Also on this day

1746: Bonnie Prince Charlie flees Scotland to France

1932: Gandhi begins hunger strike against treatment of untouchables

1934: Sophia Loren, right, is born

a meeting that led to the creation of the

Women’s Tennis Association, becoming its first president and threatening to boycott the US Open unless men and women were paid the same.

Accepting the challenge she continued playing, winning her fifth Wimbledon title. In contrast Riggs partied and put in little training. He arrived on court wearing a warm-up jacket emblazoned with “Sugar Daddy”, in a rickshaw pulled by female models, while Billie Jean made a Cleopatra-style entrance on a gold throne carried by men dressed as ancient slaves.

She beat Riggs 6–4, 6–3, 6–3 and took the $100,000 prize, now worth more than £450,000.

“I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn’t win,” she said. “It would ruin the women’s tour and affect all women’s self-esteem. To beat a 55-year-old guy was no thrill. The thrill was exposing a lot of new people to tennis.”

Over her career King, now 76, won 39 Grand Slam titles and became a coach, commentator and advocate for women’s sports.

Riggs died in 1995 but rumours persist that he threw the match to enable him to cancel gambling debts to the Mafia.

Question: This day in 1946 the first Cannes Film Festival opened; 11 films tied for the Grand Prix, one of them British. What was it?

Last week I asked who became leader of the Soviet Union on September 13, 1956? The answer is NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV