On this DAY

1258: Salisbury Cathedral was consecrated.

1842: Sir James Dewar, Scottish physician and chemist, and inventor of the vacuum flask, was born at Kincardine-on-Forth.

1854: The Battle of Alma, fought by the British against the Russians in the Crimean War, produced six winners of the Victoria Cross.

1885: Jelly Roll Morton, pianist, composer and singer and one of the first jazz musicians, was born in New Orleans.

1917: The first RSPCA animal clinic was opened in Liverpool.

1931: Britain came off the gold standard to stop foreign speculation against the pound. The devaluation brought strikes and even a near mutiny on 15 navy ships berthed in Scotland.

1944: Guy Gibson, British pilot and Victoria Cross winner for his Dambusters action against the Mohne and Eder dams, was killed when his aircraft crashed in Holland on its way back to base.

1961: The first non-stop swim across the Channel and back was started by Argentinian Antonio Albertondo; he completed the feat after 43 hours 10 minutes.

1984: A suicide bomber drove a lorry full of explosives at the US embassy in Beirut, leaving 40 dead.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Once again, Arctic sea ice melted to hundreds of thousands of miles below average during the summer, scientists revealed.