ITHAPPENED TODAY
1297:
Scottish hero William Wallace
defeated the English at Stirling Bridge.
1777:
The British, under General Howe, beat the Americans, commanded by George Washington, at the battle of Brandywine Creek in the American War of Independence.
1885:
DH Lawrence, poet and novelist, was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire.
1895:
The FA Cup was stolen from football outfitters William Shillock in Birmingham — 68 years later an 83-year-old man confessed that he had melted it down to make counterfeit half-crown coins.
1915:
The first Women’s Institute was formed in Anglesey, Wales.
1972:
The BBC TV quiz programme Mastermind was first transmitted.
1978:
Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov was stabbed by a poisoned umbrella point wielded by an unknown secret agent at a London bus-stop. The poison brought on a coma and Markov died shortly after.
2001:
2,977 people (67 British) were killed when passenger jets hijacked by al-Qaida terrorists struck the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth hijacked plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
2012:
Andy Murray clinched his first Grand Slam title — the US Open — a month after becoming Olympic champion.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
The Duke of Cambridge launched a workplace wellbeing initiative to give employers help to support staff with problems.
Brian De Palma, film director, 79; Franz Beckenbauer, former footballer, 74; Roger Uttley, former rugby player/coach, 70; Virginia Madsen actress, 58; Moby, musician, 54; Harry Connick Jnr, singer and actor, 52; Richard Ashcroft, rock singer, 48.