1804: Johann Strauss the Elder, composer of waltzes, was born in Vienna.

1836: Isabella Mary Mayson, who became Mrs Beeton of cookery book fame, was born in Heidelberg.

1879: Albert Einstein, physicist and mathematician, was born in Ulm, Bavaria.

1883: Death of German philosopher and father of Communism Karl Marx.

1885: First production of The Mikado, by Gilbert and Sullivan, at the Savoy Theatre, London.

1891: The first telephone cable along the English channel bed was laid by the submarine Monarch.

1929: In Chicago, boogie-woogie pioneer Clarence

Pinetop' Smith was killed as he sat at his piano, by a gunman's bullet not intended for him. He was 24.

1939: The Timeless' Test between South Africa and England in Durban ended - it started on March 3 - because the England players had to rejoin their ship.

1961: The New English Bible was published.

1964: Jack Ruby was found guilty in Dallas of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, alleged assassin of President Kennedy, and was sentenced to death. He died of a blood clot in the lung in 1967.

1977: The Government announced that prices had risen 69.5% since 1974.

1984: Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was shot and seriously injured by Loyalist gunmen.

1991: The "Birmingham Six" - six Irishmen jailed in 1975 for their alleged part in the IRA Birmingham pub bombings and the murder of 21 people - were freed after the court of appeal upheld the men's claim that officers of the West Midlands Police invented or distorted evidence against them.