On this day: Battle of Iwo Jima ended

EVENTS, birthdays and anniversaries on March 26.

The battle of Iwo Jima, during which American forces captured the island from Japan, ended. Picture: Getty

1495: Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian appealed to German princes at Diet of Worms to check progress of French in Italy.

1780: The first Sunday newspaper in Britain was published: the British Gazette and Sunday Monitor.

1793: Holy Roman Empire declared war on France.

1820: Individual liberties were curtailed in France.

1839: The Henley Rowing Regatta at Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, was inaugurated.

1885: The first cremation in Britain took place at Woking Crematorium in Surrey.

1923: Regular daily weather forecasting began on BBC radio.

1925: Paul von Hindenburg became president of Germany.

1926: Romania and Poland formed an alliance.

1931: Treaty of friendship was signed between Iraq and Transjordan.

1934: Driving tests were introduced in Britain.

1937: Popeye the Sailor Man became the first cartoon character to have a statue erected. The residents of Crystal City, Texas, raised one to him because the principal crop grown in the area is his favourite spinach.

1942: Nazis began deportation of Jews to Auschwitz.

1945: Battle of Iwo Jima ended.

1953: In the United States, Doctor Jonas E Salk announced new vaccine to immunise against polio.

1971: Pakistan was reported on verge of civil war as President Yahya Khan outlawed rebellious Awami League.

1972: Britain and Malta signed new seven-year agreement on use of strategic military facilities on the island.

1973: Mrs Susan Shaw became the first woman to set foot on the floor of the 171-year-old London Stock Exchange.

1981: The “Gang of Four” Labour dissidents started the Social Democratic Party with the Limehouse Declaration.

1986: Libyan radio called for Arab suicide squads to strike American embassies and other interests “wherever they may be.”

1988: Iran and Iraq battled for mastery over Kurdistan mountains, just east of Iraqi oil fields.

1989: Muslim guerrillas bombarded Jalalabad in Afghanistan with rockets and artillery shells.

1990: Police fired on demonstrators in Sebokeng, South Africa, killing 11 people and wounding hundreds.

1992: The former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was jailed for six years for raping a beauty queen, Desiree Washington.

1996: Mel Gibson’s film about William Wallace, Braveheart, won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, at the Oscars in Hollywood.

1997: Thirty-nine members of the Heavens Gate cult committed mass suicide near San Diego.

2006: A complete ban on smoking in all enclosed public spaces came into effect in Scotland. Smokers breaking the law faced a £50 fine.

2009: Police in Scotland revealed that there were 74 domestic abuse attacks each day; or 270,000 a year.

2010: The Scottish island of Sanda, off the tip of the Mull of Kintyre, which has just one resident and its own pub, sold for £2.5 million to a Swiss businessman.

2010: ITV said it would axe police drama The Bill after 27 years.

BIRTHDAYS

Keira Knightley, actress, 30; Alan Arkin, actor, 81; Pierre Boulez, conductor and composer, 90; James Caan, actor, 75; Kyung-Wha Chung, violinist, 67; Jennifer Grey, actress, 55; William Hague, Leader of the House of Commons, 54; Erica Jong, American writer, 73; Harry Rabinowitz MBE, South African conductor and composer, 99; Diana Ross, singer (The Supremes), 71; Martin Short CBE, actor, 65; Amy Smart, actress, 39; Ian Tough, Glasgow-born actor and entertainer (The Krankies), 68; Steven Tyler, rock musician (Aerosmith), 67; Bob Woodward, Watergate journalist, 72.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1859 AE Housman, poet (A Shropshire Lad); 1868 Maxim Gorki, novelist; 1874 Robert Frost, poet; 1896 Jean Epstein, film director; 1911 Tennessee Williams, dramatist; 1923 Elizabeth Jane Howard CBE, novelist; 1931 Leonard Nimoy, actor and director; 1950 Teddy Pendergrass, soul singer.

Deaths: 1797 James Hutton, Edinburgh-born geologist; 1827 Ludwig van Beethoven, composer; 1834 Jean Armour, widow of Robert Burns; 1892 Walt Whitman, poet and essayist; 1902 Cecil Rhodes, diamond mining magnate, and politician; 1923 Sarah Bernhardt, actress; 1945 David Lloyd George, first Earl Lloyd-George, Liberal prime minister; 1959 Raymond Chandler, writer; 1973 Sir Noel Coward, playwright; 1983 Anthony Blunt, art historian and traitor; 2005 Lord Callaghan of Cardiff, Labour prime minister 1976-9.