Born on this Day 16th April
1889 Sir Charles Chaplin
1918 Spike Milligan
1939 Dusty Springfield
1943 Ruth Madoc
1943 Gerry Rafferty
1963 Jimmy Osmond
1963 Nick Berry
1970 Gabrielle Sabatini
1972 Conchita Martinez

Died on this Day
1850 Madam Tussaud
2001 Alec Stock

Music
1956 Buddy Holly’s first single ‘Blue Day Black Knights’ was released.

1963 Russian pianist Vladimir Askenazy was granted political asylum in the UK.

1972 The Electric Light Orchestra performed their first live show in Croydon.

1988 Stock, Aitken & Waterman won the Ivor Novello Award as Top Singwriters Of The Year.

1990 The Nelson Mandela- An international tribute To A Free South Africa concert took place at Wembley, with an appearance by Nelson Mandela and his wife Winnie.

Sport
1990 The West Indies beat England by an innings and 32 runs to win the 5th and final Test, winning the series 2-1 with 2 matches drawn.

People & Showbiz
1995 Research revealed that Britons watched more television than any other western European country.

1997 Veteran actor Lord Attenborough joined Tony Blair on the election trail and said that he would leave the country if Labour lost the General Election in May.

General Events
1883 Paul Kruga became President of South Africa.

1953 The Royal Yacht Britannia was launched.

1964 West German Geraldine Monk became the first woman to complete a solo flight around the world.

1989 Hogh Edelenau set a new world record by driving the 911 miles from John O’Groats to Land’s End in a custom-built turbo-charged JCB digger in 35 hours to raise money for construction accident victims.

1993 Farmer Fred Martin from Bellingham, Northumberland burnt his home down rather than pay his £410 council tax bill. He had been living in a wooden cabin without water, power or a toilet.