On this day

1812 – An earthquake destroys Caracas, Venezuela.

1839 – The first Henley Royal Regatta is held.

1923 - BBC Radio started regular weather forecasts.

1934 – The driving test is introduced in the United Kingdom.

1971 – East Pakistan declares its independence from Pakistan to form People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Liberation War begins.

1973 - Women stockbroker were allowed on the floor of the London Stock Exchange for the first time in its 200 year history.

1999 - Ex-miners suffering from lung diseases won a compensation deal worth £2 billion. It was the biggest industrial injuries case in British legal history.

2006 - From 6 a.m. the prohibition of smoking in all substantially enclosed public places came into force in Scotland.

1625 – Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France.

1703 - Czar Peter the Great founded the city of St. Petersburg.

1860 - The corkscrew was patented by M. L. Byrn of New York.

1871 - Scotland beat England in the first international rugby union match in Edinburgh.

1886 – Famous Apache warrior, Geronimo, surrenders to the U.S. Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars.

1899 - Italian inventor Marconi achieved the first international radio transmission (Morse Code) between England and France.

1915 – Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, is put in quarantine, where she would remain for the rest of her life.

1964 – The Good Friday Earthquake, the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history strikes South Central Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage.

1966 - The stolen football world cup was found in south London by a dog called Pickles whilst it was out for a walk with its owner.

1998 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the impotency drug Viagra, made by Pfizer.

1797 - Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire, patented a washing machine.

1800 - The Irish Parliament passed the Act of Union with England. The Act included joining Ireland to Great Britain to form a single kingdom, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1881 - P.T. Barnum and James Bailey merged their circuses to form the Greatest Show on Earth.

1910 – Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane, the Fabre Hydravion, after taking off from a water runway near Martigues, France.

1930 - The names of the Turkish cities of Constantinople and Angora were changed to Istanbul and Ankara.

1941 - English novelist Virginia Woolf threw herself into the River Ouse near her home in Sussex. Her body was never found.

1945 - Germany dropped its last V2 bomb on Britain.

1959 – The State Council of the People's Republic of China dissolves the Government of Tibet.

2003 – In a friendly fire incident, two A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft from the United States Idaho Air National Guard's 190th Fighter Squadron attack British tanks participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, killing British soldier Matty Hull.

2005 – The Sumatran earthquake rocks Indonesia, and at magnitude 8.7 is the second strongest earthquake since 1965.

1848 - An ice jam at the source of the Niagara River stopped the flow of Niagara Falls for the first time.

1871 - Queen Victoria opened the Royal Albert Hall in London, built in memory of Prince Albert.

1886 - Coca-Cola went on sale. It was marketed as a brain tonic and claimed to relieve exhaustion. It was invented by Dr. John Pemberton.

1940 - The Bank of England introduced thin metal strips into banknotes as an anti-forgery device.

1974 - U.S. space probe Mariner 10, launched by NASA in November 1973, became the first spacecraft to visit Mercury.

1981 - The first London marathon took place, with around 7,000 entrants.

2004 – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO as full members.

2004 – The Republic of Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants.

(29-03-2011 11:21 )skully Wrote:  1974 - U.S. space probe Mariner 10, launched by NASA in November 1973, became the first spacecraft to visit Mercury.

Mariner 10 was lucky to get there at all, due to a freak problem. When leaving its Earth-Moon trajectory a fleck of bright paint came off it, and as it caught the sun and glinted the tracking system locked onto it thinking it was the star that was being used as a guide, sending the probe in totally the wrong direction!

Fortunately, NASA was able to reset it and get it back on course without using up too much fuel.

As a historical footnote, when Mariners 11 & 12 were launched they were redesignated as the much better known Voyager 1 and Voyager 2



Mercury as photographed by Mariner 10

(photo is copyright NASA but may be freely used for non-commercial purposes if acknowledged)

1856 – The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War.

1858 – Hymen Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser.

1867 – Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward.

1981 – President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.

1987 - The picture Sunflowers, painted by Vincent van Gogh was sold at auction by Christie's for £24,750,000.

1997 - Pop group The Spice Girls helped launch Britain's newest terrestrial TV channel - Channel 5.

2002 - Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (born August 4th 1900), died peacefully in her sleep, aged 101.

2006 – The United Kingdom Terrorism Act 2006 becomes a law.

(30-03-2011 10:44 )skully Wrote:  1858 – Hymen Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser.

Hymen Lipman??? Is he an ancestor of CWPussylover??????

1979: Car bomb kills Airey Neave
Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Airey Neave has been killed by a car bomb as he left the House of Commons car park.
The bomb, said to be highly sophisticated, exploded as Mr Neave began driving up the exit ramp shortly before 1500GMT.

Emergency services were on the scene in minutes.

The 63-year-old Conservative MP, known for his tough line on anti-IRA security, was taken to Westminster Hospital where he died from his injuries.

So far two groups, the Provisional IRA and the Irish Natonal Liberation Army, have claimed they carried out the killing.

It is not yet known when the bomb was attached to his car but investigators believe a timing device and trembler - which detonates the bomb through movement - were used to ensure the bomb went off as Mr Neave was leaving the Commons.

The area around Parliament Square was immediately closed as police began a full-scale search of the premises.

Despite increased threats to the safety of MPs not all cars are checked fully as they enter the car park.

Gilbert Kellard, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police said Mr Neave was aware of the dangers and was "happy and content" with his security.

Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher led tributes to Mr Neave saying: "He was one of freedom's warriors. Courageous, staunch, true. He lived for his beliefs and now he has died for them."

Prime Minister James Callaghan said: "No effort will be spared to bring the murderers to justice and to rid the United Kingdom of the scourge of terrorism."

The killing is thought to have been timed to coincide with the start of the election campaign which was announced yesterday.

Mr Neave was a close adviser to Mrs Thatcher, he led her campaign to become the Conservative Party leader and headed her private office.

Watch/Listen

The bomb exploded when the car was leaving the car park
Westminster witnesses the aftermath of the murder

In Context
The inquest into Airey Neave's death was told the bomb was attached to the car by magnets and the timer started by a wrist watch. A tiltswitch was used to activate the bomb when the car started.
The Irish National Liberation Army claimed they carried out the killing and said Mr Neave was targetted because he was engaged in "rabid militarist calls for more repression against the Irish people".

Mr Neave's wife, Lady Airey, was made a life peeress in June 1979 as a tribute to her courage following the death of her husband.

The Conservatives went on to win the 1979 general election and Mrs Thatcher became Britain's first ever woman prime minister.

Stories From 30 Mar
1981: President Reagan is shot

1979: Car bomb kills Airey Neave

1951: Rosenbergs guilty of espionage

2002: Queen Mother dies

1992: John Major climbs onto his soapbox

1978: Tories recruit advertisers to win votes

Airey Neave was awarded the Military Cross in WWII. He was one of the few people to escape from "Colditz", and the first to achieve a "home run" by successfully getting all the way back to England.

1836 - The first monthly instalment of Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers was published.

1855 - Charlotte Bronte, Yorkshire novelist and author of Jane Eyre, died during pregnancy.

1889 – The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated.

1917 – The United States takes possession of the Danish West Indies after paying $25 million to Denmark, and renames the territory the United States Virgin Islands.

1966 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.

1973 - Racehorse Red Rum won the Grand National Steeplechase in a record time of 9 min 1.9 sec., a record that remained unbroken for 16 years. He is the only horse to have won the Grand National three times.