1st

The first edition of the  Oxford English Dictionary was published today in 1884:

2nd

This day in 1882; The Irish author, James Joyce  was born.

3rd

In 1919: The League of Nations held its first meeting in Paris, with US President Wilson chairing.

4th

Today in 1861: Seven secessionist southern states formed the Confederate States of America, in Montgomery, Alabama.

5th

Burroughs, William S, US novelist born this day in 1914; more info at:  The William S. Burroughs Files.

6th

Finally in 1918: Women over 30 were granted the right to vote in Britain due to the Women's Suffrage movement.

7th

1812: Charles Dickens, English novelist born this day.

8th

1924: The gas chamber was used in the USA for the first time, in the Nevada State Prison see: Methods of Execution.

9th

1949: US film actor Robert Mitchum  was sentenced to two months in prison for smoking marijuana, but buggered off to Europe instead. 

10th

 A street battle between Oxford University students and townspeople in 1354 resulted in several deaths and many injuries. More details @ University of Oxford- A Brief History.

11th

1990: After more than 27 years in prison, ANC president Nelson Mandela walked to freedom from a prison near Cape Town, South Africa.

12th

In 1554: Lady Jane Grey, queen of England for nine days, was executed on Tower Green for high treason.

13th

Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the USSR today in 1974:

14th

 P G Wodehouse, English novelist dies this day in 1975: there is a PG Wodehouse Appreciation Page for further info.

15th

1748: Jeremy Bentham, English philosopher and writer born today.  Find out more at: About Bentham.

16th

 Cigar smoking Fidel Castro became president of Cuba in 1959:.  Details @ Fidel Castro and The Cuban Revolution.

17th

1958: The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) was formed in London. History of CND and had it's first public meeting on February 1958 in Westminster, London

18th

1478: George, Duke of Clarence, drowned in a butt of Malmsey (the sweetest variety of Madeira wine) on the orders of his brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester.  Clarence; Dukes of.

19th

José Joaquín de Olmedo poet and political leader in Ecuador, dies in Guayaquil. Though elected as Ecuador's first vice president in 1830, Olmedo declined the office; his later poetry foresaw and deplored the trend toward the militarism and civil wars that were beginning to undermine the hard-won unity of Latin America.

20th

In 1996 the stranded oil tanker Sea Empress grounded on coral near Milford Haven, Britain, and ruptured 12 of its cargo tanks, polluting the only Marine National park in North Europe.  Great going you oil fella's!

21st

It's 1965 and Malcolm X, US Black Muslim leader is shot dead at a meeting.  More details @ Malcolm X, an autobiography.

22nd

Over 1,000 French troops landed at Fishguard, South Wales, 1797, but were quickly taken prisoner by the local Woman who fooled the French into thinking they were an English army.  Find out how in: Welsh History.

23rd

In 1898 Emile Zola was imprisoned for writing his open letter J'accuse, accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and of wrongly imprisoning the army officer Captain Alfred Dreyfus. The Life of Emile Zola":

24th

The Gregorian Calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582; it replaced the Julian Calendar, but was not adopted in Britain until 1752.
Old Style Dating.

25th

Great year for music lovers as in 1943: George Harrison , English pop musician and former member of the Beatles is born.

26th

Barings PLC, the country's oldest merchant bank, declared bankruptcy in  1995, after discovering that Nicholas Leeson, the firm's chief trader in Singapore, had lost approximately £625 million/$1 billion of the bank's assets on unauthorized futures and options transactions. The 1995 Failure of Barings PLC.

27th

The German Reichstag (parliament building) in Berlin was destroyed by fire today in 1933; it is believed Nazis were responsible, though they blamed the communists. See the Holocaust Glossary for further details.

28th

In 1994,  NATO forces entered combat for the first time in the 45-year history of the pact to shoot down 4 Bosnian Serb aircraft which had violated a UN no-fly zone in Central Bosnia.  Chronology of NATO's involvement.

29th

The 1996 leap year triggered computer problems in British hospitals and the Met Office as software failed to recognize the date.