IT HAPPENED TODAY
1704:
The Battle of Blenheim took place in Germany, in which Anglo-Austrian forces under Marlborough and Prince Eugene defeated the French and Bavarian armies.
1860:
Annie Oakley, marksman who starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, was born. Nicknamed Little Sure Shot by Sitting Bull, she was said to have been able to hit the thin edge of a playing card from 30 paces.
1889:
The coin-operated phone was patented in the USA by William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut.
1899:
Alfred Hitchcock (top), English film director who became a US citizen in 1955, was born. He made the first British sound film, Blackmail (1929), although dialogue only began in reel two as the studio was not equipped in the early sequences. He made many films, including Rebecca in 1940 and Psycho in 1960.
Florence Nightingale (below), the “Lady With The Lamp’’, died at her home in England.
1915:
Murderer George Joseph Smith, who drowned his brides in a zinc bath after ensuring their finances were set up in his favour, was hanged. It was Friday the 13th.
1961:
East German border guards stopped cars passing to the east through the Brandenburg Gate, sealing the border. Barbed wire was erected, later replaced by the Berlin Wall.
1964:
The last hangings in Britain took place — Peter Allen at Walton Prison, Liverpool, and John Walby at Strangeways, Manchester.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
Scientists revealed they believed they’d found the largest volcanic region on earth, under the ice of Antarctica.
BIRTHDAYS:
Madhur Jaffrey (above), cookery writer, 85; Feargal Sharkey, singer, 60; Phil Taylor, darts player, 58; Alan Shearer, former footballer, 48; Shoaib Akhtar, former cricketer, 43.