On this day

1057 - Macbeth, the King of Scotland, was slain by the son of King Duncan.

1842 - The first regular British detective force was formed as a division of the Metropolitan Police, under the joint command of Inspector Pearce and Inspector John Haynes. In 1878 it became known as the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

1888 - T.E. Lawrence, Welsh soldier and writer known as 'Lawrence of Arabia', was born, in Tremadog, Gwynedd.

1939 - The Cunard liner Queen Mary recaptured the Blue Riband from the SS Normandie, crossing the Atlantic in 3 days, 22 hours and 40 minutes.

1947 - Pakistan was founded when British rule over the region ended. India gained independence from Britain and the Union Jack was lowered in New Delhi for the last time. Pandit Nehru became India’s first Prime Minister.

1969 - The Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in upstate New York.

1985 - Richard Branson's speedboat Virgin Atlantic Challenger capsized off the south-west of England. He was just two hours short of completing the fastest-ever Atlantic crossing.

1987 - Caning was officially banned in British schools (excluding independent schools).

1988 - Glasgow passport office started to issue the new EEC passports. It was the first office to be computerised to dispense the burgundy coloured documents, which replaced the traditional blue ones.

2001 - Astronomers announced the discovery of the first solar system outside our own - two planets orbiting a star in the Big Dipper.

Its VJ day today, 15 August - Victory over Japan 1945

1939 - "The Wizard of Oz" premiered in Hollywood, CA. Judy Garland became famous for the movie's song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

1965 - The Beatles set a record for having the largest single crowd at a concert at Shea Stadium in New York. Attendance was 56,000.

1969 - The Woodstock Music and Art Fair began in Bethel, NY. The three-day concert featured 24 bands and drew over 400,000 people.

1997 - Tony Nicole Tony Records filed suit against Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS for alleged intentional interference with KISS drummer Peter Criss' contract with the label. The suit maintained that Simmons and Stanley convinced Criss to break his contract with the label.

1513 - King Henry VIII of England and his troops defeated the French in the Battle of the Spurs, at Guinigatte, France.

1743 - The earliest prize-ring code of boxing rules was formulated in England by the champion fighter Jack Broughton.

1858 - A telegraphed message from Queen Victoria to US President Buchanan was transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable.

1930 - The first British Empire Games (now the Commonwealth Games) were held at Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

1954 - Sports Illustrated was first published by Time Inc.

1955 - Fiat Motors orders 1st private atomic reactor.

1960 - Britain granted independence to the crown colony of Cyprus.

1977 - Elvis Presley died at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, aged 42.

1984 - John De Lorean was acquitted in Los Angeles of charges that he conspired to import 100kg of cocaine, of which the proceeds would be used to save his financially troubled Northern Ireland car company.

1988 - IBM introduces software for artificial intelligence.

1796 - English ships under the command of Admiral George Keith Elphinstone, were responsible for trapping the Dutch Fleet in Saldanha Bay, South Africa, paving the way for South Africa becoming part of the British Empire.

1836 - Under the Registration Act, the compulsory registration of births, deaths and marriages was introduced in Britain.

1896 - Mrs Bridget Driscoll of Croydon, Surrey, became the first pedestrian in Britain to die after being hit by a car. It is said she froze in panic at the sight of the oncoming car, which was travelling at just four miles per hour...yes...four miles per hour.

1896 - A prospecting party discovered gold in Alaska, which kicked off the Klondike Gold Rush.

1958 - Britain announced plans to continue nuclear testing on Christmas Island.

1989 - Electronic tagging was used for the first time in Britain.

1990 - The National Trust for Scotland admitted that the Glenfinnan monument, marking the spot where Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his standard in 1745 was almost certainly in the wrong place and was probably chosen for its scenic value.

1998 - President Bill Clinton underwent grand jury questioning in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

1227 - The Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan died.

1825 - Scottish explorer Alexander Gordon Laing became the first European to reach Timbuktu, now in Mali. He was murdered there the following month.

1932 - Scottish aviator Jim Mollison made the first westbound solo transatlantic flight in a light aircraft when he arrived in New Brunswick after leaving Portmarnock in Ireland 30 hours earlier.

1941 - Britain's National Fire Service was established.

1962 - Ringo Starr joined The Beatles.

1966 - The Tay road bridge was opened by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

1967 - The luxury liner Queen Mary was sold to the Southern Californian town of Long Beach.

1561 - Mary Queen of Scots arrived in Scotland to assume the throne after spending 13 years in France.

1685 - The beginning of the 'Bloody Assizes' in England with Judge Jeffreys regularly sentencing people to death.

1942 - British and Canadian troops launched a disastrous attack on German-held Dieppe. Of the 6,000 troops involved, only about 2,500 returned. The rest were killed or captured.

1960 - Penguin Books received a summons in response to their plans to publish Lady Chatterley's Lover.

2004 - The Internet search engine Google went public.

1913 - Harry Brearley of Sheffield cast the first stainless steel.

1940 - Prime Minister Winston Churchill paid tribute to the Royal Air Force, saying, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

1944 - World war II: American and British forces destroyed the German Seventh Army at Falaise-Argentan Gap, west of Paris, capturing 50,000 German troops.

1977 - The United States launched Voyager 2, an unmanned spacecraft carrying a 12-inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.

1992 - The Daily Mirror published compromising photographs of the Duchess of York on holiday in France with a Texan 'financial adviser'.

1808 - The French forces, under General Junot, were defeated by the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Vimiero.

1858 - Victoria Cross winner Sir Sam Browne invented the Sam Browne belt to hold his sword and pistol after he had lost an arm in action. It soon became standard military kit.

1936 - The BBC made its first television broadcast from Alexandra Palace.

1959 - U.S President Eisenhower signed an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union.

1976 - Mary Langdon became Britain's first female firefighter when she joined the East Sussex Brigade.

1988 - More flexible licensing laws allowed public houses to stay open 12 hours in the day, except on Sunday.

1996 - The new Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in Southwark, London, opened with a production of Two Gentlemen of Verona.

1976 - It was announced by RCA Victor records that the sales of Elvis Presley records passed the 400 million mark.

1990 - Prince released the soundtrack to "Graffiti Bridge."

1992 - Sting and Trudi Styler were married.

1997 - At a press conference in the San Francisco Hard Rock Cafe, Carlos Santana unveiled a limited-edition t-shirt bearing his artwork. He autographed 500 of the shirts for distribution to foreign and domestic markets.

2006 - German prosecutors announced that they had decided against opening an investigation into Madonna after she performed a controversial mock crucifixion scene at a concert on August 20.