IT HAPPENED TODAY

AUGUST 1

10BC: Roman Emperor Claudius I was born in Lyons.

1714: Queen Anne (above ),thelast Stuart sovereign, died aged 49, to be succeeded by George I under the Act of Settlement of 1701.

1778: The first savings bank opened inHamburg.

1798: The Battle of the Nile took place, when Nelson beat the French fleet at Aboukir Bay.

1831: New London Bridge was opened by King William IV. It was sold to an American in 1968 and rebuilt in Arizona.

1873: The Clay Street Hill Railroad — San Francisco’s cable-powered street car system — began running.

1903: Martha Jane Cannary, better known as frontierswoman Calamity Jane( below), died near Deadwood, Dakota. Her final request was to be buried next to Wild Bill Hickok.

1932: The first Mars bar, made in Slough, went on sale.

1945: Family Favourites, the record request programme, began on the BBC.

2012: Golden girl rowers Helen Glover and Heather Stanning claimed Team GB’s first gold medal of London 2012.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:

A 140-million-year-old bloom bearing a striking resemblance to a water lily was the mother (and father) of every flowering plant living today, scientists announced.

BIRTHDAYS: Professor Laurie Taylor, sociologist, 82; Robert Cray, blues musician, 65; Chuck D, rapper (Public Enemy), 58; Coolio, rapper/actor, 55; Mark Wright, former international footballer and manager, 55; Sam Mendes (below), film and theatre director, 53; David James, former footballer, 48; Nwankwo Kanu, former footballer, 42.