Frank Sinatra announces the launch of the 'Reprise' record label

1st The farthing ceases to be legal tender

3rd The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Cuba

10th Author Dashiell Hammett dies aged 66

12th The first Italian space rocket is launched

17th? Patrice Lumumba, ex-premier of the Congo, is assassinated

20th John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as President of the U.S. A.

24th A B-52 bomber with two 24-megaton nuclear bombs crashes in the U.S.A.

30th 'The Pill' brand-named 'Conovid' becomes available in the U.K. on a limited basis

31st Ham, a 37 lb male chimpanzee (right), is sent into space in a test for Project Mercury

The government announces plans to build the Post Office Tower

5th The first automatic half barrier is introduced on a level crossing in Uttoxeter, Staffs

5th The first issue of the Sunday Telegraph is published

6th Danny Blanchflower is the first person to refuse to appear on 'This Is Your Life'

8th The BBC announces that it is to drop 'Children's Hour' from radio in April. It started in 1922

9th The Beatles play their first engagement as the Beatles in the Cavern Club

11th The trial of nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem

15th The entire United States figure skating team die in a Boeing 707 crash in Belgium

15th Singer Jackie Wilson (right) is shot in his New York apartment by 28 year old Juanita Jones

25th Kennedy appoints Henry Kissinger as a National Security Advisor

26th Hassan II is pronounced King of Morocco.

1st President John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps

6th Carline introduce the first minicabs, in Wimbledon

6th George Formby dies aged 56

8th Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham dies

8th The first US Polaris submarines arrive at Holy Loch in Scotland

13th A dam bursts on the Dnieper river in the USSR - 145 dead

21st The Beatles appear at 'The Cavern' for the first time

25th A charity concert in Hawaii is Elvis's last live appearance for nearly 10 years

29th The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified

Shirley Bassey has her tonsils removed at The London Clinic

2nd Forty biblical scrolls are found in a cave in Judaea

7th The United Nations votes 83-0 to censure South Africa over its racist policies

11th The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem

12th 27 year old Major Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to orbit the Earth

17th The ill-fated 'Bay of Pigs' invasion of Cuba begins

18th Russian spy George Blake is charged under the Official Secrets Act

23rd/24th The 17th century ship HMS Wasa is raised in Stockholm harbour (right)

25th Robert Noyce is granted the first patent for an integrated circuit

27th Sierra Leone is granted independence from the United Kingdom

Gene Vincent is the first American star to appear on 'Thank Your Lucky Stars'

1st Off course betting is legalised following the passing of the Betting and Gaming Act

5th Alan B. Shepard becomes the first American in space in a 15 minute 'hop'

6th Tottenham Hotspur achieve football's first League and Cup Double of the 20th century

8th Newly-elected M.P. Tony Benn is refused entry to the House of Commons due to his peerage

8th 38 year old spy, George Blake, is sentenced to 42 years imprisonment

13th Actor Gary Cooper dies aged 60

16th Do Young Tsang takes power in a military coup in South Korea

17th The new Guildford cathedral is consecrated

18th Lionel Bart opens his own publishing company, Apollo Music, in Shaftesbury Avenue

19th Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly by another planet, by-passing Venus

21st Alabama Governor John Patterson declares martial law to restore order after race riots

25th Toni Gardiner from Stratford marries King Hussein of Jordan

25th President Kennedy announces his goal to put a "man on the moon" before the end of the 60s

26th A fire at Ember Records in London destroys their tape collection

30th Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated

4th J.F.Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev talk about nuclear tests and disarmament in Vienna

6th Carl Gustav Jung dies aged 85 in Kuessnacht on Lake Lucerne

7th British census figures are released putting the British population at 52,675,094

8th The Duke of Kent marries Katherine Worsley at York Minster

16th Rudolf Nureyev (right), 23, defects from the Kirov Ballet at Le Bourget Airport in France

17th Actor Jeff Chandler dies following emergency surgery

19th Britain ends its protectorate of the oil-rich sheikhdom of Kuwait

19th A stone with the name 'Pontius Pilate' on it is found at an Italian dig in Caesarea

21st Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev requests asylum while in Paris with the Kirov Ballet

25th US philanthropist George Vanderbilt is found dead at the base of a skyscraper in San Francisco

27th Dr. Michael Ramsey becomes the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury

27th British army send troops to protect Kuwait, under threat of Iraqi annexation

Bill Harry publishes the first edition of 'Mersey Beat' pop newspaper

1st Diana Frances Spencer , future Princess of Wales is born

1st British troops land in Kuwait in anticipation of an attack by Iraq

2nd Author and adventurer Ernest Hemingway (right) shoots himself

14th Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, visits Britain

21st Gus Grissom, in Mercury 4 "Liberty Bell 7", is the 2nd American to orbit the Earth.

25th A mini-budget puts 4d on cigarettes and 3d on a gallon of petrol

25th French MPs introduce legislation to ban rock concerts

4th M.P.s approve Britain's application to join the Common Market

6th Gherman Titov becomes the second Russian into orbit

10th Britain applies for membership of the EEC.

13th East and West Berlin are divided by barbed wire

20th A 5ft concrete wall replaces the wire between East and West Berlin

21st Jomo Kenyatta (right) is fully released in Kenya, nine years after his arrest.

23rd Western powers place tanks and 1,000 troops along the Berlin Wall

28th The earliest Roman mosaics in Britain are discovered at Fishbourne

The Renault 4 is the first 'hatchback' car

4th The TUC expels the Electrical Trades Union for ballot rigging

10th A racing car crash in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza kills 13 spectators

14th The first Mothercare store opens in Kingston

18th 850 arrested, including Vanessa Redgrave and George Melly as 15,000
        'Ban the Bomb' marchers protest in Trafalgar Square

18th U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold (right) dies in a plane crash

21st Dick James opens his own music publishing company, Suite 2, in Charing Cross Road, WC2

1st The last steam train is used on the London underground

6th Brian Bennett replaces Tony Meehan in the Shadows

9th James Hanratty is arrested in Blackpool for the A6 murder

10th A volcano thought to be extinct erupts on Tristan da Cunha

11th Leonard 'Chico' Marx dies

12th New, smaller 10 shilling notes come into circulation

12th The death penalty is abolished in New Zealand.

13th Film director Zoltan Korda dies

19th The Arab League takes over protection of Kuwait - last British troops leave.

19th The Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers temporarily join forces to play as the "Beatmakers"        at Litherland Town Hall, Liverpool

24th Malta gains independence

24th The Soviet Union detonates a 58 megaton yield hydrogen bomb over Novaya Zemlya (right)

31st Joseph Stalin's body is removed from Lenin's Tomb

31st Hurricane Hattie hits Belize, killing 400, with 65.000 made homeless.

Jimmie Rodgers is the first member elected to Nashville's Country Music Hall Of Fame

1st The government announces plans to introduce an Immigration Bill

1st Lenin's mausoleum re-opens after the removal of Stalin's body

7th Adenauer is elected for a fourth term as West German Chancellor

12th Stalingrad is renamed Volgograd

13th Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny succeeds Aleksandr Nikolayevich Shelepin as head of the KGB

14th Ray Charles is arrested on drug charges in Indianapolis

16th The British Conservative government introduces the Commonwealth Immigration Bill

29th The government issues a white paper outlining plans for the abolition of London County Council

29th Mercury-Atlas 5 is launched with Enos the chimp aboard, orbiting the Earth twice

Brian Epstein becomes manager of The Beatles

2nd Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that Cuba is going to adopt Communism

7th The L.C.C. approves the building of 300ft tower blocks in Hammersmith

9th Tanganyika gains independence with Julius Nyerere as its first President.

10th The USSR severs relations with Albania

13th Cliff Richard's film 'The Young Ones' premieres

15th An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentences nazi Adolph Eichmann to death

19th Goa is ceded to India after 400 years of Portuguese rule

22nd James Davis (right) is officially, although not actually, the first U.S. soldier to be killed in Vietnam

27th The first successfully hijacked aircraft lands in Havana after being diverted by its Cuban hijacker

31st Radio Teilif Eireann begins the first national television service in Ireland

31st In Britain, major snowstorms blanket the nation, closing roads and cancelling New Year's Eve shows

January 1 Marcia Cross, actress
January 2 Sara Stewart, actress
January 5 Suzy Amis, actress
January 8 Calvin Smith, American athlete
January 13 Julia Louis-Dreyfus, actress
January 26 Wayne Gretzky, Hockey Hall of Fame
January 31 Lloyd Cole, British singer / songwriter
February 9 John Kruk, baseball player, commentator
February 11 Mary Docter, American speed skater
February 11 Becky LeBeau, singer
February 11 Carey Lowell, actress
February 13 Henry Rollins, musician
February 16 - Andy Taylor, musician with Duran Duran
February 25 Davey Allison, automobile racer
March 4 Ray Mancini, boxer
March 8 Camryn Manheim, actress
March 14 Kirby Puckett, Baseball Hall of Fame
March 15 Fabio, model
March 21 Lothar Matthaeus, German footballer
March 27 Tak Matsumoto, Japanese guitarist
April 3 Eddie Murphy, actor and comedian
April 6 Gene Eugene, actor, lead singer of Adam Again
April 18 Jane Leeves, actress
April 23 George Lopez, actor, comedian
April 26 Joan Chen, actress
April 30 Isiah Thomas, basketball player, coach, owner
May 6 George Clooney, actor
May 13 Dennis Rodman, basketball player, actor
May 14 Tim Roth, actor
May 17 Enya, singer, songwriter
May 27 Peri Gilpin, actress
May 29 Melissa Etheridge, rock musician
May 31 Justin Madden, Australian Rules Footballer, politician
June 14 Boy George, musician and producer
June 26 Greg LeMond, cyclist, 3-time Tour de France winner
July 1 Diana, Princess of Wales
July 1 Carl Lewis, American track-and-field athlete
July 12 Ray Gillen, American rock singer
July 30 Laurence Fishburne, actor
August 8 The Edge, guitarist with U2
August 14 Susan Olsen, television actress
September 2 Eric Dickerson, American football Hall of Fame
September 2 Carlos Valderrama, footballer
September 13 Dave Mustaine, musician with Metallica and Megadeth
September 15 Dan Marino, American football player
September 22 Scott Baio, actor
September 25 Heather Locklear, actress
October 9 Jean Sagal, actress
October 9 Liz Sagal, actress
October 18 Wynton Marsalis, musician
October 26 Dylan McDermott, actor
October 29 Randy Jackson, musician
October 31 Alonzo Babers, American runner
October 31 Peter Jackson, director
October 31 Larry Mullen, Jr., drummer with U2
November 2 K.D. Lang, singer, songwriter
November 19 Meg Ryan, actress
November 22 Mariel Hemingway, actress
December 4 Frank Reich, American football quarterback
December 8 Ann Coulter, author, political commentator, attorney
December 15 Karin Resetarits, Austrian journalist and politician
December 25 Ingrid Betancourt, Colombian senator
December 30 Douglas Coupland, author
December 30 - Sean Hannity, talk radio host, political commentator
December 30 - Ben Johnson, Canadian athlete