Born on this Day 20th March
1890 Benjamin Gigli
1908 Sir Michael Redgrave
1925 John Ehrlichman
1917 Dame Vera Lynn
1947 Carl Palmer
1950 William Hurt
1957 Spike Lee
1958 Holly Hunter
1972 Greg Searle

Died on this Day
1413 King Henry IV
1727 Sir Isaac Newton
1963 Brendan Behan

Music

1964 The Beatles’ single ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ was released.

1965 An all-star Motown package show arrived in Britain, including Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, Miracles, The Temptations and Martha and The Vandellas, but played to half empty houses in most parts of the country.

1969 John Lennon married Yoko Ono.

1970 David Bowie married Mary Angela Barnett.

Sport

1926 Scotland’s rugby team beat England at Twickenham for the first time to win the Calcutta Cup.

1937 England beat Scotland at Murrayfield to win rugby’s Calcutta Cup, International Championship and Triple Crown for the first time.

1966 The World Cup disappeared from Westminster Central Hall.

People & Showbiz

1983 At the British Academy of Film and Television Awards Alan Bleasdale was voted Writer of the Year, and for his series, ‘The Boys From The Blackstuff’ won the award for Best Drama series.

1995 The BBC announced that children’s television programme ‘Blue Peter’ was to be shown 3 days a week instead of 2 from April.

1995 The Independent Television Commission rejected complaints from viewers about a TV commercial in which Gary Lineker takes a packet of Walkers crisps from a small boy.

General Events

1602 The Dutch East India Company issued the worl’s first share certificates.

1806 The foundation stone of Dartmoor Prison in Devon was laid.

1988 The Health Department announced that a second AIDS virus, common to West Africa, had been detected in Britain.

1989 Former Welsh Guardsman Simon Weston, who was severely burnt in the Falklands war, was presented the Snowdon Award Scheme’s special award for coping with his injuries and motivating disabled children.

1992 Libya agreed to hand over to the United Nations the two men accused of planting the device which blew up the Pan Am jet over Lockerbie.

1995 The Conservative Party abolished 25 jobs at Central Office in London, in an attempt to solve the party’s debt crisis.

1995 It was reported that Prime Minister John Major was to attend the VE-Day celebrations in Moscow on the 9th May.

1997 Several Manchester United supporters were injured after local police opened fire on the crowd with rubber bullets at a European Cup tie match against Porto in Oporto.