TODAY
EVENTS: In 1960 the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 5 spacecraft into orbit around Earth; in 1987 a gunman, Michael Ryan, killed 14 people in Hungerford, Berkshire; in 1989 Tadeusz Mazowiecki of Solidarity became Prime Minister of Poland.
BIRTHS: John Dryden, Poet Laureate 1670-89, born in Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire, 1631; Orville Wright, pioneer of aviation, born in Dayton, Ohio, 1871; Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel, fashion designer, born near Issoire, France, 1883; Ogden Nash, writer of humorous verse, born in Rye, New York, 1902.
DEATHS: Caesar Augustus, Roman emperor 23BC-AD14, died in Nola, near Naples, AD14; Blaise Pascal, mathematician, physicist and philosopher, died in Paris, 1662; Federico García Lorca, dramatist and poet, shot dead near Granada, 1936; Sir Henry Wood, Proms conductor 1895-1944, died in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, 1944; Groucho Marx, comic actor, died in Los Angeles, California, 1977.
TOMORROW
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EVENTS: In 1968 Russian troops invaded Czechoslovakia; in 1989 51 people died when a dredger collided with the pleasure cruiser Marchioness on the River Thames in London.
BIRTHS: Benjamin Harrison, 23rd American President 1889-93, born in North Bend, Ohio, 1833; Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (1984-89), born in Bombay, 1944.
DEATHS: Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary leader, assassinated near Mexico City, 1940; Jessie Matthews, singer and actress, died in London, 1981; George Adamson, wildlife conservationist, murdered in Kora, Kenya, 1989.