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15th March
On this day, 1961 Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor married (for the first time) in Montreal.
It was while working on the movie Cleopatra, that Elizabeth and Richard (both married to others at the time), fell in love and their subsequent affair caused something of a scandal . They were married in a low-key ceremony at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Montreal, with only nine people in attendance.
They became Hollywood's most high-profile couple, but it was a famously tempestuous relationship and the couple divorced in 1974. However the following year, they secretly remarried in the remote village of Kasane, Botswana, but again things did not work out and divorced for the second time in 1976.
Monmout h's 13th-century stone gated bridge is Britain's only preserved bridge of this design and on 15th March 2004, a second bridge was opened over the River Monnow, thus allowing the old bridge to become pedestrianised.
Born this day, 1809 in Norfolk, Virginia
Joseph Jenkins Roberts who was the first and seventh President of Liberia
His father is said to have been a planter of Welsh origin and his mother Amelia, who is described as a mulatto ( a person who is born from one white and one black parent ), was the planter's slave mistress, Joseph Roberts was therefore estimated to be seven-eighths European and therefore classified as an octoroon, someone who could easily have passed for a white man. Amelia gave all of her children but one the middle name of Jenkins, which suggests that may have been the name of their biological father.
Amelia was freed by the planter and married James Roberts, a free black man who established a successful business transporting goods by flatboat. Roberts emigrated to Liberia in 1829 as a young man, where he established a trading store and became interested in politics.
When Liberia gained its independence in 1847, Roberts became its first president and in 1872, was elected as its seventh. His presidency is notable for Liberia attaining recognition from Great Britain, France and many German cities and for developing agriculture, shipbuilding and developing trade links for the country.
* Liberia's main airport, Roberts International Airport and the town of Robertsport are named in honour of Roberts.
* His face is depicted on the Liberian ten dollar bill introduced in 1997.
* His birthday, March 15, is a national holiday in Liberia.
Born this day, 1910 in Cwmbran
Tom Richards, who won the Marathon Silver medal at the 1948 Olympics in London.
An interesting note about those games was that the 333 male competitors of the GB team were each issued with two pairs of Y-fronts for “ease of movement”. Y-fronts were invented in the 1930s and would have been regarded as a luxury item in those days.
Geoff Charles, who died on 15th March 2002 was a photojournalist who was born in Brymbo near Wrexham in January 1909 and educated at Grove Park School in Wrexham and the University of London.
Charles began his journalistic career at the Wrexham Star and notably broke the story that the death toll figure of 100 miners lost at the Gresford disaster was a known underestimation and published the correct figure of 266.
Later Charles worked on the Welsh language newspaper Y Cymro and took many photographs of Welsh life and eisteddfodau. He also covered the drowning of the Capel Celyn community to create the Llyn Celyn reservoir to supply water to Liverpool.
