NATIONAL DAY OF RUSSIA

1783: The last public hanging took place at Tyburn - forger John Austin was the last to die there.

1867: Scientific genius Marie Curie was born in Warsaw. She and her husband, Pierre, shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903 and she was awarded a second Prize in 1911 for her discovery of radium.

1872: The Marie Celeste, the ill-fated brigantine, sailed from New York - and was found mysteriously abandoned near the Azores some time later.

1885: A Golden Spike was driven into the track at Craigellachie in British Columbia to complete the Canadian Pacific Railway after four-and-a-half years' work.

1917: The Bolshevik Revolution, led by Lenin, overthrew Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky's government.

1935: Australian pilot Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith flew over Calcutta on a flight from England - and was never seen again.

1967: Henry Cooper beat Billy Walker and became the first and only boxer to win three Lonsdale Belts outright.

1974: Lord Lucan disappeared, following the murder of his children's nanny and serious assault of his wife. He has never been seen since.

1980: Actor Steve McQueen, right, died.

1990: Mary Robinson became the first woman President of the Irish Republic.

On this day last year: Prime Minister Tony Blair sought to reassure MPs and the public that his frenetic activity in support of the campaign against terrorism did not mean he was neglecting domestic issues like health, crime and education.