1000 – Hungary was established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.

1667 – John Milton published ‘Paradise Lost’, an epic poem about the fall of Adam and Eve.

1858 – Charles Darwin first published his theory of evolution in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace’s same theory.

1866 – President Andrew Johnson formally declared the American Civil War over.

1882 – Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ’1812 Overture’ debuted in Moscow.

1896 – A patent was filed for the rotary dial telephone

1911 – The first round-the-world telegram was sent

1920 – The first commercial radio station, 8MK (WWJ), began operations in Detroit, Michigan.

1940 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill paid tribute to the Royal Air Force at the height of the Battle of Britain, saying, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

1940 – In Mexico City, exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was fatally wounded with an ice axe by Soviet agent and Spanish communist Ramon Mercader. He died the next day.

1953 – The Soviet Union publicly acknowledged that it had tested a hydrogen bomb.

1966 – The Beatles, touring America for the last time, were forced to cancel and reschedule their performance in Cincinnati’s open-air stadium, Crosley Field. Heavy rain made electrocution a virtual certainty if The Beatles had attempted to perform.

1968 – The University of Tennessee reported that a guinea pig subjected to days of rock music played at 120 decibels had suffered acute hearing damage.

1968 – The Warsaw Pact countries the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary invaded Czechoslovakia to stop political liberalisation in the country under Alexander Dubcek’s regime

1969 – After finishing ‘I Want You, (She’s So Heavy), The Beatles worked on the running order for the Abbey Road album. This was the last time all four Beatles were together in Abbey Road studios.

1970 – The England football captain, Bobby Moore, was cleared of stealing an emerald bracelet in Colombia.

1975 – Viking Program: NASA launched the Viking 1 planetary probe on its way to Mars. It sent back the first colour picture of the surface of Mars

1977 – Voyager Program: NASA launched the Voyager 2 spacecraft. It went on to visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune and carried on board a gold-plated audio-visual disc containing information about Earth in the event that the spacecraft is ever found by intelligent aliens

1977 – The Brotherhood Of Man had the No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Angelo’, their second UK chart topper.

1986 – Rick Allen, drummer with Def Leppard, made his first live appearance with the band after losing an arm in a car accident, when they appeared at the Monsters Of Rock Festival, Castle Donington, England.

1987 – Lindsey Buckingham quit ‘Fleetwood Mac’.

1988 – In the Iran-Iraq War, a cease-fire was agreed after almost eight years of fighting.

1989 – 51 people died when a pleasure cruiser, The Marchioness, packed with young party-goers, and a barge collided on the River Thames.

1991 – More than 100,000 people rallied outside the Soviet Union’s parliament building protesting the attempted coup by Communist hardliners aiming to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.

1991 – Estonia seceded from the Soviet Union.

1992 – A US Doctor filed a $35m lawsuit against the Southwest Bell phone company. He alleged that his wife died because he could not reach 911 due to all lines being jammed by demand for Garth Brooks concert tickets.

1992 – The Daily Mirror published pictures of a topless Duchess of York swimming with Texan businessman John Bryan in the South of France. Other photographs appeared to show Mr Bryan kissing the duchess’ foot.

1997 – The BBC aired the documentary ‘Oasis; Right Here Right Now’, with the group talking about their troublesome last year plus performances of three new songs from the Manchester band.

1999 – Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, married Zoe Ball.

2000 – Craig David started a two week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with his debut release ‘Born To Do It’.

2000 – Spiller went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Groovejet’. The Italian DJ and producer mixed the track based on an old 1970′s hit ‘Love Is You’ by Carol Williams, with new vocals by Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

2002 – Pop Idol star Gareth Gates helped launch a new lemon-flavoured cola drink

2002 – A top Hollywood producer announced possible plans to make a live action film version of the cartoon Hong Kong Phooey

2003 – Kelly Osbourne revealed that she’d got food poisoning, which forced her to cancel much of her UK tour, after eating a fish dish with Elton John

2003 – An NHS hospital banned the Atkins diet from its menus because of fears it could damage patients recovery

2003 – Madame Tussauds in London opened an interactive Pop Idol display with a speaking waxwork of judge Simon Cowell. The waxwork made comments such as: ‘That was extraordinary. Unfortunately extraordinarily bad’, ‘Do you really think that you could become a Pop Idol? Well then you’re deaf’, ‘Thank you. Goodbye’ and ‘That was the worst performance I’ve ever seen.’

2004 – A man from Stoke-on-Trent, England, named Bryan Adams as the ‘other man’ in his divorce papers after years spent trying to cope with his wife’s obsession with the singer. Rob Tinsley said he had to live with a 6ft cut-out of Adams which stood at the foot of the bed and posters on the bedroom walls.

2006 – Christina Aguilera went to No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Back To Basics’, the singer’s third UK release.

2007 – The funeral of Manchester music mogul and broadcaster, Tony Wilson, was held at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Manchester. Peter Hook and Stephen Morris – two members of first Factory signing ‘Joy Division’, and later incarnation ‘New Order’, attended along with ‘Happy Mondays’ front man Shaun Ryder.

2007 – It was revealed that blue-eyed individuals may study more effectively and perform better in exams than those with dark eyes.

2008 – Paedophile Gary Glitter arrived back in the UK after being released from a Vietnam prison.

2008 – The daughter of late country star Johnny Cash called the use of her father’s name to endorse a US presidential candidate ‘appalling’. Country star John Rich implied Mr Cash would have backed Republican hopeful John McCain while appearing at a rally in Florida, according to media reports. Writing on her website, Roseanne Cash called the remarks ‘presumptuous’. ‘Even I would not presume to say publicly what I ‘know’ he thought or felt,’ she added.

2008 – Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid to Gran Canaria, skided off the runway and crashed at Barajas Airport. 146 people were killed in the crash, 8 more died afterwards. Only 18 people survived.

2008 – A report said that the number of air rage incidents on passenger planes had more than trebled in the previous five years.

2009 – Pan-Am terrorist Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was released by the Scottish Government on compassionate grounds and was allowed to travel back to Libya.

TODAYS BIRTHDAY’S

1931 – Don King, American boxing promoter with scary hair (81)

1933 – George J. Mitchell, former United States Senator and author of the ‘Mitchell Report’ about the Northern Ireland conflict and the decommissioning of illegal arms (79)

1937 – Jim Bowen, English comedian and former host of ‘Bullseye’. His catchphrases were “super, smashing, great” and “Let’s have a look at what you could’ve won” (75)

1940 – John Lantree, English bassist with ‘The Honeycombs’ who had a 1964 UK No.1 with “Have I The Right” (72)

1941 – Dave Brock, British guitarist and singer with ‘Hawkwind’ who had a 1972 UK No.3 with “Silver Machine” (71)

1941 – Robin Oakley, British political journalist. He’s also a massive horseracing fan. (71)

1943 – Sylvester McCoy, Scottish actor who played the seventh Doctor Who (69) 1946 – Ralf Hatter, German keyboard player and lead singer with ‘Kraftwerk’ who had a 1982 UK No.1 with “Computer Love / The Model” (66)

1947 – James Pankow, American trombone player with ‘Chicago’ who had a 1976 UK No.1 with “If You Leave Me Now” (65)

1948 – Robert Plant, British singer with ‘Led Zeppelin’ of “Stairway to Heaven” fame (64)

1952 – John Emburey, English cricketer, former England spin bowler (60)

1956 – Joan Allen, American actress, nominated three times for an Oscar. Her films include ‘Nixon’, ‘The Crucible’, ‘The Contender’, ‘Face/Off’, ‘Pleasantville’, ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ and ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ (56)

1961 – Joe Pasquale, squeaky-voiced English comedian who knows a song that will get on your nerves. In 2004 he won the fourth series of ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’ (51)

1962 – Sophie Aldred, English actress, she played The Doctor’s companion ‘Ace’ in ‘Doctor Who’ during the late 1980s. (50)

1962 – James Marsters, American actor, best known for playing Spike in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and its spin-off series, ‘Angel’ and time traveller Captain John Hart in ‘Torchwood’ (50)

1970 – John D. Carmack, American computer game programmer, co-founder of id Software. He was the lead programmer of the computer games ‘Commander Keen’, ‘Wolfenstein 3D’, ‘Doom’ and ‘Quake’ (42)

1971 – David Walliams, British comedian and star of ‘Little Britain’. His famous catchphrases include “I’m a lady”, “Computer says no” and “can you please stop repeating my catchphrases back to me.” He swam the English Channel for Sport Relief (41)

1971 – Jonathan Ke Quan, a.k.a, Ke Huy Quan, American former child star who played Harrison Ford’s sidekick, “Short Round” in “Indiana Jones AndThe Temple of Doom” – he was also the stunt co-ordinator on the first “X-Men” movie (41) 1971 – Fred Durst, American singer with ‘Limp Bizkit’ who had a 2001 UK No.1 with “Rollin” and the 2000 UK No.1 album ‘Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavoured Water’ (41)

1974 – Amy Adams, American actress, her films include ‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’, ‘Junebug’, ‘Enchanted’ and ‘Doubt’ (38)

1979 – Jamie Cullum, English Jazz singer, songwriter, pianist, guitarist, and drummer, had a 2003 UK No.5 album ‘Twentysomething’ (33)

1981 – Benjamin Barnes, English actor, he played Prince Caspian in ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ (31)

1992 – Demi Lovato, American singer-songwriter, musician, actress. Best known for her starring roles in the ‘Camp Rock’ movies, as Sonny Munroe in the Disney sitcom ‘Sonny with a Chance’, and as the star of the 2009 movie ‘Princess Protection Program’. Became a judge on the ‘X Factor US’ series in 2012. (20)