelle, 56 (born 14 December 1950)
Actress in "Allo Allo".

Tommy Boyd, 54 (born 14 December 1952)
Radio host and former `Magpie' presenter

Vijay Amritraj, 53 (born 14 December 1953)
Tennis player and sometime actor.

Mike Scott, 48 (born 14 December 1958)
Member of The Waterboys

Spider Tracey, 48 (born 14 December 1958)
Member of The Pogues.

Chris Waddle, 46 (born 14 December 1960)
Former England football star.

Toby Anstis, 38 (born 14 December 1968)
Children's TV host

Michael Owen, 27 (born 14 December 1979)
Star of the 1998 World Cup and Liverpool FC.

Today's The Day - 13th December

13th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Lucy,
St Auben of Cambrai,
St Othilia or Odilia,
St Eustracius of Sebastea,
and St Judocus or Josse.

History Test for December 13th

Born today in 1925, who played Bert the Chimney Sweep in the film `Mary Poppins'? -Dick Van Dyke

Today in 1939, the Battle of the River Plate was fought between three British cruisers and which German battleship? -The Admiral Graf Spee

`Jackanory' was first transmitted today in 1965. Twenty years later, Prince Charles read his own story on the programme. What is it called? -`The Old Man of Lochnagar'

Today in 1577 Sir Francis Drake set off on his voyage round the world. From which port did he set sail? -Plymouth

Today in 1903, what was patented by the Italian merchant Italio Marcione to make eating ice cream easier? -The ice cream cone

Events today...

1204 Death of Maimonides, Jewish philosopher.

1294 Pope Celestine V abdicated.

1466 Death of Donatello, Italian sculptor.

1577 Francis Drake began his journey from Plymouth in the Golden Hind that was to take him around the world.

1642 Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovered New Zealand.

1759 The first music store in America opened.

1784 Death of Samuel Johnson, English poet, critic and lexicographer.

1843 "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens was published and sold 6,000 copies.

1862 Confederate general Robert E. Lee inflicted a bloody defeat on the Union Army of the Potomac. Federal general Ambrose Burnside had just taken over the army from General George B. McClellan and the futile assault on Lee's lines at Fredericksburg in Virginia was his major action in command.

1867 Twelve people died when Irish bombers blew up the outer wall of London's Clerkenwell prison in an attempt to rescue a jailed colleague.

1903 Moulds for ice cream cones were patented by Italo Marcione of New York.

1904 Government opponents wrecked the interior of the Hungarian parliament building in Budapest.

1904 The Metropolitan Underground railway in London went eleccric.1967 A military coup replaced the monarchy in Greece, sending King Constantine II into exile.

1907 The liner Mauretania ran aground at Liverpool.

1909 British explorer Ernest Shackleton was knighted.

1913 Former world light-heavyweight champion Archie Moore was born -- although even the boxer himself could not clear up confusion that he was actually born on this day in 1916. Champion between 1952 and 1961, Moore knocked out 145 of his 234 opponents -- a record in professional boxing.

1920 The international Court of Justice was established in The Hague in the Netherlands by the League of Nations.

1923 In London, Lord Alfred Douglas, former lover of Oscar Wilde, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for libelling Winston Churchill.

1928 The clip-on tie was designed.

1939 The Battle of the River Plate began, with British warships attacking the great German battleship Admiral Graf Spee.

1942 Stephan Stanis scored 16 goals, a world record in a senior professional football match, for Racing Club Lens against Aubry-Asturies in the French Cup.

1944 Death of Wassily Kandinsky, Russian painter.

1950 James Dean appeared in a commercial for Pepsi and this launched his career.

1951 Margaret and Dennis Thatcher got married.

1952 Former jump jockey John Francome was born. Champion jockey seven times, he equalled Stan Mellor's record of riding 1000 National Hunt winners in a career.

1959 Cyprus elected Archbishop Makarious as its first President.

1961 Grandma Moses, the renowned American primitive painter, died at the age of 101. Self-taught, Anna Robertson Moses only began painting in her 70s. Her bright pictures of American rural life were discovered by a New York art dealer, who exhibited them in his gallery in 1940.

1966 Hanoi was bombed for the first time by the U.S.

1967 King Constantine of Greece fled his country after an unsuccessful attempt to topple the Greek military junta.

1973 A three-day working week was ordered by the Government because of the Arab oil embargo and the coalminers' industrial action.

1983 Death of Mary Renault, English novelist.

1989 Bryan Robson scored the fastest goal in a professional match at Wembley, taking just 38 seconds from the kick-off to score for England in a 2-1 defeat of Yugoslavia. It was England's 100th win at Wembley.

1989 The first Vietnam refugees were repatriated from Hong Kong, and escorted to a plane at dawn by police in riot gear.

1991 The Council of Europe's torture committee accused Britain of "inhuman and degrading treatment" of prisoners in a damning report on Britain's overcrowded and outdated Victorian jails. Conditions at three major British prisons, Brixton, Leeds, and Wandsworth, violated basic human rights, the commission said, with prisoners subjected to a combination of overcrowding, inactivity and poor hygiene. British home secretary Kenneth Baker rejected the charge.

1995 Actor Christopher Reeves was released from a physical rehab centre. He had been paralysed in a riding accident.

1996 The first Euro banknotes were unveiled at the EU summit in Dublin as monetary union moved ever closer.

2000 After over a month of legal wrangling , it was announced that Republican George W Bush was to be the new president of America. Democrat Al Gore conceded defeat.

2003 The European summit in Brussels collapsed as EU leaders failed to agree a constitution amid a row over voting rights.

2003 Opera star Luciano Pavarotti married his former personal assistant in a star-studded wedding in northern Italy.

2003 A week's mourning is declared for Azerbaijan's ex-president Heydar Aliyev who died two months after stepping down.

2003 JRR Tolkien's epic fantasy trilogy the Lord of the Rings won the BBC's Big Read contest to find the UK's most popular novel.

2003 Keiko the killer whale - star of the Free Willy films - died suddenly in a Norwegian fjord, aged 27.

2003 Bolton scored a late winner as they come from behind to beat Chelsea 2-1, while Man Utd beat arch rivals Man City 3-1 to go top of the Premiership table. Southampton climbed up to sixth in the table with an impressive 2-1 victory at Liverpool.

2004 Chile's former President Augusto Pinochet was placed under house arrest on human rights charges.

2004 Newcastle boss Graeme Souness got a one-match touchline ban and £10,000 fine for improper conduct.

BIRTHDAYS (for 13 December 2006)

Heinrich Heine, 209 (born 13 December 1797)
German poet and joumalist

Mary Todd Lincoln, 188 (born 13 December 1818)
wife of Abraham.

John Piper, 103 (born 13 December 1903)
English painter and writer

Sir Laurens van der Post, 100 (born 13 December 1906)
South African novelist, travel writer and conservationist whose books include The Lost World of the Kalahari and The Hunter and the Whale.

Balthazar ]ohannes Vorster, 91 (born 13 December 1915)
South African politician

Archie Moore, 90 (born 13 December 1916)
Former boxer.

George Shultz, 86 (born 13 December 1920)
former US Secretary of State

Dick Van Dyke, 81 (born 13 December 1925)
American actor and comedian best-known for the television series The Dick Van Dyke Show and the film Mary Poppins.

Christopher Plummer, 77 (born 13 December 1929)
British stage and screen actor whose films include Waterloo, The Sound of Music and The Fall of the Roman Empire.

Robert Prosky, 76 (born 13 December 1930)
American TV/movie actor.

Prince Karim, 70 (born 13 December 1936)
the Aga Khan

Howard Brenton, 64 (born 13 December 1942)
English dramatist

Marti Webb, 62 (born 13 December 1944)
Singer 'Take that look off your face'

Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, 58 (born 13 December 1948)
Guitarist with Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers and many more.

Ted Nugent, 58 (born 13 December 1948)
Heavy metal performer.

Andy Peebles, 58 (born 13 December 1948)
Radio presenter specialising in soul music

Robert Lindsay, 57 (born 13 December 1949)
actor

Tom Verlaine, 57 (born 13 December 1949)
rock guitarist (Television)

Paula Wilcox, 57 (born 13 December 1949)
Actress 'Man About the House'

Robert Lindsey, 55 (born 13 December 1951)
Star of "Citizen Smith" and various stage musicals including "Me and My Girl.

John Francome, 54 (born 13 December 1952)
jockey/author

Jim Davidson, 53 (born 13 December 1953)
Now part of the establishment with his shows "Big Break" and "The Generation Game".

John Anderson, 52 (born 13 December 1954)
Country singer.

Steve Buscemi, 49 (born 13 December 1957)
Actor. Movies include "Fargo".

Janet Dibley, 48 (born 13 December 1958)
Actress 'The Two of Us' and Phil Mitchell's alcoholic girlfriend in 'Eastenders'

Lynn-Holly Johnson, 48 (born 13 December 1958)
Ice skater who went on to star in movies.

Matthew Collins, 46 (born 13 December 1960)
TV presenter

Today's The Day - 12th December

12th December 2006
National Day of Kenya.

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Jane Frances de Chantel,
St Corentin or Cury,
Saints Epimachus and Alexander,
St Edburga of Minster,
St Vicelin,
and St Finnian of Clonard.

History Test for December 12th

Born today in 1863, who painted `The Scream', stolen from an Oslo gallery in February 1994 and later found? -Edvard Munch

Kenya became independent today in 1963. What is its capital city? -Nairobi

George VI was officially proclaimed king today - in which year? -1936

The poet Robert Browning died today in 1889. In which London street did his wife Elizabeth Barrett live before they married? -Wimpole Street

Dramatist John Osborne was born today in 1929. In which of his plays is Archie Rice the central character? -`The Entertainer'

Events today...

1792 Franz Joseph Haydn gave Ludwig Von Beethoven his first lesson in music composition.

1889 Death of Robert Browning aged 77, English poet who wrote "The Last Duchess".

1896 Guglielmo Marconi gave the first public demonstration of radio at Toynbee Hall London.

1900 In London, the War Office announced that more than 11,000 British troops had so far lost their lives in the Boer War, over two-thirds of that number falling prey to disease.

1901 The Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi sent a wireless signal across the Atlantic Ocean with his radio wave apparatus. The signal was sent via a 160-ft (52 m) aerial in Cornwall, and Marconi received it almost instantly in St John's, Newfoundland, using an even higher aerial kept aloft by a kite. The feat was applauded on both sides of the Atlantic: instant long-distance communication without the need for telegraph wires had huge potential.

1906 In South Africa, the Transvaal was given autonomy with white male suffrage.

1907 Dinizulu, King of the Zulus, surrendered with several hundred of his followers to the commandant of the Natal forces, Colonel Sir Duncan Mackenzie.

1907 In New York, a rule was introduced forcing women to sign affidavits attesting to their age and good character before they marry.

1911 King George V was crowned Emperor of India and founds New Delhi as the new capital to replace Calcutta.

1913 Leonardo da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa, stolen from the Louvre in Paris two years earlier was recovered. It was found hidden under a bed in a small hotel in Florence. Four men were arrested. Police were tipped off by a Florentine art dealer who received a note from one of the thieves, an Italian house painter named Vincenzo Peruggia. He stole the painting because he was incensed by French chauvinism.

1915 The first all metal aircraft, the Junker J-1, received its test flight at Dessau in Germany.

1925 The term "motel" was coined when Arthur Heinman opened the Motel Inn at San Luis Obispo.

1939 Death of Douglas Fairbanks Snr (aged 56) Movie actor.

1950 Death of Peter Fraser, New Zealand politician, 1950

1951 Joe DiMaggio announced that he was retiring.

1955 Bill Haley and the Comets recorded `See You Later Alligator' at Decca Recording Studios, New York.

1955 Christopher Cockerell patented the first prototype of the hovercraft.

1964 The pilot episode of "Star Trek" television show started shooting. The episode was called "The Cage".

1968 Death of Tallulah Bankhead, US actress.

1969 "Hello Dolly" starring Barbra Striesand received its premiere.

1976 Death of Jack Cassidy (aged 49) Actor, father of David Cassidy.

1982 More than 20,000 British women linked hands around Greenham Common airbase in Berkshire in an all-women protest against plans to site US nuclear cruise missiles there next year. The women started camping around the base in September and were proving to be a strong force. Moves to evict them had been unsuccessful, and although several had been jailed, it did not deter them. The women's plan was to blockade the airbase, confronting US airmen as they arrive for work.

1985 Death of Anne Baxter, US film actress.

1988 In Britain, rock star Elton John was awarded damages of £1 million ($1.85 million) against the Sun newspaper for its libellous allegations about his private life.

1989 New York billionairess Leo Helmsley was fined $7 million (£3.8 million) and sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion. She was convicted in August evading tax of more than $1 million (£540,540). "Only little people pay taxes," she was quoted as saying The "little people" were undoubtedly applauding the sentence.

1990 US president George Bush agreed to send a $1000 million (£540 million) food aid package to the Soviet Union.

1991 The Russian parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of replacing the Soviet Union with a loose Commonwealth of Independent States. Russia immediately withdrew its MPs from the Kremlin in a boycott supported by Ukrainian and Byelorussian MPs. This left the Soviet parliament without a quorum, and it adjourned. Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev was left with his job, but no apparent function. Russia, the Ukraine and Byelorussia reached agreement on the Commonwealth plan the previous week, and Russian President Boris Yeltsin, architect of the plan, was due to meet the five Muslim Central Asian leaders at the weekend. There were already rifts in the new Commonwealth before it had been born, with new demands from the Byelorussian opposition, and radical Ukrainian amendments to the text of the agreement. However, the Soviet Union had no option left but a transfer of power.

1997 A Japanese firm of train builders claimed the world speed record (332 miles per hour).

1997 Carlos the Jackal went on trial. He was an international hitman.

1999 Lennox Lewis was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year. (Muhammed Ali was named as the Sports Personality of the Century)

2003 Azerbaijan's former President Heydar Aliyev died in hospital in the US, aged 80, following a long illness.

2003 Germany's parliament agreed to build a memorial to the many homosexual victims of the Third Reich.

2003 Footballer turned actor Vinnie Jones was given community service for assaulting another passenger and being abusive on an aeroplane.

2003 Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger was knighted by Prince Charles - and said he does not take it "too seriously".

2004 Eight men arrested over an alleged attempt to defraud the National Lottery were released on bail.

2004 A boy of 12 was charged with the rape of a teacher in County Durham.

2004 Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke for the first time of his love for married publisher Kimberly Quinn.

2004 British actress Imelda Staunton won best actress for the gritty "Vera Drake" at the European Film Awards.

2004 Kelly Holmes won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

BIRTHDAYS (for 12 December 2006)

Carl Maria von Weber, 220 (born 12 December 1786)
German composer who wrote the first opera in the German Romantic tradition - Der Freischutz.

Gustave Flaubert, 185 (born 12 December 1821)
French novelist whose first book, Madame Bovary, aroused accusations of immorality.

Edvard Munch, 143 (born 12 December 1863)
Norwegian painter and printmaker whose symbolic paintings reflect his profound pessimism.

Harry Warner, 143 (born 12 December 1863)
Movie studio boss.

Edward G. Robinson, 113 (born 12 December 1893)
Died 1973. American actor who was a menacing heavy in films such as Little Caesar and Key Largo.

Jean Anderson, 99 (born 12 December 1907)
Actress of 'The Brothers' and 'Tenko' fame

Frank Sinatra, 91 (born 12 December 1915)
(Died 1998, aged 82) Legendary singer and actor.

Dick James, 86 (born 12 December 1920)
Published early Beatles songs and he sang the theme tune to the "Robin Hood" television show.

John Osborne, 77 (born 12 December 1929)
(Died 1994, aged 65) British playwright and actor. Most famous play "Look Back in Anger.

Lionel Blair, 72 (born 12 December 1934)
Dancing personality

Connie Francis, 68 (born 12 December 1938)
American actress and singer.

Dionne Warwick, 66 (born 12 December 1940)
Singer with numerous hit songs.

Dickey Betts, 63 (born 12 December 1943)
Member of the Allman Bros.

Chas Hodges, 63 (born 12 December 1943)
One half of the successful Chas and Dave music partnership.

Grover Washington Jnr, 63 (born 12 December 1943)
Jazz performer and composer.

Clive Bunker, 60 (born 12 December 1946)
Drummer with Jethro Tull.

Emerson Fittipaldi, 60 (born 12 December 1946)
Brazilian winner of the Formula One championships in 1972 and 1974 and the Indy 500 in 1989 and 1993.

Belouis Some, 47 (born 12 December 1959)
Singer

Sheila E, 47 (born 12 December 1959)
Singer/songwriter.

Daniel O'Donnell, 45 (born 12 December 1961)
Irish country singer

Tracy Austin, 44 (born 12 December 1962)
Tennis player

Will Carling OBE, 41 (born 12 December 1965)
Rugby player

Today's The Day - 11th December

11th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Daniel the Stylite,
St Damasus, pope,
Saints Fuscianus, Victoricus and Gentianus,
and St Barsabas.

History Test for December 11th

The world's first motor show opened today in 1894 - in which European city? -Paris

Born today in 1882, which former Mayor of New York gave his name to an airport? -La Guardia in New York- after Fiorello Henry La Guardia

Today in 1936, Edward VIII made his historic abdication broadcast. Four years later he became governor of which British colony? -The Bahamas

Born today in 1944 which female singer had sixties hits with `Sweet Nothin's' and `Speak to Me Pretty'? -Brenda Lee

Born today in 1803, which French composer wrote his 'Symphonie Fantastique'? -Hector Berlioz

QUOTE “Things are being done in Ireland which would disgrace the blackest annals of the Lowest despotism in Europe.” - Herbert Asquith, former prime minister of Britain, 1920.

Events today...

1282 Death of Llewlyn ap Gruffydd, last native Prince of Wales.

1513 Death of Bernardino Pinturicchio, Italian painter.

1620 103 pilgrims aboard "The Mayflower" landed at Plymouth Rock in the U.S.

1688 King James II was arrested; he fled the country.

1769 Edward Beran of London patented venetian blinds.

1792 French King Louis XVI (16th) went on trial for treason.

1844 Nitrous oxide or laughing gas, was first used for a tooth extraction.

1866 The first yacht race across the Atlantic took place.

1877 Englishman Edward Muybridge, photographer of the American West, used his camera to solve an ancient riddle - and won a five-year-old bet for a millionaire. The Governor of California, rail magnate Leland Stanford, bet a friend that a running horse's feet are all off the ground simultaneously once every stride. Stanford commissioned Muybridge to settle the matter, and Muybridge presented an astonishing series of "frozen-frame" photographs of a galloping racehorse- and proved Stanford right. Muybridge made the photographs by running wires across a racetrack, each connected to a camera. The horse tripped the camera shutters as it raced past. Muybridge's work was interrupted while he went on trial for murdering his wife's lover - hence it took him five years. Now acquitted, he was using the technique to study dancers and runners in motion.

1894 The first motor show opened in Paris, with nine exhibitors.

1901 The first transatlantic radio message was sent by Marconi.

1909 A 2147 mile (3455 km) section of the Cape-to-Cairo railway was linked up at the Sudan-Congo border.

1914 In the Battle of the Falklands, all British ships survived while four German cruisers were sunk.

1916 David Lloyd George formed the British War Government.

1920 Britain declared martial law in large parts of Ireland in a bid to contain the Irish Republican Army's rebellion. Britain has over 40,000 soldiers in Ireland, and 7000 of the hated Black and Tans (ex-soldiers serving as police), whose brutality had been much criticized in England. Their "retaliations" in search of IRA gunmen left whole villages ablaze. The IRA's hit-and-run tactics tied the British forces in knots. The British brought in mainland experts to improve army intelligence, and two Sundays earlier, in a series of dawn raids, the IRA killed 14 of the experts in their beds. By nightfall 14 Irishmen were dead at the hands of the Black and Tans. Now towns were ablaze in the wake of a massive army clampdown.

1920 Death of Olive Schreiner, South African novelist.

1922 At London's Old Bailey, Edith Thompson was found jointly guilty with her lover, Frederick Bywaters, of murdering her husband and sentenced to death.

1936 Britain's King Edward VIII abdicated, less than a year after his accession to the throne. The king ended months of rumour and controversy in a radio broadcast to the nation from Windsor Castle. "I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love," he said. After the broadcast he boarded a Royal Navy destroyer in Portsmouth, taking him to exile in France to join the twice-divorced Mrs Wallis Simpson. Edward's younger brother became King George VI. Edward and Mrs Simpson first met in 1931 but their love affair did not begin until 1934, since when they were inseparable. His resolve to marry her could not be shaken even by the combined forces of the royal family, the cabinet and the church. Prime minister Stanley Baldwin finally told the king to choose between his throne and Mrs Simpson. He chose Mrs Simpson.

1941 Germany and Italy declared war on the USA.

1946 The UN Children's Fund "UNICEF" was formed.

1952 Two British teenagers were found guilty of murdering a London policeman. Derek Bentley, 19, was sentenced to death - although it was his accomplice, Christopher Craig, who fired the fatal shots. The judge described Craig as a highly dangerous criminal, but at only 16 he is too young to hang. The policeman was killed on the roof of a warehouse after a bungled burglary.

1961 The Elvis Presley album "Blue Hawaii" went to number one in the U.S. and stayed at that position for 20 weeks.

1961 The Marvelettes released their record "Please Mr Postman".

1963 In Los Angeles, Frank Sinatra Jr was set free after his father payed kidnappers $240,000 (£129,729).

1964 Death of Sam Cooke (aged 29) Singer biggest UK hit 'Wonderful World'.

1965 Death of American journalist and broadcaster Ed Roscoe Murrow.

1981 Mohammed Ali fought his final boxing match (his 61st fight) and he lost to Trevor Burbank.

1987 At Christie's auction house in London, Charlie Chaplin's cane and bowler sold for £82,500 ($152,625) and his boots for £38,500 ($71,225).

1990 The British government announced it would award £42 million ($77.7 million) to British haemophiliacs who became infected with the HIV virus after being treated with contaminated Factor VIII.

1991 Salman Rushdie, under an Islamic death sentence for blasphemy, made his first public appearance since 1989 in New York, at a dinner marking the 200th anniversary of the First Amendment (which guarantees freedom of speech).

1996 Comedian and writer Willie Rushton died.

2003 US efforts to set up a new army suffered a blow as hundreds of Iraqi recruits quit over pay.

2003 A French commission called for a ban on conspicuous religious signs, such as crucifixes and headscarves, in schools.

2003 A German court freed a second 9/11 suspect. Abdelghani Mzoudi walked free after evidence "exonerated" him of the 11 September events.

2003 Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said the armed forces needed more high-tech arms to help fight terrorism.

2003 London's Leicester Square was packed for the UK première of the final instalment in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

2003 Michael Jackson's parents said he was innocent of child abuse claims and they would adopt his children if he lost custody.

2003 Gary McAllister stood down temporarily as player-manager of Coventry City for personal reasons.

2004 Doctors said that the Ukraine opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko's mystery illness was caused by poisoning.

2004 EastEnders actress Jill Halfpenny won the second series of BBC talent show Strictly Come Dancing.

2004 Steve Brookstein beat vocal group G4 to win a £1m recording contract on ITV's The X Factor.

BIRTHDAYS (for 11 December 2006)

Elliott Carter, 98 (born 11 December 1908)
American composer whose works include the Double Concerto and Symphony for Three Orchestras.

Carlo Ponti, 93 (born 11 December 1913)
Producer director and Sophia Loren's hubby.

Liz Smith, 81 (born 11 December 1925)
Actress - 'Private Function' 'Vicar of Dibley'.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 78 (born 11 December 1928)
Russian writer best-known for The Gulag Archipelago.

Jean-Louis Trintignant, 76 (born 11 December 1930)
French actor whose films include A Man and a Woman and My Night with Maud.

Rita Moreno, 75 (born 11 December 1931)
Puerto Rican actress whose career in films and television and on Broadway encompassed an Oscar-winning performance in West Side Story.

David Gates, 66 (born 11 December 1940)
Singer of Bread fame - biggest UK hit 'Make it With You'.

Donna Mills, 63 (born 11 December 1943)
Actress.

Brenda Lee, 62 (born 11 December 1944)
Country singer 'Rockin Around the Christmas Tree'.

Teri Garr, 57 (born 11 December 1949)
Actress 'Close Encounters' 'Tootsie'.

Jermaine Jackson, 52 (born 11 December 1954)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Do What You Do'.

Nigel Pivaro, 47 (born 11 December 1959)
Actor - Terry Duckworth in 'Coronation St'.

Justin Currie, 42 (born 11 December 1964)
Bassist of Del Amitri.

Countdown To Christmas

1) The first instrument on which the carol Silent Night was played was:

A) A harp. B) A pipe organ. C) A guitar. D) A kazoo?

2) In Guatemala, Christmas Day is celebrated:

A) On January 6. B) On December 25. C) On October 31. D) Never?

3) Electric Christmas tree lights were first used in:

A) 1492. B) 1895. C) 1944. D) 1976?

4) Good King Wenceslas was king of which country?

A) Abyssinia. B) England. C) Bohemia. D) Gondor?

5) Medieval English Christmas pantomimes did not include which character?

A) St. Nicholas. B) The Bold Slasher. C) Father Christmas. D) The Turkish Knight?

6) The name of Scrooge's deceased business partner in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was:

A) Bob Cratchit. B) Jerry Cornelius. C) Bill Sykes. D) Jacob Marley?

7) In North America, children put stockings out at Christmas time. Their Dutch counterparts use:

A) Old hats. B) Beer mugs. C) Shoes. D) Stockings, just like everybody else?

8) The poinsettia, a traditional Christmas flower, originally grew in which country?

A) Canada. B) China. C) Mexico. D) Spain?

9) Which name does not belong to one of Santa's reindeer?

A) Comet. B) Prancer. C) Blitzen. D) Klaxon?

10) In Syria, Christmas gifts are distributed by:

A) The Three Kings. B) Tom o'Bedlam. C) One of the Wise Men's camels. D) Father Christmas?

11) One notable medieval English Christmas celebration featured:

A) A giant, 165-pound pie. B) Snowball fights between rival courtiers. C) A swimming race across the English Channel. D) Huge crackers that sometimes exploded fatally?

12) In Australia, usual Boxing Day activities include:

A) Building snowmen. B) Tobogganing. C) Wombat hunting. D) Surfing?

13) In Sweden, a common Christmas decoration is the Julbukk, a small figurine of a goat. It is usually made of what material?

A) Candy. B) Straw. C) Uranium. D) Fir wood?

14) The real St. Nicholas lived:

A) At the North Pole. B) On the island of Malta. C) In Turkey. D) In Holland?

15) Which of the following was not one of the Three Kings?

A) Caspar. B) Balthaza. rC) Teleost. D) Melchior?

16) In Armenia, the traditional Christmas Eve meal consists of:

A) Fried fish, lettuce and spinach. B) Square meat pies. C) Broiled partridges with gooseberry sauce. D) Turkey and plum pudding?

17) In Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker, the Nutcracker's main enemy is:

A) A girl called Clara. B) The King of the Mice. C) Dr. Almond. D) Drosselmeyer the magician?

18) The day after Christmas, December 26, is known as Boxing Day. It is also the holy day of which saint?

A) St. Eustace. B) St. Brigit. C) St. Nicholas. D) St. Stephen?

19) In Greek legend, malicious creatures called Kallikantzaroi sometimes play troublesome pranks at Christmas time. To get rid of them, you should:

A) Placate them with gifts of rice pudding. B) Burn either salt or an old shoe. C) Sing hymns in a loud voice. D) Throw your sandals at them?

20) When visiting Finland, Santa leaves his sleigh behind and rides on:

A) Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. B) A giant ptarmigan. C) A goat named Ukko. D) A flying carpet?

21) A boar's head is a traditional Christmas dish. According to a popular story, the unlucky boar whose head began the custom in the Middle Ages was killed by:

A) Choking to death on a book of Greek philosophy. B) King Wenceslas, who speared it from horseback. C) A falling fir tree. D) Remorse, after goring St. Nicholas?

22) When distributing gifts in Holland, St. Nicholas is accompanied by:

A) His wife Lucy. B) His servant, Black Peter. C) Thirteen elves. D) St. Stephen?

23) At Christmas, it is customary to exchange kisses beneath a sprig of which plant?

A) Ivy. B) Yew. C) Holly. D) Mistletoe?

24) Believe it or not, one Indiana town is called:

A) Christmasville. B) Wenceslas. C) Noel. D) Santa Claus?

25) Who was the author of A Christmas Carol?

A) Mark TwainB) Charles DickensC) Hans Christian AndersenD) Thomas M. Sawyer

26) Which popular Christmas song was actually written for Thanksgiving?

A) Away in a Manger. B) Frosty the Snowman. C) Jingle Bells. D) Joy to the World?

27) A favorite Christmas story is Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in...

A) Maryland. B) Boarding schoo. lC) Wales. D) China?

28) In 1647, the English parliament passed a law that:

A) Made Christmas illegal. B) Recognized Christmas as an official holiday. C) Let prisoners spend Christmas Day at home. D) Gave Santa immunity to break-and-enter charges?

29) The world's largest Christmas cracker was made (and pulled) in which country?

A) Sweden. B) Australia. C) England. D) The United States?

30) The poem commonly known as The Night Before Christmas was originally entitled:

A) Santa's Secret Visit. B) A Visit from St. Nicholas. C) The Night Before Christmas. D) The Midnight Guest?

************************************************************************

1) The first instrument on which the carol Silent Night was played was:

C) A guitar

The carol was first sung as part of a church service in Oberndorf, Austria. The unusual choice of guitar for the accompaniment rather than the traditional church organ has given rise to a number of picturesque stories (the organ bellows had been damaged by mice; the organ had been sabotaged; etc.), but in fact it was simply a matter of preference on the part of the author, Joseph Mohr.

2) In Guatemala, Christmas Day is celebrated:

B) On December 25

Guatemalan adults, however, do not exchange gifts until New Year's Day. Children get theirs (from the Christ Child) on Christmas morning.

3) Electric Christmas tree lights were first used in:

B) 1895

The idea for using electric Christmas lights came from an American, Ralph E. Morris. The new lights proved safer than the traditional candles.

NB: A correspondent has informed us that the General Electric company claims to have originated Christmas tree lighting in 1882, fully 13 years earlier than the date given in our answer. Unfortunately, we do not have access to an independent authority who could settle the matter beyond argument. In either case, however, answer (B) is clearly the best of the four choices given, so we will let it stand until further information becomes available.

4) Good King Wenceslas was king of which country?

C) Bohemia

The historical Wenceslas was actually only Duke of Bohemia, not a king. He lived in the tenth century.

5) Medieval English Christmas pantomimes did not include which character?

A) St. Nicholas

In Medieval England, Nicholas was just another saint - he had not yet metamorphosed into Santa Claus and had nothing to do with Christmas.

6) The name of Scrooge's deceased business partner in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was:

D) Jacob Marley

Jacob Marley's spirit was the first of four to appear to Scrooge on Christmas Eve.

7) In North America, children put stockings out at Christmas time. Their Dutch counterparts use:

C) Shoes

Traditionally, the shoes used are wooden ones called sabots.

8) The poinsettia, a traditional Christmas flower, originally grew in which country?

C) Mexico

In Mexico, the poinsettia is known as the 'Flower of the Holy Night'. It was first brought to America by Joel Poinsett in 1829.

9) Which name does not belong to one of Santa's reindeer?

D) Klaxon

A klaxon is actually an electric horn.

10) In Syria, Christmas gifts are distributed by:

C) One of the Wise Men's camels

The gift-giving camel is said to have been the smallest one in the Wise Men's caravan.

11) One notable medieval English Christmas celebration featured:

A) A giant, 165-pound pie

The giant pie was nine feet in diameter. Its ingredients included 2 bushels of flour, 20 pounds of butter, 4 geese, 2 rabbits, 4 wild ducks, 2 woodcocks, 6 snipes, 4 partridges, 2 neats' tongues, 2 curlews, 6 pigeons and 7 blackbirds.

12) In Australia, usual Boxing Day activities include:

D) Surfing

In Australia, as everywhere in the southern hemisphere, Christmas comes in the middle of summer.

13) In Sweden, a common Christmas decoration is the Julbukk, a small figurine of a goat. It is usually made of what material?

B) Straw

A variety of straw decorations are a usual feature of Scandinavian Christmas festivities.

14) The real St. Nicholas lived:

C) In Turkey

St. Nicholas was bishop of the Turkish town of Myra in the early 4th century. It was the Dutch who first made him into a Christmas gift-giver, and Dutch settlers brought him to America where his name eventually became the familiar Santa Claus.

15) Which of the following was not one of the Three Kings?

C) Teleost

A teleost is actually a bony fish.

16) In Armenia, the traditional Christmas Eve meal consists of:

A) Fried fish, lettuce and spinach

The meal was eaten after the Christmas Eve service, in commemoration of the supper eaten by Mary on the evening before Christ's birth.

17) In Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker, the Nutcracker's main enemy is:

B) The King of the Mice

The King of the Mice, usually represented with seven heads, leads his troops against the nutcracker's toy soldiers, but loses the battle when Clara, the heroine, stuns him with a hurled shoe.

18) The day after Christmas, December 26, is known as Boxing Day. It is also the holy day of which saint?

D) St. Stephen

And here, we used to say: St. Stephen, a 9th century Swedish missionary, is the patron saint of horses.

Further research, and a kind note from Pastor Philip A. Gardner of Lancaster, Ohio, reveals that the Boxing Day St. Stephen has in fact nothing at all to do with Sweden or with horses. The Stephen for whom the day is named is the one in the Bible (Acts 6-8) who was the first Christian to be martyred for his faith.

19) In Greek legend, malicious creatures called Kallikantzaroi sometimes play troublesome pranks at Christmas time. To get rid of them, you should:

B) Burn either salt or an old shoe

Apparently the stench of the burning shoe (or salt) drives off the Kallikantzaroi. Other effective methods include hanging a pig's jawbone by the door and keeping a large fire so they can't sneak down the chimney.

20) When visiting Finland, Santa leaves his sleigh behind and rides on:

C) A goat named Ukko

Finnish folklore has it that Ukko is made of straw, but is strong enough to carry Santa Claus anyway.

21) A boar's head is a traditional Christmas dish. According to a popular story, the unlucky boar whose head began the custom in the Middle Ages was killed by:

A) Choking to death on a book of Greek philosophy

The story tells us that a university student saved himself from a charging boar by ramming a book of Aristotle's writings down its throat. He then cut off the boar's head and brought it back to his college.

22) When distributing gifts in Holland, St. Nicholas is accompanied by:

B) His servant, Black Peter

Black Peter is responsible for actually dropping the presents down their recipients' chimneys, but he also punishes bad children by putting them in a bag and carrying them away to Spain.

23) At Christmas, it is customary to exchange kisses beneath a sprig of which plant?

D) Mistletoe

Mistletoe was associated with peace and friendship in ancient Scandinavia, which may account for the practice of kissing beneath it.

24) Believe it or not, one Indiana town is called:

D) Santa Claus

There is also a Santa Claus, Idaho.

25) Who was the author of A Christmas Carol?

B) Charles Dickens

After A Christmas Carol Dickens wrote several other Christmas stories, one each year, but none was as successful as the original.

26) Which popular Christmas song was actually written for Thanksgiving?

C) Jingle Bells

The song was composed in 1857 by James Pierpont, and was originally called One Horse Open Sleigh.

27) A favorite Christmas story is Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in...

C) Wales

This charming and poetic story is based partly on Thomas' memories of his own childhood. Originally a radio script, A Child's Christmas in Wales is now sold as a book and has been made into a television special.

28) In 1647, the English parliament passed a law that:

A) Made Christmas illegal

Christmas festivities were banned by Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell, who considered feasting and revelry on what was supposed to be a holy day to be immoral. The ban was lifted only when the Puritans lost power in 1660.

29) The world's largest Christmas cracker was made (and pulled) in which country?

B) Australia

The cracker, 150 feet long and 10 feet in diameter, was made by Ray Price in 1991.

30) The poem commonly known as The Night Before Christmas was originally entitled:

B) A Visit From Saint Nicholas

This poem was written by Clement Moore for his children and some guests, one of whom anonymously sent the poem to a New York newspaper for publication.

10 things we didn't know last week

Snippets harvested from the week's news, chopped diced and sliced for easy consumption.

1. There are 32 billionaires based in the UK who pay no personal tax here.

2. The space programme in the UK relies upon Indian and Chinese graduates to provide 80% of the scientific staff, MPs were told. More details

3. Stripping is, officially, an art form (in Norway at least). More details

4. Urban birds have developed a short, fast "rap style" of singing, different from their rural counterparts. More details

5. Left-handed people are better at computer games. More details

6. Bristol is the least anti-social place in England, says the National Audit Office. More details

7. It's only 62 years since the last person was prosecuted for witchcraft in the UK. More details

8. Standard-sized condoms are too big for most Indian men. More details

9. King Tutankhamun probably died from a broken leg, rather than being murdered with a blow to the head, say scientists.

10. The London tornado was one of 40 to hit the UK this year. More details

(Sources, where stories not linked - 1. Sunday Times, 3 December; 9. National Geographic, 1 December)

Today's The Day - 10th December

10th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Gregory, pope,
St Edmund Gerhings,
St Eustace White,
St john Robens,
St Eulalia of Merida
St Swithin Wells,
Saints Mannas, Hermogenes and Eugrphus,
St Polydoce Plaaden,
and St Melchiades or Miltiades.

History Test for December 10th

Born today in 1914, which actress is best remembered for her role in the 'Road' series of films with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby? -Dorothy Lamour

Today in 1903 which physicist became the first woman to receive the Nobel prize? -Marie Curie, who shared the award with her husband Pierre and Henri Becquerel for their work on radioactivity

Known as `The Voice of Wimbledon' which tennis commentator died today in 1992? -Dan Maskell

Which cataloguing system is named after an American librarian, born today in 1851? -The Dewey Decimal System - after Melvil Dewey

Which Andrew Lloyd Webber musical had its American premiere today in 1993 and starred Glenn Close? -`Sunset Boulevard'

Events today...

1475 Death of Paolo Uccello Italian painter.

1582 The Gregorian calendar was used by France for the first time.

1688 King James II fled from London.

1768 The Royal Academy of Arts was founded in London by George III, with Joshua Reynolds as its first president.

1810 The first inter-racial boxing championship was held between Tom Gribb (from Great Britain) against Tom Molineaus (a U.S. negro) and lasted 40 rounds!!!!.

1845 Pneumatic tyres were patented by Scottish civil engineer Robert Thompson.

1865 Death of Leopold I, King of the Belgians.

1869 With the campaign for women's suffrage gaining ground on both sides of the Atlantic, Wyoming became first American territory to grant the vote to women. American feminists founded a women's rights movement in 1855, but now in 1869 the movement was split over endorsing the 15th Amendment, which gave the vote to blacks, but not to women.

1896 Death of Alfred Nobel, Swedish industrialist and philathropist.

1898 Cuba became independent of Spain following the Spanish-American War.

1899 The Boers fought the British Army at the Battle of Storm Berge in South Africa.

1901 The first Nobel Peace Prizes were awarded. (Jean Henri Duant and Frederick Passey).

1902 In Egypt, the 1.25 mile (2 km) long,130 foot (39 m) high Aswan Dam on the Nile was completed after four years of work.

1907 Rudyard Kipling received the Nobel prize for literature.

1910 Puccini's opera La fanciulla del West was premiered in New York with Toscanini conducting.

1915 The Ford Motor Company began construction on its 10 millionth "Model T" automobile.

1921 Albert Einstein received the Nobel Physics Prize in Stockholm. The gentle Jewish genius of Berlin was world famous, though he had never sought fame. In the public eye he was a hero of science, the pure thinker whose piercing vision reached beyond time and space to peel away the mysteries of the universe. Time and space were not absolutes, Einstein said, they were relative to each other. Nothing was fixed, and nothing was straight, since gravity bent space-time. The only constant was the speed of light, and even light would bend: if a ray of starlight grazed the Sun's surface, the pull of the Sun's gravity would bend it by slightly less than one two-thousandths of a degree, Einstein predicted. Two years earlier scientists put this theory to the test during the solar eclipse- and found bent starbeams. Einstein's theory of general relativity had triumphed.

1941 The Royal Naval battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk by Japanese aircraft in the Battle of Malaya.

1946 Death of Damon Runyan (aged 62) Author 'Guys and Dolls'.

1963 Donny Osmond, aged 6, made his television debut on the "Andy Williams Show".

1963 A state of emergency was declared in the South Arabian Federation after a grenade was thrown at a group of government ministers and British diplomats at Aden airport.

1967 Death of Otis Redding (aged 26) Singer 'Sittin on the Dock of the Bay'.

1974 The European Economic Community called for a European Community.

1978 Death of Ed Wood (aged 54) Producer and director of some of the worst films ever made including 'Plan 9 from Outer Space'.

1978 Millions of Iranians demonstrated in the streets to demand the abdication of the Shah and an end to the month-old military government.

1979 Calcutta's Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her ceaseless work helping the destitute. Born in Albania in 1910, she joined a convent at 18 and taught in her order's school in Calcutta. In 1946 she heard "a call within a call" to help the desperately poor people around her and was given permission to leave the convent. She found people dying in the streets and took them into a home to die in dignity, rescued orphans and cared for them. Other women joined her, and in 1950 she formed the Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the destitute. Now they run 700 shelters and clinics. Calcutta is the world's most crowded place, with millions living in grinding poverty. The "living saint" and her sisters in Christ were often their only hope of survival.

1984 In Oslo, Desmond Tutu, Anglican Bishop of Johannesburg, had to wait an extra 20 minutes to receive his Nobel Peace Prize when the ceremony is interrupted by a bomb threat.

1987 Death of Jascha Heifitz (aged 86) Russian violinist.

1989 In Czechoslovakia, president Gustav Husak swore in the first majority non-communist government since 1948 and immediately resigned his post.

1990 Australia's oldest newspaper empire, the Fairfax Group, went into the hands of the receivers with debts of A$1500 million (£660/$1222 million).

1990 In the Serbian republic in Yugoslavia the Communist Party won a free election.

1991 It was announced that weddings had never been less fashionable. The marriage rate in England was less than half that of 20 previous, according to government figures released. Nearly one in three couples in their twenties were living together. At least one in 10 marriages now ended in divorce within five years. The divorce rate was growing at record speed, and only a quarter as many divorcees remarried as in 1971. The rate of births outside marriage almost tripled in 10 years, with more than 200,000 babies born to unmarried parents in England and Wales in 1990. The abortion rate was also soaring.

1996 Death of Faron Young (aged 64) Country singer.

2003 Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi received her award and attacked the West over human rights.

2003 Swiss far-right leader Christoph Blocher won a seat in government, transforming a 40-year-old political system.

2003 A mother jailed for life for the murder of her two baby sons, had her conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal.

2003 Arsenal beat Lokomotiv Moscow 2-0 to reach the last 16 of the Champions League.

2004 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was cleared of corruption charges after a four-year trial.

2004 Ukraine's presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko was having tests in Austria into his mystery illness.

2004 A student who tried to assassinate French President Jacques Chirac was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

2004 Soul star James Brown was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was to undergo surgery the following week.

2004 US sprinter Michelle Collins is banned for doping offences despite not failing a drugs test.

BIRTHDAYS (for 10 December 2006)

Cesar Franck, 184 (born 10 December 1822)
Belgian composer who developed a `cyclic form' - the use of the same theme in more than one movement of a work.

Emily Dickinson, 176 (born 10 December 1830)
American poet who wrote over 1700 poems, only seven of which were published in her lifetime.

Olivier Messiaen, 98 (born 10 December 1908)
French composer and organist whose works include the symphony La Turangalila and the opera St Francis d'Assise.

Jill Summers, 96 (born 10 December 1910)
Coronation Street's Phyllis

Dorothy Lamour, 92 (born 10 December 1914)
Died 1996. American actress best-known for the `Road' films she made with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.

Harold Gould, 83 (born 10 December 1923)
Actor - 'Rhoda' 'Golden Girls'.

Dan Blocker, 74 (born 10 December 1932)
(Died 1972) Actor - Hoss in 'Bonanza'.

Peter Sarstedt, 64 (born 10 December 1942)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Where Do You Go To My Lovely'.

Clive Anderson, 54 (born 10 December 1952)
TV Chat show host

Susan Dey, 54 (born 10 December 1952)
Actress 'L A Law' 'Partridge Family'.

Paul Hardcastle, 49 (born 10 December 1957)
Musician - biggest UK hit '19'.

Pepsi Demacque, 48 (born 10 December 1958)
Singer of Pepsi and Shirley fame.

Kenneth Branagh, 46 (born 10 December 1960)
Actor director 'Hamlet' 'Frankenstein'.

Today's The Day - 9th December

9th December 2006
The national day of Tanzania.

Religious events today...
Feast day of The Seven Martyrs of Samosaca,
St Peter Fourier,
St Budoc or Beuzec,
St Gorgonia,
and St Leocadia.

History Test for December 9th

Born today in 1608, who wrote the epic poems `Paradise Lost' and `Paradise Regained'? -John Milton

Sir Anthony van Dyck died today in 1641. He was court painter to which king? -Charles I

Today in 1960, the first episode of `Coronation Street' was screened live. Which future pop star played Ena Sharples' grandson Colin? -Davy Jones of The Monkees

The opera `Salome' was premiered in Dresden today in 1905. Who wrote it? -Richard Strauss

Donny Osmond was born today in 1957. What was the title of his first UK Number One chart hit? -`Puppy Love'

Events today...

1641 The Flemish painter Sir Anthony Van Dyke died in London at the age of 42.

1688 The wife and son of King James II fled to France.

1762 "The Treaty of Paris" was accepted by the British Parliament.

1783 The first executions at Newgate Prison took place.

1814 Death of Joseph Brahmah, English inventor of the beer pump, and hydraulic press.

1854 The poem "The Charge of The Light Brigade" by Lord Tennyson was published.

1868 Gladstone was elected prime minister of Britain, beginning the a first of his four terms.

1910 The Turks suppressed an Arab uprising in Palestine.

1917 The British captured Jerusalem from the Turks, during World War I.

1931 Spain became a republic.

1939 There was a Russian air raid on Helsinki.

1940 The first major offensive in North Africa (Libya) by British troops.

1941 Hitler issued orders that U.S. ships must be torpedoed.

1945 In Frankfurt, General Patton suffered chest injuries in a road accident (paralysing him from the neck down).

1955 Sugar Ray Robinson regained the world middleweight boxing crown by knocking out Carl Olson.

1960 The first episode of Coronation Street was screened on ITV.

1963 Frank Sinatra Jnr was kidnapped.

1963 Death of Juan de la Cierva, Spanish engineer.

1964 Death of Edith Sitwell, English poet and author.

1967 Nicholae Ceausescu became president of Romania.

1968 Death of Karl Banh Swiss theologian.

1971 Three hundred children died as a plane bombed an orphanage in Dacca, East Pakistan.

1972 Death of Louella Parsons (aged 91) Hollywood gossip columnist.

1978 Two American Pioneer spacecraft reached Venus providing the best picture of the planet, so far.

1987 The first martyrs of the 'intifada' in the Gaza Strip were created when an Israeli patrol attacked the Jabaliya refugee camp.

1990 The Solidarity trade Union founder and leader Lech Walesa was elected president of Poland in the country's first ever direct presidential elections.

1991 Berenice Abbott, American photographer best-known for her black and white studies of New York in the 1930's died at the age of 93.

1991 Sensational revelations came to light that the Maxwell empire collapsed amid massive debts and evidence of shady deals to prop up share prices. The news came a month after Robert Maxwell died at sea, apparently falling naked from the deck of his luxury yacht in the middle of the night.

1992 Death of Vincent Gardenia (aged 70) Actor 'Moonstruck'.

1993 Death of Danny Blanchflower, Irish footballer.

1996 Death of Patty Donahue (aged 40) Drummer with The Waitresses.

1999 Manchester United star, David Beckham was banned from driving. He alleged he was chased by a photographer along Kingsway in Manchester and was clocked at 78mph. His ban came only 3 days after that of club mate Andy Cole.

2003 Six people were killed in an explosion in Moscow, which was described as a botched suicide bombing.

2003 Property baron Nicholas van Hoogstraten said he would sue after being formally cleared of killing a business rival.

2003 Rock singer Ozzy Osbourne was in intensive care in hospital after a quad bike crash at his UK home.

2003 The US Secret Service decided not to investigate an Eminem lyric to determine if it threatened President Bush.

2003 Cuban pianist Ruben Gonzalez, one of the leading lights of the Buena Vista Social Club, died aged 84.

2003 Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ryan Giggs scored as Man Utd beat Stuttgart 2-0 in the Champions League. Chelsea convincingly beat Besiktas 2-0 in Gelsenkirchen to win Group G.

2003 England rugby hero Jonny Wilkinson escaped injury and "was fine" after car crash.

2004 US police said they still had no idea why a gunman shot and killed guitarist Darrell Abbott and three others at a rock concert.

2004 F1 and Silverstone's owners agreed a five-year deal to save the British Grand Prix.

BIRTHDAYS (for 09 December 2006)

John Milton, 398 (born 09 December 1608)
English poet whose works included `Paradise Lost'.

Clarence Birdseye, 120 (born 09 December 1886)
American pioneer of deep-frozen food.

Hermoine Gingold, 109 (born 09 December 1897)
(Died 1987) Actress.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr., 97 (born 09 December 1909)
American actor whose films include `The Prisoner of Zenda', `Catherine the Great', and `Sinbad the Sailor'.

Broderick Crawford, 95 (born 09 December 1911)
(Died 1986) Actor.

Kirk Douglas, 88 (born 09 December 1918)
American actor who specialised in tough, dramatic roles as typified in `Lust for Life', `Paths of Glory', and `Spartacus'.

Redd Foxx, 84 (born 09 December 1922)
(Died 1991) Actor comedian.

Bob Hawke, 77 (born 09 December 1929)
Australian politician and Labour prime-minister from 1983-1991.

John Cassavetes, 77 (born 09 December 1929)
(Died 1989) Actor director - 'Rosemary's Baby'.

Buck Henry, 74 (born 09 December 1932)
Actor screenwriter.

Dame Judi Dench OBE, 72 (born 09 December 1934)
Actress.

Beau Bridges, 65 (born 09 December 1941)
Actor - 'Fabulous Baker Boys'.

Billy Bremner, 64 (born 09 December 1942)
Footballer.

Rick Danko, 63 (born 09 December 1943)
Member of The Band.

Neil Innes, 62 (born 09 December 1944)
Novelty singer of Bonzo Dog Doo Dah and Rutles fame.

Joan Armatrading, 56 (born 09 December 1950)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Love and Affection'.

John Malkovich, 53 (born 09 December 1953)
Actor - 'Dangerous Liaisons' 'In the Line of Fire'.

Donny Osmond, 49 (born 09 December 1957)
Singer of Osmond Brothers fame.

Nick Seymour, 48 (born 09 December 1958)
Bass player of Crowded House.

Today's The Day - 8th December

8th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of the Immaculate Conception,
St Romaric,
St Eucharius,
St Sophronius of Cyprus,
and St Patapius.

History Test for December 8th

Which bridge, spanning the River Avon in Bristol was designed by Brunel and opened today in 1864? -The Clifton Suspension Bridge

Who starred in the seventies TV series `Kung Fu' and celebrates a birthday today? -David Carradine

Born today in 1939, which flautist had a UK chart hit with 'Annie's Song'? -James Galway

Born today in 1894, who is the American author of the short story 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'? -James Thurber

Name the Prime Minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974, who died today in 1978. -Golda Meir

Events today...

1847 An international convention of the Communist League adopted the principles of Karl Marx.

1854 Pope Pius IX declared the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary to be an article of faith.

1859 Thomas de Quincey, opium addict, essayist and master of English prose, died in Scotland after a difficult but fruitful life. He was 74. De Quincey ran away from his boarding school at 17 and was living as a beggar in London when his family rescued him. He was sent to Oxford, but left before graduating. Plagued by facial neuralgia, he began taking opium to sooth the pain, and became addicted to it for life. He had constant financial problems, and wrote essays for periodicals to pay his debts. He wrote biographies of his friends, the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge, literary criticism history essays on economics and fiction. But it was his autobiography that won him acclaim: Confessions of an English Opium-Eater appeared in two parts in the London Magazine in 1821. He had planned it as a journal of his addiction, but it became a pioneering exploration of dreams and their nature. He never completed its sequel.

1863 President Abraham Lincoln offered an amnesty to Confederate deserters.

1863 The world's first heavyweight boxing championship was held at Woodhurst in Kent, England; Englishman Tom King beat John C. Heenan of the US.

1864 Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge at Bristol was opened.

1881 Hundreds of people died when the Ring Theatre was destroyed by fire in Vienna.

1903 Death of British philosopher Herbert Spencer, best-known for his book The Man versus the State and the coining of the phrase "survival of the fittest".

1911 Richard Strauss's opera Salome received its British premiere in London.

1914 German and British fleets battled at Falkland Island.

1931 Coaxial cable was patented.

1941 The USA, Britain, and Australia declared war on Japan, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

1949 The show "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" open at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York and ran for 740 performances.

1949 Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government fled from China to Taiwan.

1956 Guy Mitchell went to number one in the U.S. with his song "Singing The Blues" and it stayed at the top of the charts for 10 weeks.

1962 New York newspapers went on strike for 114 days.

1974 Greek monarchy was rejected by a referendum.

1978 Death of Golda Meir (aged 80) Israeli Prime Minister.

1978 Death of Simon Marks, English retailer,

1980 Forty-year-old ex-Beatle John Lennon was murdered in New York, aged 40. Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono were walking into their apartment building when a man approached and shot Lennon five times. Lennon was rushed to hospital, but did not recover. Police said the killer, Mark Chapman, 25, had shadowed Lennon since arriving from Hawaii three days earlier. He had asked Lennon for his autograph, and Lennon obliged. Chapman was calm after the shooting, and offered no explanation.

1982 Death of Marty Robbins (aged 57) Country singer.

1983 Death of Slim Pickens (aged 64) Actor 'Blazing Saddles' 'Dr Strangelove'.

1987 The US and the USSR agreed to dismantle all 2611 medium- and short-range nuclear missiles based in Europe - the first agreement to cut the nuclear arsenals. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in Washington at the end of what was clearly a cordial summit meeting. The treaty provided for full on-site verification. It had to be ratified by the US Senate before it became effective.

1988 New Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto released 1000 political prisoners.

1990 Death of Martin Ritt (aged 76) Director 'Long Hot Summer'.

1991 The leaders of Russia, Byelorussia, and the Ukraine signed an agreement forming a 'Commonwealth of Independent States' to replace the USSR; the decision was denounced by President Gorbachev as unconstitutional.

1991 Wildlife investigators uncovered an illegal scheme to sell 15,000 elephant tusks worth £6 million ($11 million) to ivory dealers in defiance of the international trade ban on ivory. The 83 tons of poached tusks, the world's largest ivory stockpile, had been bought from the government of Burundi by two South African businessmen. They planned to fly the ivory out of Burundi and sell it in secret in the Far East. Four-fifths of Africa's elephants had been slaughtered for their tusks over 10 years.

1993 A storm hit Western Europe and 11 people were killed in England.

2000 The Coronation Street cast took part in an hour-long live episode of the soap to celebrate 40years of the programme.

2003 A German on trial for killing and eating a man he met via the Internet told a court he sought more willing victims.

2003 England's Rugby World Cup heroes ended a day of celebration with a champagne reception at 10 Downing Street.

2003 Property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten, jailed for killing a business rival, was set free at the Old Bailey.

2003 Transvestite potter Grayson Perry said it was "odd" being part of the art establishment after his Turner Prize win.

2003 DJ Neil Fox announced he was stepping down as the voice of the commercial singles charts countdown after a decade.

2003 Blackburn boss Graeme Souness was hit with a Football Association charge after a bust-up with referee Graham Poll.

2004 Ukraine's opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko hailed "a great victory" after parliament passed wide-ranging reforms.

2004 A Royal Navy Lynx helicopter carrying four people crashed into the sea off the Cornish coast.

2004 The director of the film version of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" said he would remove references to God.

BIRTHDAYS (for 08 December 2006)

Mary, Queen of Scots, 464 (born 08 December 1542)
Scottish queen who was forced to abdicate in favour of her son, James VI (James I of England), and was later imprisoned and executed by her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Georges Melies, 145 (born 08 December 1861)
(Died 1938) French trick movie pioneer.

James Thurber, 112 (born 08 December 1894)
Died 1961. American humorist, writer and cartoonist whose satires on intellectual fashions appeared in the New Yorker over many years.

Lee J. Cobb, 95 (born 08 December 1911)
(Died 1976) Actor.

Richard Fleischer, 90 (born 08 December 1916)
American film director whose works include Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, The Vikings and The Boston Strangler.

Sammy Davis Jr, 81 (born 08 December 1925)
Died 1990. American actor, dancer, singer and comedian whose films include Porgy and Bess, Ocean's Eleven and Sweet Charity.

Stan Richards, 76 (born 08 December 1930)
Emmerdale's Seth

Maximillian Schell, 76 (born 08 December 1930)
Actor.

James McArthur, 69 (born 08 December 1937)
Actor - Dano in 'Hawaii 5-0'.

James Galway, 67 (born 08 December 1939)
Irish flautist.

David Carradine, 66 (born 08 December 1940)
American actor most associated with the television series Kung Fu.

Geoff Hurst, 65 (born 08 December 1941)
England Soccer Hero

Jim Morrison, 63 (born 08 December 1943)
Died 1971. American singer with cult rock group the Doors.

Gregg Allman, 59 (born 08 December 1947)
Singer guitarist of Allman Brothers Band fame - 'Jessica'.

Rick Baker, 56 (born 08 December 1950)
Special FX make up artist.

Kim Basinger, 53 (born 08 December 1953)
Actress - 'L A Confidential'.

Sam Kinison, 53 (born 08 December 1953)
(Died 1992) Loudmouth comedian.

Phil Collen, 49 (born 08 December 1957)
Member of Def Leppard.

Paul Rutherford, 47 (born 08 December 1959)
Member of Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

Brian McClair, 43 (born 08 December 1963)
Manchester United Great

Teri Hatcher, 42 (born 08 December 1964)
Actress - Lois and Clark's Lois Lane.

Sinead O'Connor, 40 (born 08 December 1966)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Nothing Compares 2 U'.

Today's The Day - 7th December

7th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Martin of Saujon,
St Ambrose of Milan,
St Eutychianus,
St Servus,
and St Buithe or Boethius.

History Test for December 7th

French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps died today in 1894. Which waterway is he famous for constructing? -Suez Canal

Today in 1916, whom did David Lloyd George succeed as British Prime Minister? -Herbert Asquith

Which state, known as the 'Diamond State', became America's first today in 1787? -Delaware

The Roman orator Cicero was assassinated today in 43 BC - on the orders of which statesman? -Mark Anthony

Born today in 1932, which actress won an Oscar for her role in the film 'Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore'? -Ellen Burstyn

Events today...

43 BC Roman orator and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero was executed for the Philippics, a series of attacks on Mark Anthony.

1431 In Paris, Henry VI of England was crowned King of France.

1732 London’s new Royal Italian Opera House in Covent Garden opened its doors to an élite crowd for a sparkling performance of John Gay’s The Beggars Opera.

1783 William Pitt was made British prime minister and chancellor of the exchequer, at the tender age of 24.

1787 Delaware became the first of the United States.

1815 Marshal Ney, Napoleon’s most illustrious general, was executed in Paris for treason for supporting Napoleon at Waterloo instead of arresting him as he had been instructed by the allies to do.

1817 Death of Rear-Admiral William Bligh (aged 63), captain of the Bounty when its crew mutineered.

1889 Gilbert and Sullivan's "Gondoliers" received its premiere in London.

1894 Death of Ferdinand de Lesseps, French engineer.

1907 At London's National Sporting Club, Eugene Corri became the first referee to officiate from inside a boxing ring.

1909 A royal proclamation creating the self-governing Union of South Africa, comprising the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange River and Transvaal, was read from the steps of the Royal Exchange in London.

1916 David Lloyd George became Prime Minister after H H Asquith retired.

1917 In Washington, President Woodrow Wilson declared war on Austria.

1926 The gas refrigerator was patented.

1937 In the Netherlands married women were forbidden to work.

1941 The first Japanese submarine was sunk by USS Ward, as a task force launched a massive surprise attack on the American base at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii.

1945 The microwave cooker was patented.

1962 Death of Kirsten Flagstad, Norwegian operatic soprano.

1967 Otis Redding recorded "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay".

1975 Death of Thornton Wilder, US novelist.

1982 Charles Brooks Jr, a Death Row prisoner at Fort Worth Prison in Texas, became the first American to die by lethal injection.

1983 Two jet aircraft collided at Madrid Airport killing 93 people.

1985 Death of Robert Graves, English poet and author.

1988 An earthquake in Armenia killed thousands and caused widespread destruction.

1988 Nelson Mandela was moved to a luxury home in the grounds of Pollsmoor Prison.

1988 President Gorbachev announced that Soviet military strength would be cut by ten percent within the next two years.

1988 The cities of Spitak and Leninakan near the Turkish border were virtually wiped out and more than 100,000 people were feared dead as an earthquake devastated northern Armenia.

1989 A gunman who claimed to hate feminists massacred 14 women at the University of Montreal before turning the gun on himself.

1989 A revolt in the Philippines ended as 400 rebel troops abandoned their siege of Manila’s business centre.

1990 Death of Joan Bennett (aged 80) Actress.

1990 A week-long succession of violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims in several Indian cities began, resulting in about 300 deaths and 3,000 arrests.

1991 Following a 67-day siege, Yugoslavian federal army and navy forces wrecked Dubrovnik’s historic Old Town in a savage two-day bombardment.

1993 Death of Wolfgang Paul, German nuclear physicist.

1994 American radio personality Howard Stern talked a man out of attempting suicide.

1997 Former Leeds and Scotland midfielder Billy Bremner died at the age of 54. He was capped 54 times for his country and the backbone of the great Leeds side of the 60s and 70s.

1998 The first two sections of the International Space Station were fitted together many, many miles above the Earth.

2003 Commonwealth leaders agreed to continue Zimbabwe's suspension but the country reacted by quitting the grouping.

2003 Politicians continued to squabble over who was invited to the Downing Street reception for England's World Cup-winning rugby team.

2003 Wearing a frilly purple dress, Grayson Perry picked up this year's Turner Prize for contemporary art.

2003 Josh Lewsey scored two tries as Wasps beat Perpignan 28-7 in their Heineken Cup opener.

2004 Parliament's watchdog decided to investigate David Blunkett's giving of free rail tickets to his ex-lover.

2004 BBC boss Mark Thompson told staff the corporation must save £320m a year and lose almost 3,000 jobs.

2004 Wolves appointted former England boss Glenn Hoddle as their new manager on a six-month contract.

BIRTHDAYS (for 07 December 2006)

Mary Stuart, 464 (born 07 December 1542)
Queen of Scots.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 408 (born 07 December 1598)
Died 1680. Italian sculptor and architect whose major works include the piazza and colonade of St Peter’s in Rome.

Pietro Mascagni, 143 (born 07 December 1863)
Italian composer best-known for the one-act opera Cavelleria Rusticana.

Louis Prima, 95 (born 07 December 1911)
(Died 1978) Jazz trumpeter and singer - the voice of King Louis in 'Jungle Book'.

Eli Wallach, 91 (born 07 December 1915)
American actor specialising in tough-guy roles.

Ellen Burstyn, 74 (born 07 December 1932)
American actress who won an Oscar for Alice Doesn’t live here Anymore.

Stan Boardman, 64 (born 07 December 1942)
Comic

Harry Chapin, 64 (born 07 December 1942)
(Died 1981) Singer 'WOLD' 'Cats in the Cradle'.

Sue Johnston, 63 (born 07 December 1943)
TV's Medics

Ronnie Sessions, 58 (born 07 December 1948)
Country singer.

Tom Waits, 57 (born 07 December 1949)
Singer.

Mike Nolan, 52 (born 07 December 1954)
Member of Bucks Fizz.

Colin Hendry, 41 (born 07 December 1965)
Blackburn Soccer Star

Linda Layton, 36 (born 07 December 1970)
Actress ('Grange Hill') and singer of Beats International fame.

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Christmas Mega Quiz - 100 Questions (10 Themed Categories of 10 Questions)
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Christmas Years - 20 Events
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Today's The Day - 6th December

6th December 2006
National Day of Finland.

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Gertrude the Elder,
St Abraham of Kratia,
St Nicholas of Bari,
St Asella, and Saints Dionysia, Majoricus and their Companions.

History Test for December 6th

Name the English author of the novels `Barchester Towers' and 'The Warden', who died today in 1942? -Anthony Trollope

Born today in 1896, which Amercian lyricist wrote the musical 'Lady Be Good' with his brother George? -Ira Gerschwin

Born today in 1920 which American jazz musician formed a famous quartet and composed the popular `Take Five'? -Dave Brubeck

In America today in 1973, who was sworn in as Richard Nixon's Vice President? -Gerald Ford

Which Beatles hit reached Number One in the UK pop charts today in 1967 and could be described as a hurried greeting? -`Hello Goodbye'

Events today...

1492 Columbus discovered Hispaniola, now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

1648 Oliver Cromwell's troops surrounded Parliament at Westminster and refused to admit 200 Presbyterian MPs, purging the whole of the majority that opposed Cromwell's Independents. The remaining 50 MPs, all Independents, voted hearty thanks to Cromwell for his great services, and moved on to discuss the fate of King Charles, who Cromwell was holding captive on the Isle of Wight. The Presbyterian faction tried to make a deal with the king. They hardly expected Cromwell's simple solution to the threat.

1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie's army retreated to Scotland.

1756 British troops occupied Fulta in India. The troops were lead by Robert Clive.

1768 The "Encyclopaedia Britannica" was published for the first time.

1774 Austria became the first nation to introduce a State education system.

1779 Death of Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, French painter.

1793 Madame du Barry, last mistress of King Louis XV of France, is sent to the guillotine by the Revolutionary Council.

1877 With a recording of himself reciting Mary Had a Little Lamb Thomas Edison demonstrated the first gramophone, in New jersey, USA.

1882 Death of English novelist Anthony W Trollope, who made his name with a series of novels set in an imaginary county called Barsetshire.

1889 Death of Jefferson Davies, former president of the Confederate States of America.

1892 Death of Ernst Werner von Siemens, German inventor.

1905 Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen landed at Fort Egbert, Alaska, after a 2½ year voyage along America's Arctic coast in his 47 foot (14 m) cutter.

1907 In Monongah, West Virginia 361 people were killed in America's a worst mine disaster.

1911 Mongolia was declared a Russian protectorate.

1914 The Germans captured the Polish city of Lodz.

1917 Finland proclaimed independence from Russia.

1921 Ireland's 26 southern states were granted independence from Britain, becoming the Irish Free State. Six of the eight Protestant-majority counties of Ulster in the north would remain part of the UK, splitting the country in two. The agreement was signed in Downing Street following negotiations between Prime Minister David Lloyd George's team and the rebel Irish nationalist leaders. A special council was to be set up to discuss eventual reunification. Both sides prefered a single Irish parliament in Dublin, but Ulster's Protestant leaders refused to bow to the Catholic South.

1926 Mussolini introduced a tax on bachelors.

1956 Nelson Mandela and 156 others were arrested in South Africa for their political activities.

1963 The Beatles released a Christmas record for their fans and this was copied by other artists.

1963 Christine Keeler sobbed in a London court when she was jailed for nine months for perjury. The English "model", 21, admitted lying about two men hiding in her bedroom when an ex-boyfriend assaulted her. She was the protege of Dr Stephen Ward who ran a high-society sex ring. Her lovers included John Profumo, Minister of War.

1969 300,000 fans attend a rock concert in Altamont, California featuring the Rolling Stones.

1982 11 soldiers and 6 civilians died when a bomb exploded in a pub at Ballykelly in Northern Ireland. The Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the bombing.

1988 American rock 'n' roll singer and songwriter Roy Orbison died of a heart attack at the age of 52.

1989 In Colombia, more than 40 people were killed by a bomb at the headquarters of the security police.

1990 An Italian military aircraft crashed in flames into a secondary school near Bologna, killing 12 and injuring a further 65.

1990 Saddam Hussein announced that he would free all of the 2,000 foreign hostages held in Iraq and occupied Kuwait.

1991 French President François Mitterrand honoured the victorious French Davis Cup tennis team at a reception at the Elysee Palace in Paris. The French players were national heroes. Against all odds they pole-axed the US team, winning back the trophy after 59 years. Star players were Guy Forget and Henri Leconte, but the real star was the non-playing captain, Yannick Noah. who had set an entirely new style for team captains. His high-powered encouragement from the courtside was the key to the trophy. Noah pleaded and ranted and genuinely inspired his players, while his opposite number, US captain Tom Gorman, sank into his chair in despondency. Noah could do no wrong in France.

1993 Death of Don Ameche (aged 85) Actor.

1995 Michael Jackson collapsed whilst rehearsing for a television special.

1999 It was announced that the price of obtaining a British Passport would rise from £21 to £28 on December 16th.

2003 Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe intensified threats to quit the Commonwealth, as leaders agonised over its suspension.

2003 Three people were killed when a light aircraft crashed as it attempted to land at an airport near Oxford.

2003 Chelsea stayed top of the Premiership despite a 1-1 draw with lowly Leeds United.

2003 Ruud van Nistelrooy and Diego Forlan both scored twice as Man Utd beat Aston Villa 4-0.

2003 Singer Chris de Burgh's daughter was crowned as Miss World.

2004 Seven bombs exploded in cities across Spain, following warnings from the Basque separatist group Eta.

2004 Two people were killed when a train crashed into a van on a level crossing in Lincolnshire.

2004 Comedian Joe Pasquale was voted king of the jungle in TV reality show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here.

BIRTHDAYS (for 06 December 2006)

Warren Hastings, 274 (born 06 December 1732)
English colonial administrator and first governor-general of India who was impeached for corruption on his return to England and acquitted after a trial before the House of Lords which cost him £70,000 ($129,000).

Ira Gershwin, 110 (born 06 December 1896)
Died 1983. American lyricist who, with his brother George, wrote such hits as `Lady be Good' and `I Got Rhythm'.

Dave Brubeck, 86 (born 06 December 1920)
American jazz pianist and composer who had a big hit with `Take Five'.

Wally Cox, 82 (born 06 December 1924)
comedian.

Jonathan King, 62 (born 06 December 1944)
Producer performer.

Tom Hulce, 53 (born 06 December 1953)
Actor - Mozart in 'Amadeus' - voice of Quasimodo in Disney's 'Hunchback'.

Steven Wright, 51 (born 06 December 1955)
American comedian "it's a small world but I wouldn't want to paint it".

Peter Buck, 50 (born 06 December 1956)
Member of R.E.M.

Ben Watt, 44 (born 06 December 1962)
of Everything but the Girl.

Ulf "Buddah" Ekberg, 36 (born 06 December 1970)
Member of Ace of Base.

Today's The Day - 5th December

5th December 2006
The national day of Thailand.

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Christian,
St Sabas,
St Justinian or Iestin,
St Crispina,
St Nicetius of Trier,
St Sigiramnus oc Cyran,
and St John Almond.

History Test for December 5th

Today in 1933, what unpopular measure officially came to an end in America? -Prohibition

French author Alexandre Dumas died today in 1870. Who are 'The Three Musketeers' in his famous story? -Athos, Porthos and Aramis

Name the ship found mysteriously abandoned and empty west of Gibraltar today in 1872. -The Marie Celeste

Born today in 1935 who had a UK chart hit in the fifties with 'Good Golly, Miss Molly'? -Little Richard

Walt Disney was born today in 1901. What did he call his series of cartoons which began in 1929 with `Skeleton Dance'? -`Silly Symphonies'

QUOTE “Your parole officer has not yet been born.” - Edwin Torres, US judge, sentencing a murderer,1991.

Events today...

1594 The great Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator died, aged 82. Mercator was a many-sided man, a philosopher, calligrapher, technician, instrument-maker and engraver, but it was his maps that won him renown - and helped the Netherlands grow into a sea-power. Mercator was at the centre of the great advances in mapmaking technique made this century. His method of depicting the world's curved surface on flat paper using straight lines of longitude and latitude soon became standard practice. Mercator designed a map of the world in 1538, and three years later a globe based on maps and descriptions by Ptolemy, Marco Polo and the Spanish and Portuguese navigators. In 1569 he published a series of world maps for use by navigators. Mercator worked on a world atlas and history of the world for 20 years, but never completed it. His son now planned to publish it in its unfinished state.

1766 James Christie, founder of the famous auctioneers, held his first sale in London.

1791 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna of kidney failure. He was only 35, and at the height of his genius. Mozart wrote his first compositions when he was five, played before the Vienna court at the age of six, went on a concert tour of Europe when he was seven and composed his first symphony at the age of nine. He wrote more than 600 works. Mozart's work was often too deep and complex for his audiences, though he had a profound influence on other musicians, and he was dogged by money problems to the end. Only the gravedigger attended his burial in a Viennese suburb.

1792 George Washington was re-elected president of the US.

1837 The premiere of "Requiem" by Hector Berlioz.

1854 The folding theater chair patented.

1870 Death of Alexandre Dumas pere, aged 68, author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.

1899 Death of Henry Tate, English businessman and philanthropist.

1904 The Russian fleet was destroyed by the Japanese at Port Anhur, during the Russo-Japanese War.

1905 The roof of Charing Cross Station in London collapsed, killing five.

1906 After a sensational nine-month trial by an ecclesiastical court, Episcopalian rector the Rev. Algernon S. Crapsey of Rochester, New York, was convicted of heresy and expelled from ministry. The church had charged that Crapsey, influenced by the writings of Karl Marx and the French theologist Ernest Renan, had questioned the divinity of Christ. The case created widespread controversy on both sides of the Atlantic.

1906 Russian admiral Niebogatov went on trial accused of surrendering ships to the Japanese.

1908 The first American football game in which players were numbered was played, at Pittsburgh.

1910 A convoy of barges on the River Volga in Russia sank, drowning 350 workmen.

1912 Italy, Germany and Austria renewed the Triple Alliance for a further six years.

1920 In a referendum, the Greek people voted for the return of their monarch, ex-King Constantine, removed by the Allies in 1917.

1926 Death of Claude Monet (aged 86) French impressionist painter.

1928 The Aussies got a sound thrashing when England beat Australia by a record 675 runs.

1933 The US was celebrating the end of 14 long years of Prohibition. Utah became the last state to ratify the 21st Amendment, which effectively nullified the 18th Amendment of 1919 prohibiting the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors". The 18th Amendment, passed over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, was the result of long campaigning by the Temperance Movement and the Women's Christian Temperance Union - boosted unexpectedly by the World War One grain shortage. The "Noble Experiment" just did not work. Americans did not stop drinking - the law simply pushed the lucrative liquor trade into the hands of criminals like Al Capone and many others. Enforcement proved impossible, and unpopular even with the police. Anti-Prohibition "wets" had now won their campaign to restore individual freedom of choice.

1940 Death of Jan Kubelik, Czech violinist.

1945 The "lost squadron" crashed in the Bermuda Triangle east of Florida.

1952 London suffered its worst ever smog and thousands of people died.

1956 Rose Heilbron became Britain's first female judge.

1958 Britain's first motorway, the Preston by-pass, was opened by Prime Minister Macmillan.

1967 The fab four (The Beatles) opened their clothing shop "Apple" at 94 Baker Street in London.

1968 "Beggar's Banquet" LP by the Rolling Stones was released.

1973 "Band on the Run" was released by Paul McCartney.

1977 President Sadat of Egypt severed links with Syria, Libya, Algeria and South Yemen.

1978 The USSR signed a 20-year treaty of friendship with Afghanistan.

1983 Death of Robert Aldrich (aged 65) Producer/director 'The Dirty Dozen'.

1988 The space shuttle Atlantis launched the world's first nuclear war fighting satellite.

1990 Salmon Rushdie appeared in public for the first time in 2 years after his death had been ordered by Iran for blasphemy in his book "The Satanic Verses".

1993 The single by Mr Blobby, a pink and yellow spotted BBC television star, reached number one in the charts.

2003 Russia's president Putin said his country would not be cowed after a bomb on a southern commuter train killed 42.

2003 American athletes called for anyone who tests positive for steroids to be banned for life.

2003 The UN war crimes tribunal jailed a Bosnian Serb general for his role during the bloody siege of Sarajevo.

2003 The draw for the 2006 World Cup qualifiers was made. England were to meet both Wales and Northern Ireland.

2003 A signed manuscript by Ludwig Van Beethoven fetched more than £1m at auction.

2003 Actress Helen Mirren was invested as a dame during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London.

2004 Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf arrived in London to hold talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

2004 The new Band Aid version of Do They Know It's Christmas? went straight to the top of the UK singles chart.

BIRTHDAYS (for 05 December 2006)

Christina Georgina Rossetti, 176 (born 05 December 1830)
English poet

General George Armstrong Custer, 167 (born 05 December 1839)
Died 1876. American cavalry commander known for his "last stand" against the Cheyenne and Sioux Indians.

Fritz Lang, 116 (born 05 December 1890)
Died 1976. Austrian film director whose many fine works inciude Metropolis, M and The Big Heat.

Walt Disney, 105 (born 05 December 1901)
Died 1966. US filmmaker and animator

Otto Preminger, 100 (born 05 December 1906)
Died 1986. Austrian film director whose best-known films include The Man with the Golden Arm and Anatomy of a Murder.

Little Richard, 71 (born 05 December 1935)
American pioneer of rock 'n' roll whose hits include "Tutti Frutti" and "Good Golly Miss Molly".

J J Cale, 68 (born 05 December 1938)
Country singer.

José Carreras, 60 (born 05 December 1946)
Spanish operatic tenor who overcame leukaemia and resumed his successful career as one of the superstars of the heroic arias.

Andy Kim, 60 (born 05 December 1946)
Singer - 'Rock me Gently'.

Jim Messina, 59 (born 05 December 1947)
Singer of Loggins and Messina fame.

Today's The Day - 4th December

4th December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of St Maruthas,
St Bernard of Parma
St Sola,
St Osmund,
St Anno,
St Barbara, virgin-martyr,
and St John of Damascus.

History Test for December 4th

First published today in 1791, which is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper? -The Sunday Observer

Actress Gemma Jones was born today in 1942. In which seventies TV series did she play a hotel manager in Edwardian London? -`The Duchess of Duke Street'

Which five ex-P.M's joined Mrs. Thatcher at No.10 today in 1985, to celebrate its 250 years as an official home? -James Callaghan, Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home

Born today in 1865 which British nurse helped Allied soldiers escape to Holland and was later executed? -Edith Cavell

Which comic, first published today in 1937, featured Desperate Dan and his craving for cow pies? -`The Dandy'

Events today...

1154 The only Englishman to become a pope Nicholas Breakspear, became Adrian IV.

1642 Armand du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu, who had ruled France for his king for 18 years, died, aged 57. Richelieu had survived constant conspiracies by jealous nobles, always one step ahead in the plot. Richelieu was foreign secretary when young King Louis XIII overthrew his mother to take the throne. He almost had Richelieu murdered, but fired him instead. Later Louis came to understand what he had in this pragmatic priest: a brilliant man, totally dedicated to France - and to the throne. In 1624 Louis made him chief of the royal council and gave him total authority. Richelieu has ruled ever since, with an iron hand and unerring skill. As a result, Louis survived the ‘Thirty Years' War, and France was at the forefront of European power - to the cost of her enemy, Spain. With Richelieu dead, King Louis had lost his right arm.

1732 Death of John Gay, English poet and dramatist best-known for the ballad opera The Beggar's Opera.

1791 The Sunday Observer, Britain’s oldest Sunday newspaper was published for the first time.

1798 Death of Luigi Galvani, Italian physician who pioneered research into the electrical properties of living things.

1798 William Pitt the Younger first introduced income tax in Britain, to finance the wars with revolutionary France.

1808 Napoleon abolished the Inquisition in Spain.

1812 The power motor was patented by Peter Gaillard.

1923 Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" premiered in Hollywood.

1829 Under British rule, suttee (whereby a widow commits suicide by joining her husband's funeral pyre) was made illegal in India.

1872 The American brigantine Marie Celeste was found adrift in the Atlantic between the Azores and Portugal, her captain and crew mysteriously missing. The British brigantine Dei Gratia came upon the ship and boarded her when she failed to respond to their signals. The ship was deserted and the lifeboat was not on board. The rigging was slightly damaged, but the cargo of 1700 barrels of alcohol had not been touched. The captain's table was set for a meal which was never eaten. The Marie Celeste sailed from New York on November 7 bound for Genoa, commanded by Captain Benjamin S. Briggs and carrying a crew of eight and the captain's wife and daughter. They left no message aboard and there is no indication of what can have happened to them.

1912 Turkey reached an armistice with all the Balkan allies except Greece.

1913 Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst was arrested in Plymouth on her return to the UK from the U.S.

1915 Georgia officially recognised the Ku Klux Klan.

1921 Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, comic star of the silent screen, was found not guilty of rape and manslaughter. The jury voted 10-2 in Arbuckle's favour. The charge arose from the previous year of Hollywood starlet Virginia Crabbe following a drinking party in Arbuckle's hotel room. She was raped at the party and accused Arbuckle before dying in hospital of internal injuries. The prosecution was pressing for a retrial following the verdict.

1937 In Britain, The Dandy comic was published for the first time.

1947 Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire was premiered on Broadway, with Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy in the leading roles.

1961 Birth control pills became available nn the NHS.

1962 Actor James Caan made his acting debut in an episode of "The Untouchables" on television.

1969 Death of Jack Payne, British bandleader.

1973 The original Fuller Brush Man has died. Alfred Fuller started working as a brush salesman in Boston at the turn of the century. Later he started his own company, making the wire brushes and selling them himself door-to-door. The Fuller Brush Company was incorporated in 1913, with a nationwide direct sales organization. In 1960 Fuller published his autobiography, "A Foot in the Door".

1974 Death of British composer Benjamin Britten, whose best-known works include the operas Billy Budd, Peter Grimes and Death in Venice.

1976 Death of Tommy Bolin (aged 25) Member of Deep Purple.

1976 Elizabeth Taylor married future senator John Warner.

1980 Following the death of drummer John Bonham the remaining members of Led Zeppelin announced that they were disbanding.

1983 Death of Perez Prado (aged 67) Bandleader.

1988 Actor Gary Busey was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident.

1991 Pan American World Airways ceased operations. A smaller version, Pan Am returned in September 1996.

1991 News correspondent Terry Anderson, the longest-held Western hostage in Lebanon (2,454 days in captivity), was freed by Islamic jihad.

1993 Astronauts grabbed the Hubble Space Telescope at 357 miles above Earth. It led to 5 days of repairs.

1993 Death of Frank Zappa (aged 52) Musician the master of avant-garde rock.

1995 NATO troops landed for the first time in the Balkans to begin setting up a peace keeping mission.

1996 The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester was opened by the Queen and Prince Philip. An innovative design, the 26,000 tonne auditorium was supported on springs for sound isolation purposes.

2003 President George W Bush made a political U-turn by repealing illegal tariffs on steel and avoiding a trade war with Europe.

2003 Polish PM, Leszek Miller was hospitalised with a back injury after his helicopter crash-landed near Warsaw.

2003 Actor David Hemmings, who starred in cult 1960s films Blow-Up and Barbarella, died aged 62.

2004 The 850-strong Black Watch battle group pullsd out of Camp Dogwood and returnsd to its base in Basra, southern Iraq.

2004 Pop group Busted's theme song for the Thunderbirds movie was voted the UK's Record of the Year.

2004 A secret staircase was found in a house that inspired novel Jane Eyre - just as author Charlotte Bronte had described it.

BIRTHDAYS (for 04 December 2006)

Thomas Carlyle, 211 (born 04 December 1795)
Scottish historian and essayist whose works include Sartor Resartus and The French Revolution.

Samuel Butler, 171 (born 04 December 1835)
English satirical novelist best known for Erewhon and the autobiographical The Way of All Flesh.

Edgar Wallace, 131 (born 04 December 1875)
(Died 1932) Author.

General Francisco Franco, 114 (born 04 December 1892)
Died 1975. Spanish dictator from 1939 until his death in 1975.

Deanna Durbin, 84 (born 04 December 1922)
Canadian actress who first found fame as a teenage star in films such as Three Smart Girls and One Hundred Men and a G.N.

Ronnie Corbett, 76 (born 04 December 1930)
Comedian 'Two Ronnies'.

Wink Martindale, 72 (born 04 December 1934)
DJ and Top 40 singer with 'Deck of Cards'!.

Chris Hillman, 64 (born 04 December 1942)
Member of The Byrds.

Dennis Wilson, 62 (born 04 December 1944)
(Died 1983) Drummer of The Beach Boys.

Jeff Bridges, 57 (born 04 December 1949)
American actor whose films include The Last Picture Show and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.

Pamela Stephenson, 56 (born 04 December 1950)
Actress comedienne 'Not the Nine o'clock News' Billy Connolly's wife.

Paul McGrath, 47 (born 04 December 1959)
Manchester United

Today's The Day - 3rd December

3rd December 2006

Religious events today...
Feast day of Saints Claudius, Hilacia and their Companions
St Birinus,
St Lucius of Britain,
St Cassian of Tangier,
and St Francis Xavier.

History Test for December 3rd

Born today in 1857, who wrote the novels `The Secret Agent' and `Lord Jim'? -Joseph Conrad

Today in 1967, Dr. Christian Barnard performed the first heart transplant. In which town did it take place? -Cape Town, South Africa - at the Groote Schuur Hospital

Actor Paul Nicholas was born today in 1945. Name the character he played in the TV comedy `Just Good Friends'. -Vince Pinner

Today in 1917, the world's longest cantilever bridge opened in Canada. Which river does it span? -The St. Lawrence - a total length of 987m (3239 ft)

Name the author of `The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde', who died today in 1894.-Robert Louis Stevenson

QUOTE “It is no accident that the symbol of a bishop is a crook, and the sign of an arch-bishop is a double-cross.” - Dom Gregory Dix, British monk, 1977.

Events today...

1552 Death of Spanish Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier, who helped Ignatius Loyola found the Jesuit order and subsequently worked mainly in Japan, India and the Indies.

1596 Potatoes were introduced to England by Sir Thomas Herriot.

1810 The British captured Mauritius from the French.

1828 John Quincy Adams lost the US presidential election to his arch-rival Andrew Jackson. Adams's term as president was blocked at almost every turn by the Jacksonian faction. Frontier soldier Jackson, of Tennessee, was backed by the new Democratic Party, supported by southern farmers and northern workers. A noisy crowd of farmers and other supporters invaded the White House in Washington to celebrate Jackson's victory, causing considerable upset and some damage.

1839 Death of Frederick VI, King of Denmark.

1894 Death of Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson (aged 44), author of Treasure Island.

1905 British troops put down a riot in Georgetown, British Guiana.

1907 Mary Pickford and Cecil B. DeMille opened on Broadway in the play "The Warrens of Virginia.

1909 King Edward VII dissolved the British parliament and taxes on alcohol, tobacco and cars were suspended as no Budget had been passed.

1910 Neon lights developed by French physicist George Claude made their debut in Paris.

1910 Death of Mary Baker Eddy, US founder of Christian Science.

1910 France occupied the Moroccan port of Agadir.

1917 The Quebec Bridge, the world's longest cantilever, over the St Lawrence River, was opened - 87 lives were lost during its construction.

1918 Death-rates in the world-wide epidemic of killer influenza were beginning to fall. Almost every country had been hit since the deadly new strain of the disease first arose earlier in the year. Called Spanish 'flu, where it really came from is a mystery. The Far East was worst hit, with millions dead in China and India.

1919 The most sensual of the French Impressionist painters, Auguste Renoir, died at his villa near Cannes in France. He was 78. Though crippled by rheumatism, he was still painting hours before he died. Renoir and Claude Monet launched the Impressionist movement at a notorious exhibition in 1874. They worked outdoors, capturing nature's caprice in fleeting moments of light and colour. The critics sneered at the works' "half-finished" appearance, but a wiser world now sneers at the critics.

1920 British writer Rudyard Kipling won damages of £2 against a medical company that had used part of his poem "If" in an advertisement.

1925 In New York, police smashed the biggest bootlegging ring since Prohibition began and arrested 20 people.

1926 British novelist Agatha Christie disappeared from her home in Surrey.

1931 Alka Seltzer made its debut.

1955 The songs "Mystery Train" and "I" were the first releases by Elvis Presley on RCA Records.

1961 At the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Henri Matisse's painting Le Bateau, which had heen hanging upside-down for 46 days was hung the right way up.

1965 The Beatles launched their final tour and played Glasgow. Their album "Rubber Soul" was also released.

1967 A South African heart surgeon, Dr Christiaan Barnard, successfully performed a human heart transplant operation. Leading a large team of surgeons at Groote Schurr Hospital in Cape Town, Barnard replaced the mortally diseased heart of Louis Washkansky, a 53-year-old grocer, with the healthy heart of a 25-year-old motor accident victim, Denise Darvall. Barnard said the main problem was not the operation itself but persuading the patient’s immune system not to reject the new heart.

1977 "Mull of Kintyre" by Wings reached number 1 on the British chart and stayed there for 8 weeks.

1978 "Mommie Dearest" (about Joan Crawford) hit the best seller list.

1979 11 people died when thousands of fans of The Who jammed the entrances to the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati to get to unreserved seats.

1980 Death of Oswald Mosley, English fascist leader.

1984 More than 3000 people are feared killed and hundreds of thousands injured in the world's worst-ever industrial accident following a chemical spill at a pesticide factory in India. A storage tank at the Union Carbide (India) plant in Bhopal, central India, began leaking just after midnight, sending a deadly gas spreading silently through the sleeping city. In three hours the tank leaked more than 30 tons of the chemical, methyl isocyanate (MIC). Most of those killed suffocated or choked to death. Many survivors suffered severe lung damage, while others were blinded or had heart, kidney or liver damage. The plant was shut down as soon as the spill was discovered, and five Union Carbide officials were arrested. The government declared the city a disaster area and asked for assistance. Union Carbide pledged to compensate victims as if the accident had happened in the US.

1986 Judas Priest and CBS Records had a law suit filed against them after it was claimed that two fans shot themselves after listening to the band's music for six hours.

1989 The Cold War ended after 52 years of superpower rivalry. With communist rule crumbling in Eastern Europe, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George Bush ended their shipboard summit meeting off Malta and hailed the start of a new era of peace and cooperation. The leaders announced two arms treaties to be signed the following year, reducing strategic nuclear forces by half and cutting conventional forces in Europe. Both sides had already dismantled their intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

1990 Argentinian president Carlos Menem foiled an attempted coup.

1993 Death of Frank Zappa, US composer and guitarist.

1993 Death of Lewis Thomas, US physician and biologist.

1998 Manchester United’s assistant manager, Brian Kidd, moved to Blackburn to take up a new job as manager in his own right.

1999 It was announced that Stevie Wonder was to undergo an operation to restore his sight. The operation was to involve a microchip.

2002 Liam Gallagher arrived back in Britain without his two front teeth. He lost them in a brawl in a Munich hotel and also faced two years in jail after kicking a policeman in the chest. Oasis cut short their tour.

2003 Self-confessed German cannibal, Armin Meiwes, told his trial in Kassel of a lifelong obsession that led to him eating a fellow human.

2003 Severe floods killed five in southeastern France, as Marseille was declared a disaster area and more rain was forecast.

2003 West Brom beat an inexperienced Man Utd side 2-0 to reach the last eight of the Carling Cup and Aston Villa eased through to the quarter-finals with a 3-0 defeat of Crystal Palace. A last-minute penalty from Youri Djorkaeff gave Bolton a 3-2 win over holders Liverpool at Anfield.

2004 Ukraine's top court orderED a repeat of the second round of the presidential poll, backing opposition claims of fraud.

2004 Police investigating child sex charges against pop star Michael Jackson raided his Neverland ranch in California.

2004 David Blunkett won the first round of a High Court battle with his ex-lover over access to her son.

2004 Former TV chat show host and MEP Robert Kilroy-Silk had a bucket of slurry thrown over him in Manchester.

BIRTHDAYS (for 03 December 2006)

Thomas Beecham, 186 (born 03 December 1820)
(Died 1907) Inventor of Beecham's Powders.

Charles Alfred Pillsbury, 164 (born 03 December 1842)
(Died 1899) The original Pillsbury Dough boy - flour mill founder.

Joseph Conrad, 149 (born 03 December 1857)
Died 1924. Polish-born English author whose books include Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness.

Anton von Webern, 123 (born 03 December 1883)
Austrian composer whose music influenced Boulez and Stravinsky, among others.

Walt Disney, 105 (born 03 December 1901)
American film producer and film animator who created such immortals as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.

Jean-Luc Godard, 76 (born 03 December 1930)
French film director, one of the pioneers of the nouvelle vague of French cinema in the 1960s.

Andy Williams, 76 (born 03 December 1930)
Singer - biggest UK hit 'Butterfly'.

Ralph McTell, 62 (born 03 December 1944)
Singer 'Streets of London'.

Paul Nicholas, 61 (born 03 December 1945)
Actor 'Just Good Friends'.

Ozzy Osbourne, 58 (born 03 December 1948)
Heavy Metal singer.

Mel Smith, 54 (born 03 December 1952)
Comedian - director of 'Bean'.

Eamonn Holmes, 47 (born 03 December 1959)
TV presenter.

Daryl Hannah, 45 (born 03 December 1961)
Actress 'Splash' 'Roxanne'.

Christmas Bumper Quiz Special

The 2006 Christmas Quiz Special

A PDF Document containing all you will need for the Festive Season!
Great for Office Parties - You can be the Quizmaster!!!

Santas Picture Quiz 1 - 20 Famous Santas to identify
Christmas Carols quiz - 10 Questions
Christmas Greetings from Around The World - Guess the countries#
Christmas Quick Quiz - 20 Questions & Tiebreakers
Santas Picture Quiz 2 - 20 More Famous Santas to identify
Christmas Mega Quiz - 100 Questions (10 Themed Categories of 10 Questions)
Christmas Songs - Initials of 60 Festive Songs
Christmas Years - 20 Events
Santas Picture Quiz 3 - 20 Mixed Santas to identify
Christmas Multiple Choice quiz - 20 Questions
Christmas Message Quiz
Christmas Number Ones Quiz
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10 things we didn't know last week

Snippets harvested from the week's news, chopped, diced and sliced for easy consumption.

1. The late Alan "Fluff" Freeman, famous as a DJ, had trained as an opera singer. More details.

2. Jan Leeming married five times but took the surname of a former partner she did not wed.

3. £6.5bn is spent each year in the UK on shoes.

4. Baby Spice Emma Bunton has a karate brown belt - that's just one below a black belt.

5. A geiger counter will not pick up traces of Polonium 210 as it emits alpha radiation, not gamma.

6. A sea creature from 400 million years ago, discovered by archaeologists, had the most powerful bite of any fish in history. More details

7. For red wine drinkers, grapes grown in Sardinia and the French Pyrenees are associated with longevity. More details

8. The lion costume in the film Wizard of Oz was made from real lions. More details

9. Fridge magnets could be fatal for people with heart devices such as pacemakers, say medical researchers. More details

10. A healthy eating campaign by Icelandic children's TV star Sportacus - whose TV show lazy Town is broadcast worldwide - was responsible for a 22% increase in the sale of vegetables in his home country.

[2. The Times, 23 November; 3. Daily Mail, 29 November; 4. Daily Express, 30 November; 5. The Guardian, 1 December; 10. Guardian, 24 November]

July 1 start-date for smoking ban

The smoking ban in England will come into effect on July 1 2007.

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt confirmed the start-date for the ban, which will apply to all enclosed public places, including pubs and bars.

The announcement gives licensees just seven months to prepare for the legislation.

England will become the last part of the UK to enforce a blanket ban. Wales is due to go smoke-free on April 2 and Northern Ireland on April 30. Scotland introduced a ban earlier this year and the Republic of Ireland outlawed smoking in 2004.

Ms Hewitt said: "This is a triumph for public health and a huge step forward for health protection.

"Thousands of people's lives will be saved and the health of thousands more protected. Smoke-free legislation will protect everyone from the harm of secondhand smoke when working, socialising and relaxing and will provide a more supportive environment for smokers who wish to give up.

Pubs are still waiting the final guidelines on the ban, which will include details of the type of outdoor areas that will be permitted.

Reacting to the announcement, Rob Hayward, chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, said: "This is a critical milestone in the progress towards implementing the smoking ban. We now have greater clarity around precisely how and when it will come into force.

"The decision on the date provides the necessary clear timeline.

"Business, particularly the whole of the hospitality sector, can now prepare for the vital task of communicating with the public about the changes they can expect to experience.

"We look forward to continuing to work constructively with government and other agencies to ensure the glide path to implementation is a smooth and surprise free as possible."