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12 Apr 1961: Soviets win space race

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space.

• 1 min

13 Apr 1964: Poitier breaks new ground with Oscar win

He becomes the first black actor to receive the Academy Award for Best Actor.

• 3 mins

14 Apr 1970: Critical explosion onboard Apollo 13

The craft’s main power supply is cut, with oxygen and water reserves critically low.

• 2 mins

15 Apr 1912: RMS Titanic sinks

Survivor Frank Prentice: ‘You lie in bed at night, the whole thing comes round again.’

• 3 mins

16 Apr 1964: ‘Great Train Robbers’ get 300 years

12 men receive some of the longest sentences in UK criminal history for £2.6m robbery.

• 2 mins

17 Apr 1986: British journalist McCarthy taken hostage

John McCarthy is abducted on his way out of war-torn Beirut.

• 1 min

18 Apr 1955: Albert Einstein dies

Dr Albert Einstein, the mind behind the theory of relativity, dies aged 76.

• 3 mins

19 Apr 1993: Waco cult siege ends with inferno

Fires break out at the besieged headquarters of the Branch Davidian sect near Waco, Texas

• 2 mins

20 April 1999: Columbine mass shooting

13 people killed and more than 20 injured by two armed high school students in Colorado.

• 1 min

21 April 2016: Prince dies at Paisley Park home

The Purple Rain singer collapses at his home in Minnesota.

• 2 mins

22 Apr 1969: Knox-Johnston sails around the world

The British sailor achieves the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the globe.

• 2 mins

23 Apr 1968: Decimal coins reach the high street

New coins make their way into UK purses to replace pounds, shillings and pence by 1971.

• 1 min

24 Apr 1990: Hubble Telescope takes off for space

Nasa launches the world’s first space-based optical telescope from Cape Canaveral.

• 2 mins

25 Apr 1953: Scientists describe 'secret of life'

Cambridge University scientists discover the double helix structure of DNA.

• 3 mins

26 Apr 1975: Labour votes to leave the EEC

Party members vote by almost 2-1 to leave the European Economic Community.

• 2 mins

27 Apr 1992: Betty Boothroyd elected new Speaker

‘Elect me for what I am, and not for what I was born.’

• 2 mins

28 Apr 1993: Sega’s Night Trap raises moral panic

MP Dame Jill Night says these games teach children ’to maim, to murder and to mutilate.’

• 2 mins

29 Apr 1993: Queen to open Palace doors

The public can visit inside of Buckingham Palace for the first time for a fee of £8.

• 2 mins

30 Apr 1952: Anne Frank diary published in English

‘In a certain way, through her diary, she is living on in many hearts,’ says Otto Frank.

• 2 mins