1900: General Buller relieved Ladysmith after a 118-day siege in the Boer War.

1912: The world's first parachute jump from an aeroplane was made over Missouri, USA, by Albert Berry.

1940: Sandy's Half Hour began on radio, with Sandy MacPherson - the first listeners' request programme.

1948: The Royal Family went to see Danny Kaye at the London Palladium, the first "non-command performance" attended by a reigning monarch.

1966: Liverpool's Cavern Club, where the Beatles made their name, went into liquidation.

1975: A train from Drayton Park crashed through buffers at Moorgate tube station and killed 42 people.

1986: Swedish prime minister Olave Palme was shot dead by an unknown assassin in Stockholm.

1989: In London's Covent Garden, the world's biggest litter bin was unveiled - sponsored by Kentucky Fried Chicken.

LAST YEAR: A young mother-of-three was stabbed to death in an alley as she pushed her baby son in a pram in Lancashire.