March 18, 1858 - Rudolf Diesel, German inventor of the Diesel engine

March 18, 1952 - Pat Eddery, Champion jockey

March 18, 1905 - Robert Donat, English stage and film actor

March 18, 1844 - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer

March 18, 1939 - Kenny Lynch, Singer and actor

March 18, 1869 - Neville Chamberlain, Former prime minister

March 18, 1949 - Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins, Irish snooker player

March 18, 1939 - Ron Atkinson, Football manager

March 18, 1990 - East Germanies first elections in over sixty years ended

March 18, 1745 - Robert Walpole, the first British Prime Minister, died

March 18, 1949 - NATO was set up by seven European countries including Britain

March 18, 1850 - The American Express company was formed in Buffalo, New York

March 18, 1967 - The tanker Torrey Cannon ran aground near Lands End, spilling large amounts of crude oil

March 18, 1965 - The Soviet astronaut Alexei Leonov became the first man to walk in space

March 18, 1662 - The first ever public buses were started by King Louis XIV in Paris for the poor of the city