Born on this Day 25th March
1867 Arturo Toscanini
1881 Bela Bartok
1908 David Lean
1929 Sir Peter Gibbings
1931 Humphrey Burton
1942 Aretha Franklin
1943 Paul Michael Glaser
1947 Sir Elton John
1975 Melanie Blatt

Died on this Day
1991 Eileen Joyce
1995 Joseph Needham

Music

1955 Respected British jazz band leader Humphrey Lyttleton raved about new American R&B singer Muddy Waters in the NME.

1956 Elvis Presley made his last appearance on the Dorsey Brothers US TV show, singing ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ and ‘Money Honey’.

1964 The Beatles made their debut appearance on ‘Top Of The Pops’.

1965 Bob Dylan made his debut in the UK singles chart with ‘Times They Are A-Changin”, while the UK’s own Donovan debuted with ‘Catch The Wind’.

1978 Buddy Holly and The Crickets’ 20 Golden Greats’ gave them their first No.1 album, 20 years after Buddy’s death.

Sport

1876 The first football match between Scotland and Wales was played in Glasgow, with Scotland winning by 4 goals to 0.

1927 The first radio commentary of The Grand National was by Meyrick Good and G.F.Allison.

1978 Cambridge’s boat sank during the Oxford and Cambridge boat race.

1992 Pakistan beat England in the final of the cricket World Cup.

People & Showbiz

1945 Audrey Hepburn won the Best Actress Oscar, William Holden the Best Actor Oscar and ‘From Here To Eternity’ the Best Film Oscar.

1984 ‘Educating Rita’ was voted best film at the British Academy of Film and Television arts annual awards, with its stars Michael Caine and Julie Walters being named as Best Actor and Best Actress.

General Events

1199 Richard I is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France which leads to his death on April 6.

1306 Robert the Bruce becomes King of Scotland.

1957 Six nations, Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Holland and Luxemburg, signed the Treaty of Rome to establish the European Economic Community(EEC).

1980 Robert Runcey was enthroned as the 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury.

1988 British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes called off a 425-mile walk to the North Pole after developing frostbite.

1989 According to the magazine ‘Archaeology Ireland’, leprechauns from Irish folklore were not a myth but hallucinatory effects of ‘magic mushrooms’ eaten by peasants in crude saunas 2 centuries ago.

1992 Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returned to earth after 313 days in space, after an expected 3-month duty was affected by the break-up of the Soviet Union and internal disputes amongst the independent states.

1995 Harold Gale, who was sacked as executive director of Mensa, announced he was to launch Psicorp, an alternative high-IQ organisation.

1995 It was announced that the 5,500 population of St. Helena, Britain’s most remote colony, were to finally get television. There is no airstrip on the island and the RMS St. Helena, which calls about twice every eight weeks on the way to and from Cape Town, has to anchor at sea, there is no harbour.

1996 The European Union’s Veterinarian Committee bans the export of British beef and its by-products as a result of mad cow disease (BSE).