You don't have Javascript enabled. To view this site requires Javascript to be enabled.
If you can't access speech audio, click here to get Real Player
sponsored by 
1967: Civil war in Nigeria
Five weeks after its secession from Nigeria, the breakaway Republic of Biafra is attacked by Nigerian government forces. Lieutenant Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu had proclaimed the independence of Nigeria’s Eastern Region, home to the Igbo people, in response to the massacre of Igbos elsewhere in Nigeria. General Yakubu Gowon, the leader of the Nigerian federal government, refused to recognize Biafra’s secession and on 6 July ordered an invasion. In the subsequent fighting, Ojukwu’s forces made some initial advances, but Nigeria’s superior military gradually reduced territory claimed by Biafra. The nascent state lost its oil fields, its main source of revenue, and without the funds to import food, roughly 1 million of the area’s civilians died as a result of severe malnutrition. In 1970, Biafra surrendered to Nigeria.
2005
It is announced that London will host the 2012 Olympics.2000
Prime Minister Tony Blair’s eldest son, Euan, is arrested for being drunk and incapable following celebrations to mark the end of his GCSE exams.1997
Sojourner, a robot onboard the Mars Pathfinder, is released from the probe to explore the red planet.1992
The French government order the police and army to forcefully remove lorries blocking the country’s major roads who are protesting against driving licence laws.1988
167 men die in explosion on board the Piper Alpha oil rig in the North Sea.1978
In England, eleven people are killed as fire breaks out on the Penzance-to-Paddington sleeper train.1971
Jazz legend Louis Armstrong dies aged 69.1966
Malawi becomes a republic within the British Commonwealth - with Dr Hastings Banda its first president.1952
In England, the last tram runs in London.1944
In America, fire-eaters accidentally start a fire inside the main tent of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus - more than 160 are killed.1942
The Second World War: Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family take refuge from the Nazis by hiding in the attic of a house in Amsterdam.1919
The first airship to cross the Atlantic, the British-built R34, arrives in New York, America.1885
French chemist Louis Pasteur administers his first successful treatment of an anti-rabies vaccine.
1535
Sir Thomas More, English statesman and Lord Chancellor, is executed on Tower Hill in London for treason - refusing to accept, officially and publicly, Henry VIII as head of the Church of England.1483
Richard III is crowned King of England.