On this day

1934-Donald Duck makes his debut in"The wise little hen".

1958-Queen Elizabeth II officially opens London Gatwick Airport at Crawley,West Sussex.

1983-Margaret Thatcher leads the Tories to a landslide second election victory.

1829 - The Oxford team won the first-ever Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

1940 - World War II: Italy officially declared war on Britain and France.

1965 - A de Havilland jet airliner made the first automatic landing, relying entirely on instruments, at Heathrow Airport.

1989 - After an era of 157 years, Britain's last lightship was towed away from its position north-west of the Channel Island of Guernsey.

1990 - A British Airways pilot survived after being partly sucked out of the cockpit at 23,000 feet above London.

He would have been 100 years old today

2001-Pope John Paul II canonizes Lebanon's first female saint,Saint Rafqa.

1996-Peace talks begin in Northern Ireland without the participation of Sinn Fein.

1935-Alchoholics Anonymous is formed in Ohio,US.

Birthdays.

Prince Philip-89
Elizabeth Hurley-45
Sasha Obama-8, Ah bless.

1977 - Joe Strummer and Topper Headon of The Clash were arrested for painting the band's name on a wall in London.

1488 - James III of Scotland was murdered by rebellious Scottish nobles and was succeeded by his 15 year old son, James IV.

1509 - Eighteen year old King Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon, the first of his six wives. When Catherine failed to produce a male heir, Henry divorced her against the will of the Roman Catholic Church.

1776 - John Constable, English landscape painter was born. He is best known for his paintings representing his native valley of the River Stour, an area that came to be known as 'Constable country'.

1847 - Sir John Franklin, English naval officer and Arctic explorer, died in Canada, in an attempt to discover the North-West Passage.

1959 - The Hovercraft, invented by Christopher Cockerell was officially demonstrated for the first time, at Southampton.

1962-Frank Morris,John and Clarance Anglin become the only prisoners to escape fron the prison on Alcatraz Island,San Francisco.

1987-Margaret Thatcher declares she"is raring to go" as she wins a record third term as Prime Minister.

Birthdays.

Sir Jackie Stewart-71
Hugh Laurie-51
Shia LaBeouf-24

1995 - Courtney Love (Hole) was hospitalized after having a reaction to a prescription medicine.

1996 - A Metallica concert at a small club in San Francisco was broadcast live via the Internet.

1998 - Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots) skipped a scheduled court date and checked himself into a drug treatment facility.

1998 - Amazon.com expanded its product line from books only to compact discs as well.