2000: Life for serial killer Shipman

Artificially 1969:
The Family GP Dr Harold Shipman has been jailed for life for murdering 15 of his patients, making him Britain's biggest convicted serial killer.

Shipman, from Hyde in Greater Manchester, is also suspected of killing more than 100 other patients.

From the dock at Preston Crown Court, Shipman showed no emotion as the verdict was read out: guilty to 15 murders and forging the will of one of his patients.

In sentencing Shipman to life imprisonment the judge, Mr Justice Thayne Forbes, said: "Each victim was your patient. You murdered each and every one by a calculated and cold-blooded perversion of his medical skills.

"You brought them death, disguised by the attentiveness of a good doctor."

All Shipman's victims were women and none was suffering from a serious illness when she died. Each one died suddenly after a visit from Shipman.

The court was told how the doctor would visit the victims in their homes and administer a lethal dose of morphine.

The alarm was raised by solicitor Angela Woodruff, the daughter of Kathleen Grundy, Shipman's last victim. Shipman arrived at Mrs Grundy's home on the pretext of giving her a blood test and had, in fact, given her a massive dose of morphine.

He then crudely forged her will so he would benefit from her substantial estate.

Outside the court, Mrs Woodruff gave her reaction. "Sadly, nothing that has happened here nor can happen in the future can bring back my mum, nor the other victims," she said.

"We hope we can now have the space and time to remember my mum as she was - a happy, active, caring, energetic, loving person whom we miss so much."

Shipman's family, his wife, Primrose, and sons, Christopher and David were in court for the verdict.

The defence said the case against the doctor was based solely on unreliable and unsafe toxicological evidence gathered from the exhumed bodies of nine of his victims.

The family solicitor, Ann Ball, said: "Mrs Shipman is devastated by the verdict that has been reached today. The last 18 months have been an ordeal for her and her family."

Further murder charges are possible. The court was told the police had investigated the deaths of 136 of Shipman's patients.

2003: Columbia shuttle disintegrates killing seven

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The US space shuttle Columbia has broken up as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere killing all seven astronauts on board.

This is the first time there has been an accident on landing in the 42 years of space flight.

President George Bush told a nation in shock: "The Columbia is lost. There are no survivors."

Six of the seven astronauts were US citizens. They were Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, and female astronauts Laurel Clark and Indian-born Kalpana Chawla.

The seventh - fighter pilot Colonel Ilan Ramon - was Israel's first astronaut and was carrying with him a miniature Torah scroll of a Holocaust survivor.

Columbia disintegrated just 16 minutes before it was due to land at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

At 0900 local time (1400 GMT) Mission Control lost all data and contact with the crew.

The US space agency Nasa then sent search teams to the Dallas-Fort Worth area amid reports of "a big bang" and TV pictures showing smoke and fireballs in the sky.

In an emotional announcement, Nasa's administrator Sean O'Keefe, said: "This is indeed a tragic day for the Nasa family, for the families of the astronauts and likewise, tragic for the nation."

Flags at the Kennedy Space Center have been lowered to half-mast.

Debris from the shuttle is scattered across eastern Texas and western Louisiana and has crashed into car parks, forests, backyards, a reservoir, a rooftop and a dentist's office.

Nasa has temporarily suspended shuttle flights. Shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore told a news conference in Houston, Texas, "We will not fly again until we have this understood. Somewhere along the line we missed something."

The finger of blame points to a piece of insulating foam from an external fuel tank that hit the shuttle's left wing as it took off 16 days ago.

Some experts say this could have damaged tiles that protect the craft from intense heat on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

But the lead flight director in mission control, Leroy Cain, assured journalists engineers had concluded any damage to the spacecraft was considered minor.

The shuttle was the world's first reusable space vehicle and Columbia was the oldest of a fleet of four and flew her maiden voyage in April 1981.

Her sister ship Challenger exploded soon after take-off 17 years ago killing six astronauts and schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.

1953: Violent storms claim hundreds of lives

Artificially 1969:
The Hundreds of people living on the east coast of Britain have died in some of the worst storms ever recorded.

Gale force northerly winds lashed the coastline and broke through flood defences from Yorkshire down to Kent throughout the night.

Swelling tides and high winds mixed to form a fatal combination which claimed dozens of lives and flooded thousands of homes on low-lying land all along the east coast.

Many people were forced to spend the night on their rooftops waiting to be rescued by over-stretched emergency services.

The storm began on the west coast of Ireland yesterday morning, passed over Orkney and then funnelled down the North Sea, driving a deadly mountain of water before it.

The Princess Victoria ferry, travelling from Scotland to Ireland, was forced to abandon ship in the Irish Sea after it was caught in the heavy storms. The death toll reached 130.

Warnings of "rather high tides" issued by the Dutch authorities did not reach Britain and it is known many of people in both Holland and Belgium also lost their lives.

The eye of the storm hit eastern Scotland at approximately midday yesterday as Dunstable Met Office warned of "exceptionally strong winds".

The first fatalities on land were reported at approximately 1700 hrs yesterday after 20ft (6m) waves crashed through flood defences in Lincolnshire. More than 40 people are feared drowned.

Throughout the night the high winds travelled down the east coast ripping through sea walls and claiming dozens of lives.

Counties worst affected were Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Kent.

In Canvey Island, Essex, the entire 13,000-strong population was moved to safety as the bad weather took hold. Essex police said they had recovered 30 bodies during the night.

Eye-witnesses up and down the country said water was gushing through streets and thousands of homes were flooded.

1943: Germans surrender at Stalingrad

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The Soviet Government has announced the final defeat of the German 6th Army at the port of Stalingrad, in southern Russia.

A statement late this evening said: "Our forces have now completed the liquidation of the German Fascist troops encircled in the area of Stalingrad.

"The last centre of enemy resistance in the Stalingrad area has thus been crushed."

The declaration brings to an end five months of heavy fighting for the city. The battle has been described as among the most terrible of the war so far.

Another 45,000 German soldiers have been taken prisoner in the last two days, bringing the total in custody to over 90,000 officers and men.

The prisoners are understood to be in an appalling condition after enduring months of starvation in temperatures down to -30.

They are the remains of the 330,000-strong German force sent to take Stalingrad.

The rest - about a quarter of a million men - have died, as many from illness, starvation and frostbite than from the fighting itself.

The 6th Army has been trapped inside the city, completely surrounded by the Red Army, for almost three months during the harshest part of the Russian winter.

They have had to rely totally on air drops by the Luftwaffe for food.

Atrocious weather conditions have reduced the amount getting through to just 90 tonnes a day - less than a third of what they needed.

The German commander of the 6th Army, Field-Marshal Friedrich Paulus, gave himself up two days ago.

He had been in a hopeless position since early December, when a last-ditch rescue attempt was driven back by Soviet troops.

He was given one earlier chance to surrender, on 8 January, by Soviet Regional Commander, Marshal Rokossovsky.

But Hitler repeated his order to the 6th Army that surrender would not be contemplated, and two days later the final Soviet offensive began to flush the Germans out of Stalingrad.

Paulus lost his last German-controlled airfield ten days later, on 22 January, and with it the last hope of any more regular supplies.

By 29 January the desperately weak 6th Army was split into two pockets of men.

The surrender of Field-Marshal Paulus brought the ordeal to an end for one of the groups.

The defeat of the second remnant today closes at last one of the most horrific chapters of the war so far.

1990: De Klerk dismantles apartheid in South Africa

Artificially 1969:
The The President of South Africa has lifted the 30-year ban on leading anti-apartheid group the African National Congress.

President F W De Klerk has announced restrictions will be lifted on 33 other anti-apartheid organisations, including the ANC, at the opening of parliament in Cape Town.

He also made his first public commitment to release jailed ANC leader Nelson Mandela, but he did not specify a date.

Many observers were surprised by the scope of the reforms - which included a return to press freedom and suspension of the death penalty - signalling a partial end to the 25-year-old state of emergency.

Nobel Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu said: "He has taken my breath away".

Mr Mandela's wife, Winnie, remained sceptical.

She said: "We are not going to accept a bone without meat. The unbanning of the ANC, the South African Communist Party and the Pan-African Congress in the prevailing South African climate is simply a recipe for further problems."

Other critics complained about the government's failure to completely lift the state of emergency, as the ban on TV and photographic coverage of unrest continues.

Mr De Klerk explained this was precautionary so that the authorities could monitor the progress of the reforms.

Speaking about the release of political prisoners, he said: "It does not signify in the least the approval or condoning of crimes of terrorism or crimes of violence committed under their banner."

The Conservative opposition has demanded a referendum on the white reaction to the new measures.

1967: Three astronauts die in Apollo 1 tragedy

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Three American astronauts died when fire swept the Saturn rocket on its launch pad at Cape Kennedy.

The space crew, flight commander Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee, were taking part in a rehearsal for the launch of the first Apollo mission.

It is thought an electrical spark started the fire which spread quickly in the oxygen-filled atmosphere of the capsule, killing the crew within seconds.

Navy Lieutenant Commander Chaffee, aged 31, had never flown in space before. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Grissom, 39, was the first American to make two flights. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel White, 35, made America's first space walk.

It is feared the disaster on launch pad 34 could delay America's plans to put a man on the moon by as much as a year.

The three men were in the command module, mounted on the rocket as if ready for launch, but the Saturn was not loaded with fuel.

At 1831 hours one of the astronauts was heard to say, "Fire, I smell fire."

Two seconds later, another astronaut, probably Lt Col White said, "Fire in the cockpit."

The fire spread through the cabin rapidly. The last communication from the crew was heard just 17 seconds later.

The pressurised atmosphere inside the capsule meant the astronauts would not have had time to open the hatch.

Under ideal conditions, the process takes about 90 seconds. It involves venting the cabin to relieve the interior pressure which helps hold the door closed.

It took technicians on the outside about five minutes after the fire had started to open the hatch.

There will be a full investigation into what caused the fire, but already questions are being asked about whether safety corners were cut in the race to be first to the moon.

The astronauts knew there were risks involved. Lt Col Grissom became the second American in space in the Liberty Bell 7. On splashdown, the space capsule filled with water and sank and he almost drowned.

A few weeks before the launch pad tragedy, he wrote: "There will be risks, as there are in any experimental programme, and sooner or later, we're going to run head-on into the law of averages and lose somebody.

"I hope this never happens, and... perhaps it never will, but if it does, I hope the American people won't think it's too high a price to pay for our space programme."

The Apollo mission's maiden flight was due to blast off into space on 21 February.

1984: Michael Jackson burned in Pepsi ad

Artificially 1969:
The Michael Jackson has received hospital treatment for serious burns to his head after his hair caught light during a freak filming accident.

The 25-year-old entertainer was singing his hit "Billie Jean" for a Pepsi Cola commercial in Los Angeles when the special effects went wrong.

Three thousand fans saw a firework display erupt behind the superstar, showering him in sparks and setting light to his hair.

Some studio audience members said he was so calm, they thought the incident was part of the act.

The singer is reported to have covered his burning hair with his jacket as his brothers and stage hands rushed to help.

One member of the audience, Virginia Watson, witnessed the accident.

"He was wonderful. He reassured people even as he was being taken away on a stretcher ", she said.

Michael Jackson was taken to hospital where he was treated for second degree burns.

Plastic surgeon Steven Hoeffin said Jackson, who was voted America's entertainer of the year, could need surgery to his head.

"He is in discomfort", said the doctor. "It will take a few weeks to determine the hair loss."

The superstar is earning a reputed ?m for the series of Pepsi Cola adverts which also feature his four famous brothers. It is part of a huge sponsorship deal the singer agreed last year.

The multimillionaire's album "Thriller" has just entered the Guinness book of records as the best selling LP of all time.