Born on this Day 26th March
1859 A.E Houseman
1874 Robert Frost
1886 Chico Marx
1916 Harry Rabinowitz
1923 Elizabeth Jane Howard
1923 Charles Wheeler
1925 James Moody
1931 Leonard Nemoy
1934 Alan Arkin
1939 James Caan
1942 Erica Jong
1944 Diana Ross

Died on this Day
1827 Ludwig Von Beethoven
1923 Sarah Berhardt
1945 David Lloyd George
1959 Raymond Chandler
1973 Sir Noel Coward
1983 Anthony Blunt

Music

1955 Three versions of the same song, ‘Let Me Go Lover’, by Dean Martin, Teresa Brewer and Ruby Murray stood at numbers 5, 6 and 7 respectively in the UK singles chart.

1966 Cher entered the US singles chart with ‘Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)’, her first solo hit.

1975 The film of The Who’s rock opera ‘Tommy’ was premiered in London.

1977 Elvis Costello released his first single’ Less Than Zero’ on Stiff Records.

1977 ‘Feels Like The First Time’, the debut single from Foreigner was released in the US.

1983 Duran Duran were mobbed by 5,000 fans when opening a video shop in New York.

Sport

1988 Irish flyweight Dave ‘Boy’ McAuley, lost to the Colombian WBA champion Fidel Bassa on points in their title fight at the King’s Hall in Belfast.

1992 Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for the alleged rape of 18-year old Desiree Washington.

People & Showbiz

1923 The first daily weather forecast was broadcast by the BBC.

1989 The first episode of cult TV drama ‘Quantum Leap’, starring Scott Bakula, was broadcast in America. The first episode was called ‘Genesis’.

General Events

1953 It was announced that a polio vaccine had been successfully tested on 161 adults and children.

1958 Britain’s first parking tickets were issued to motorists in London.

1973 Susan Shaw became the first woman to be allowed to set foot on the floor of the London Stock Exchange in its 171 year history.

1982 The first test-tube twins were born in Cambridge.

1983 According to a published report the prison population had reached 45,000.

1989 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds announced that England’s only pair of breeding golden eagles had laid their first egg and a second was expected.

1992 Elizabeth Eden was sworn in as the High Sheriff of Devon, believed to be the first woman to hold such a post.

1995 The Transport Secretary, Brian Mawhinney, said that his department was backing away from plans to introduce motorway tolls. The Government insisted that the technology was unworkable and the problem of drivers using side roads to avoid the the checks remained unresolved.