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

1836 IsabelIa 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.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Libyan airline security chief Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi lost his appeal against conviction for the murder of 270 people who died when Pan Am flight 103 was blown out of the skies over Lockerbie in December 1988.

BIRTHDAYS: Sir Michael Caine, actor, 70; Quincy Jones, bandleader/composer, 70; Wolfgang Petersen, film director, 62; Rita Tushingham, actress, 61; Jasper Carrott, comedian, 58; Pam Ayres, poet, 55; Billy Crystal, actor, 56; Tessa Sanderson, former athlete, 47; Prince Albert of Monaco, 45; Nicolas Anelka, footballer, 24; Jamie Bell, actor, 17.