On this day

June 23th

1904 - Finland: The Russian governor-general, General Bobrikov is assassinated.

1909 - Cambridge: The Darwin Museum is opened to commemorate the centenary of Darwin's birth.

1915 - Berlin: German industrialists outline new war aims, including the annexation of Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic States.

1919 - London: The Government's coal commission recommends nationalisation of the mines.

1921 - Belfast: The first formal debates take place in the Northern Ireland parliament.

1924 - Wimbledon: The Tennis tournament opens with, for the first time, a simple seeding system for competitors.

1927 - London: The Trades Disputes Bill is passed, amid Labour protests.

1930 - London: Neville Chamberlain becomes chairman of the Conservative Party.

1940 - London: General Charles De Gaulle announces the formation of a French National Committee.

1950 - Berlin: East Germany signs a treaty renouncing the rights of Sudeten Germans to live in Czechoslovakia.

1952 - Korea: UN planes bomb North Korean hydro-electric plants.

1956 - Cairo: Colonel Nasser is elected President of Egypt.

1965 - Washington: Robert Kennedy proposes a nuclear arms limitation treaty.

1971 - London: The Government announces it will extend Britain's motorways by 1,000 miles by the 1980's.

1972 - Britain: Chancellor of the Exchequer Anthony Barber, shocks world financial markets with his decision to float the pound.

1978 - Rome: 29 people are jailed and 16 are freed at the end of a trial of Red Brigade terrorists.

1980 - India: Sanjay Gandhi, the younger son of Indira Gandhi dies when his light aircraft crashes on the outskirts of New Delhi.

1983 - Poland: Pope John Paul II finishes his eight day tour of his native land with a meeting with Solidarity leader Lech Walesa in Zakopane.

1986 - London: Patrick Magee gets eight life sentences for the Brighton bombings.

1988 - London: Margaret Thatcher rules out Britain joining a proposed European central bank.

1992 - Israel: New hope for peace in the Middle East is welcomed as Yitzhak Rabin is elected prime minister.

1996 - Georgia: Sprinter Michael Johnson breaks the world's oldest championship record-the men's 200 metres.

1997 - Cambodia: Guerrillas announce the capture of former Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, who was responsible for the deaths of millions of Cambodians during the 1970's.

1998 - Iraq: UN weapon inspectors find evidence that nerve gas was packed into warheads to be used in the Gulf War.

2010 - USA: Irish golfer Graeme McDowell becomes the first European to win the US Open since 1970.

June 24th

1907 - Wimbledon: The Prince of Wales is made first President of the All England Club.

1921 - Britain: The world's largest airship, the R-38 built in the UK for the US Navy, makes its maiden flight at Bedford.

1922 - Berlin: German foreign minister Walter Rathenau is murdered outside his home, by right wing German nationalists.

1926 - London: Papers taken in raids during 1925 on the Communist Party are published, which include Russian ideas for strike chaos.

1931 - Moscow: The USSR signs a treaty of neutrality with Afghanistan.

1938 - Britain: The RAF launches a new recruitment campaign, receiving 1,000 enquiries on the first day.

1939 - Brazil: President Getulio Vargas allows 3,000 German Jews to enter the country.

1943 - Britain: The Engineering Union calls for the introduction of "Pay-as-you-earn" taxation.

1946 - New York: The UN security council votes 7-4 against cutting ties with Franco's Spain.

1948 - London: Lillian Penson becomes Vice-Chancellor of London University, making her Britain's first female vice-chancellor.

1951 - France: Peter Walker driving a Jaguar becomes the first British winner in 16 years of the Le Mans Grand Prix.

1953 - USA: Jacqueline Bouvier announces her engagement to Senator John F. Kennedy.

1955 - Kenya: Nine Mau Mau activists are sentenced to death for the murder of two English schoolboys in April.

1968 - Britain: 1,000 trains are cancelled as the National Union of Railwaymen begin a work-to-rule.

1969 - Rhodesia: Sir Humphrey Gibbs resigns as Governer.

1970 - Dallas, Texas: A memorial to JFK is unveiled.

1973 - Ireland: The world's oldest head of state, President Eamon de Valera resigns, aged 90.

1975 - Mozambique: The colony becomes independent of Portugal.

1978 - USA: Astronomers announce the discovery of a black hole in the constellation Scorpio.

1980 - Britain: Unemployment stands at 1.6 million, the highest since the war.

1983 - California: America's first woman in space Sally Ride returns safely back to earth with the rest of her crew as the Challenger Space shuttle touches down at Edwards Air Force Base.

1985 - Britain: Keith Castle, the UK's longest surviving heart transplant patient, dies six years after having the operation.

1986 - Belfast: Police carry Ian Paisley kicking and screaming out of the Ulster Assembly after it is dissolved.

1992 - Isles of Scilly: The Royal Navy intervenes in clashes between British and French fishing vessels.

1993 - Europe: Kurdish separatists launch a series of violent anti-Turkish attacks.

1996 - Washington: The Supreme Court agrees to delay President Clinton's sexual harassment case, brought by Paula Jones, until after the presidential elections.

1999 - London: Tories are angered as BBC chiefs pick Greg Dyke as director-general of the company. The Tories claim Dykes £50,000 donations to the Labour party are at odds with the BBC's commitment to impartiality.

2002 - Tanzania: The worst train disaster in African history at Igandu sees 281 people die.

July 25th

1902 - USA: Nurse Jane Toppan is committed to a Massachusetts asylum after confessing to the murder of 31 people with poison.

1925- Athens: General Theodoris Pangalos seizes power in a military coup d'état.

1934 - London: A 20% duty is put on German goods in retaliation for Germany's debt moratorium.

1936 - USA: The first commercial flight of the Douglas DC-3 is made by American Airlines.

1940 - Germany: German Troops are issued with English phrase books in preparation for an invasion of Britain.

1942 - Egypt: General Claude Auchinleck takes over command of the Eighth Army.

1948 - New York: World Heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis knocks put Jersey Joe Walcott to retain his title.

1951 - Teheran: Prime Minister Dr Mohammed Mossadegh introduces a bill imposing severe penalties on anyone trying to sabotage the oil industry.

1953 - Wimbledon: Jaroslav Drobny beats Budge Patty In the longest ever singles match 8-6, 16-18, 3-6, 8-6, 12-10.

1956 - USA: Senator John F. Kennedy launches a campaign to win the Democratic vice- presidential nomination.

1957 - South Africa: The ANC calls a one day national strike.

1963 - Moscow: A partial nuclear test ban treaty is agreed by Britain, the US and Russia.

1970 - Muscat: Sultan Said bin Taimur of Oman is overthrown by his son.

1983 - Washington: George Shultz reaffirms US support for President Marcos of the Philippines.

1987 - Rome: The Pope welcomes Austian President Waldheim.

1989 - Britain: The government turns down pleas to provide a haven in Britain after 1997 for 3.25 million Hong Kong citizens.

1995 - Sarajevo: Bosnian Serbs kill at least nine civilians, including four children, with shells and sniper fire.

1997 - Outer Space: The 11-year old Mir space station is crippled after colliding with a supply vessel, leaving its three-man crew in darkness with oxygen supplies running out.

1998 - London: The new building of the British Library opens. The structure has cost £511 million.

1999- Belfast: Tony Blair and Bertie Aherne fly to Belfast to try and save the Good Friday peace agreement from collapse, after Unionists reject Blair's plans for an Ulster executive.

June 26th

1901 - Paris: Professional chauffeurs protest at a move to prevent them from sporting moustaches.

1903 - Russia: Czar Nicholas II rejects US protests regarding the treatment of Jews in Russia.

1907 - Oxford: US author Mark Twain receives an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Oxford University.

1909 - London: King Edward VII opens the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington.

1913 - Britain: Emily Dawson is appointed the country's first woman magistrate.

1917 - London: King George V orders members of the Royal Family to drop German titles: Saxe-Coberg-Gotha becomes Windsor and Battenberg becomes Mountbatten.

1924 - Detroit, USA: German Hugo Junkers and Henry Ford meet to discuss the building of all-metal aeroplanes.

1927 - London: Communists and Fascists clash in Hyde Park.

1937 - Rome: Mussolini announces Italy will back Franco in the Spanish Civil War.

1939 - Paris: Public executions are abolished.

1949 - Prague: Czech bishops openly accuse the government of persecution.

1952 - Washington: Congress overrides Truman's veto, and passes the controversial immigration bill.

1956 - London: Chancellor Macmillan announces spending cuts of £76 million.

1959 - New York: Swedish Heavyweight boxer Ingemar Johansson stuns the crowd at the Yankee Stadium to take the title by battering champion Floyd Patterson to the canvas seven times until the fight was stopped in the third round.

1960 - Africa: British Somaliland and French Madagascar become independent.

1967 - Rome: The Pope names 27 new cardinals including the Archbishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla.

1973 - Ireland: The loyalist vigilante group "The Ulster Freedom Fighters" claim responsibility for a series of sectarian murders in Northern Ireland.

1977 - East Africa: Djibouti, France's last African colony becomes independent.

1984 - Havana, Cuba: Castro frees 22 jailed Americans after talks with the Reverend Jessie Jackson.

1990 - London: An IRA bomb damages the Carlton Club, a haunt for Tory MPs.

1992 - Sweden: Denmark beat Germany 2-0 to win the European Football Championship.

1993 - Baghdad: US forces launch a missile attack on Iraq's intelligence HQ, killing six people.

1995 - Ethiopia: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak survives an assassination attempt in Addis Ababa.

2005 - Britain: Countdown host "Richard Whiteley" passes away in Leeds general infirmary, through pneumonia and heat problems aged 61.

2011 - Glastonbury: Beyoncé makes her debut at the legendary music festival.

June 27th

1906 - France: The first circuit motor race held at Le Mans is won by the Hungarian Ferenc Szisz in a Renault.

1920 - Berlin: The New Socialist dominated Reichstag is told the government must fulfil it's Versailles Treaty obligations.

1928 - Britain: 23 people are killed in a train crash in Darlington.

1929 - New York: The first, tiny colour television image is demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.

1934 - Saudi Arabia: King Ibn Saud and the Imam of Yemen sign a peace treaty to end their "Desert War".

1935 - USA: Scientists succeed in crystallising a disease virus for the first time.

1938 - Vienna: All Jews are given 14 days notice by their employers.

1939 - London: The whole of New Zealand Avenue in the city is destroyed by fire.

1942 - Egypt: The Eighth Army abandons Mersa Matruh; the Germans claim they have taken 6,000 prisoners.

1947 - Paris: Britain, France, and the USSR open talks on the Marshal Plan.

1953 - Britain: Winston Churchill suffers a severe stroke, leaving his left side partially paralysed, and leaving him hardly able to speak.

1957 - Britain: The Jodrell Bank radio telescope in Cheshire is reported to be near completion.

1961 - Britain: Dr Arthur Michael Ramsey is enthroned as the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury.

1962 - Oxford: Charlie Chaplin receives an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the university.

1963 - Ireland: J.F Kennedy pays a visit to his ancestral home in Wexford County.

1967 - Britain: Barclays Bank introduces Britain's first cash-dispensing machine.

1972 - France: Socialist leader Francois Mitterrand forms pacts with the Communist Party.

1976 - Greece: Six Palestinians hijack an Air France Airbus, with over 250 passengers on board.

1983 - London: A second inquest into the death of Italian banker Roberto Calvi returns an open verdict.

1986 - The Hague: The World Court says Ronald Reagan broke international law by aiding Nicaraguan Contra rebels.

1990- Brussels: The European Commission orders British Aerospace to pay back to the Government some £33 million in illegal "sweeteners."

1996 - The Hague: The Bosnia War Crimes Tribunal begins to hear the cases of Serb leaders Radovan Karadjic and Ratko Mladic, who are both accused of genocide.

2004 - USA: Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11 breaks the record for the highest opening weekend for a documentary, taking $23.9 million.

2007 - Iran: Protestors take to the streets as the government introduces petrol rationing and price rises.

June 28th

1902 - New York: The famous US composer Richard Rodgers is born in Arverne, Queens.

1904 - Britain: Over 700 Scandinavian emigrants die when the steamer "Norge" is wrecked off the Irish coast.

1910 - Germany: The Zeppelin airship "Deutschland" is wrecked in a gale in the Teutoberg Forest.

1912 - Britain: Suffragettes begin a window-smashing campaign at post offices and labour exchanges.

1915 - Britain: The Liner "Armenian" is sunk by a German Submarine off the Cornish coast.

1922 - Dublin: Free State troops fight the IRA for control of the law courts building.

1924 - USA: Around 300 people are reported dead after a tornado sweeps through Colorado.

1928 - Berlin: Socialist Hermann Muller is sworn in as Chancellor.

1935 - Washington: Roosevelt orders the building of a federal gold vault at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

1937 - New York: The Guggenheim Fund for art is established.

1940 - Rumania: Soviet troops invade the Rumanian provinces of Bukovina and Bessarabia.

1942 - France: All Jews over the age of six years old in occupied France are told to wear the Star of David.

1947 - London: The statue of Eros, returns to Piccadilly Circus.

1951 - Budapest: Hungarian Archbishop Jozsef Groesz is jailed for 15 years for allegedly plotting the government's fall.

1955 - London: The Cambridge Footlights revue "Between the Lines" starring Jonathan Miller, opens in the capital.

1960 - Britain: 28 miners die in a pit accident at the village of Six Bells in Monmouthshire.

1971 - Washington: The Supreme Court clears Muhammad Ali of draft-dodging.

1976 - Seychelles: The islands become independent after 162 years of British Rule.

1981 - Tehran: 72 politicians and officials are killed by a bomb at the HQ of the Islamic Republican Party.

1989 - Britain: A second national one-day rail strike coincides with a virtual shutdown of the London Tube System.

1991 - Westminster: Margaret Thatcher announces she will retire as an MP at the next general election.

1995 - Johannesburg: Nelson Mandela sets up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to expose human rights infringements during the Apartheid era.

2007 - USA: The Bald Eagle is removed from the list of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in the lower 48 states.

June 29th

1902 - Vienna: French car maker Marcel Renault wins the first Paris-Vienna motor race in a time of 26 hours, 10 minutes, 47 seconds.

1905 - London: The House of Lords rejects the bill for compulsory Sunday trading.

1913 - Norway: Parliament grants women equal electoral rights with men.

1916 - Dublin: The British Diplomat Sir Roger Casement, who attempted to smuggle German arms into Ireland on the eve of the Easter Rising, is found guilty of high treason, and sentenced to death.

1926 - Rome: Mussolini's government increases the working day by one hour as part of an efficiency drive.

1933 - New York: Italian Primo Carnera defeats Jack Sharkey to become the world heavyweight boxing champion.

1934 - Germany: Flags are flown at half-mast on the anniversary of the Versailles Treaty.

1942 - USSR: The Germans launch an offensive at Kursk, south of Moscow.

1949 - Indonesia: Dutch troops withdraw from Jakarta.

1950 - Moscow: Stalin turns down a US request to use its influence to halt the North Korean invasion.

1954 - Washington: President Eisenhower and Sir Winston Churchill sign the "Potomac Agreement" to their comradeship in pursuit of world peace.

1956 - London: The playwright Arthur Miller marries screen goddess Marilyn Monroe.

1965 - Vietnam: American troops go onto the offensive for the first time when they overrun a network of trenches in a Viet-Cong stronghold 30 miles east of Saigon.

1966 - Britain: Barclay's Bank introduces Barclaycard, the first British Credit Card.

1970 - Britain: Caroline Thorpe, wife of the Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe, dies in a car accident.

1972 - Washington: The Supreme Court rules that the death penalty is unconstitutional.

1974: Argentina: Isabel Peron takes effective control of the government after her husband becomes ill.

1980 - Iceland: Vigdis Finnbogadottir becomes the country's first woman president.

1986 - Britain: Richard Branson crosses the Atlantic in record time in the Virgin Atlantic Challenger II.

1989 - Ireland: Charles Haughey resigns as premier.

1992 - Algeria: President Mohammed Boudiaf is assassinated at a political rally in the city of Annaba.

1994 - Japan: Tomiichi Murayama becomes Japan's first Socialist Prime Minister since 1948.

1995 - Outer Space: The US space shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian space station Mir.

2008 - Vienna: Spain win the Euro 2008 Championship beating Germany 1-0 with a goal by Fernando Torres.

2010: USA: The Supreme Court rules that Nigerian families can sue the drug company Pfizer for using deadly antibiotics on their children.

June 30th

1911 - London: King George V holds a Coronation Fete for London children at Crystal Palace.

1911 - Britain: Harry Vardon, wins the Open Golf Championship at Sandwich for the fifth time.

1918 - London: Reports show that the British have shot down 4,102 German aeroplanes in the past year, against only I,213 British losses.

1922 - Dublin: The IRA surrenders the law courts to Free State troops.

1923 - Germany: 10 Belgian troops are killed by a bomb planted on a train at Duisberg.

1926 - Paris: French police thwart a plot to kill Spanish King Alfonso XIII during his current visit to France.

1930 - Baghdad: Britain recognizes Iraqi independence.

1934 - USA: Escaped gangster John Dillinger kills a policeman in a bank raid in Indiana.

1935 - Munich: Reports circulate that Hitler is using a double to foil potential assassins.

1942 - Germany: All remaining Jewish Schools in the country are closed down.

1949 - China: Mao Tse-tung declares that the USSR is China's true ally.

1953 - Washington: Eisenhower asks Congress to let him offer some of the US food surplus to poorer allies.

1955 - Britain: A strike by dock workers enters its sixth week.

1960 - Congo: After 80 years of Belgian rule, Congo gains its independence.

1966 - Paris: France formally leaves NATO.

1969 - Biafra: Around four million people remaining in beleaguered Biafra face starvation in the wake of the Nigerian governments ban on night flights by the Red Cross.

1970 - Luxembourg: Britain, Ireland, Denmark and Norway open talks on their entry into the Common Market.

1973 - Cambodia: Communist guerrillas launch a major attack towards Phnom Penh.

1977 - London: Trafalgar House takes over Beaverbrook Newspapers.

1978 - Vienna: Prince Michael of Kent marries Austrian Baroness Marie von Reibnitz.

1981 - London: Marcus Sargeant, an unemployed youth from Folkestone is charged of wilfully discharging a gun with intent of harming Her Majesty the Queen, after firing six blank shots at her during the Trooping of the Colour parade.

1985 - Beirut: 39 Americans held hostage by Shia terrorists who hijacked a TWA airliner are freed after a 16-day ordeal.

1994 - USA: The prison population exceeds one million for the first time.

2007 - Baghdad: US troops kill 26 militants in an attack on Sadr City.

July 1st

1900 - Austria: Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to Kaiser Franz Josef, marries Countess Sophie Chotek.

1901 - China: British-occupied parts of Peking are handed back to the authorities.

1911 - London: Parliament passes the Shops Act, introducing a compulsory half day holiday for shop workers.

1916 - USA: Coca-Cola introduce a new contoured bottle to make imitation difficult.

1928 - India: 15 people die in a riot between Sikhs and Moslems at Khargpur.

1929 - Nanking: Britain and China sign an agreement under which Britain will help build up the Chinese Navy.

1934 - New York: Joseph Kennedy is made head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the new US financial watchdog.

1939 - London: The curtain falls for the last time on the Lyceum Theatre, at the end of John Gielgud's "Hamlet" run.

1947 - China: Chiang Kai-shek orders the general mobilisation of Nationalist troops against the Communists.

1948 - Oxford: The first Oxfam shop opens.

1950 - Britain: Ford launches it's Consul and Zephyr range of motor cars.

1953 - London: MPs throw out a bill to suspend the death penalty for five years.

1957 - Washington: Senator John F. Kennedy calls on the US to aid Algerian Independence.

1962 - East Africa: The UN trusteeships of Rwanda and Burundi become independent.

1967 - Britain: BBC2 begins regular colour broadcasting, the first seven hours is mostly coverage of the Wimbledon Tennis Championship.

1972 - Washington: John Mitchell resigns as Richard Nixon's campaign manager.

1974 - San Francisco: Fashion designer Laura Ashley's first shop opens in the US.

1976 - London: "Black Panther" Donald Nielson is found guilty of murdering heiress Lesley Whittle.

1987 - London: Geoffrey Collier a director of merchant bank Morgan Grenfell is fined £25,000 for insider dealing.

1990 - Germany: The Deutschmark becomes the official currency of both East and West Germany.

1994 - Geneva: The World Health Organization states that the number of AIDS cases worldwide has risen from 2.5 to 4 million over the past year.

1995 - London: Californian tennis player Jeff Tarango is disqualified from the Wimbledon tennis tournament after accusing an official of corruption and is later fined a record £10,000.

1998 - Indonesia: An Environmental Investigation Agency warns Orangutans could die out within 20 years, unless industry in Indonesia is prevented from starting forest fires.

2003 - Hong Kong: Over 500,000 people protest against an effort to pass anti-sedition legislation.

2007 - Britain: Smoking is banned in all indoor public spaces.

July 3rd

1902 - London: A House of Lords committee decides to restrict betting to sites of sporting events.

1905 - Russia: 50,000 troops kill around 6,000 people in order to restore order in Odessa, while a general strike is declared in St Petersburg.

1912 - Ireland: Police establish a corden around four counties to prevent movement of cattle in the wake of a foot and mouth outbreak.

1915 - London: The Government estimates the war is costing £3 million daily.

1922 - Paris: David Lloyd George proposes world disarmament to the League of Nations.

1928 - USA: The first commercially available TV set, made by the Daven Corporation goes on sale for $75.

1931 - London: The Coal Bill is introduced, fixing miner's pay and hours for a year.

1936 - Wimbledon: Britain's Fred Perry wins his third straight men's singles title beating German Gottfried von Cramm 6-1 6-1 6-0.

1944 - London: The evacuation of children begins from the capital due to the V-1 bombings.

1946 - Britain: The Jockey Club announces it is to install photo finish cameras all on racecourses.

1954 - London: Housewives in Trafalgar Square tear up there ration books as the government announce the end of 14 years of rationing.

1962 - Algeria: After 132 years of French rule the country gains its independence.

1966 - London: 31 people are arrested during anti-Vietnam War protests in Grosvenor Square.

1967 - Britain: ITV launches a new regular daily half-hour news programme, "News At Ten."

1972 - New Delhi: India agrees to withdraw its troops which occupy 5,000 square miles of Pakistan.

1978 - Peking: China cancels all aid to Vietnam and recalls all its advisers.

1981 - Wimbledon: John McEnroe beats Bjorn Borg 4-6 7-6 7-6 6-4 in the Men's singles final.

1987 - Lyons: SS officer Klaus Barbie the "Butcher of Lyons" is sentenced to life imprisonment for wartime atrocities.

1991 - London: Buckingham Palace dismiss talk of the Queens wealth of £6.6 million as "Exaggerated."

1995 - Yokohama: Renewed gas attacks on Japan's railway system cause panic after hundreds of travellers complain of sore eyes and throats.

2005: Spain: Same sex marriage becomes legal in the country.

2009: Wimbledon: Serena Williams beats Vera Zvonareva 6-3 6-2 to win her fourth Women's singles title.