ON THIS DAY

• 1492: The infamous and corrupt Roderigo Borgia bribed enough cardinals to become Pope Alexander VI.

• 1897: Enid Blyton, children’s author, was born in East Dulwich. In the mid-thirties she began writing her stories which featured Noddy, the Famous Five and the Secret Seven.

• 1919: Dunfermline-born philanthropic industrialist Andrew Carnegie died in America. Insisting he wanted to leave the world as a poor man, he gave away more than 308 million dollars. But he failed to achieve his ambition – he had 22m dollars left.

• 1942: Barnes wallis patented the bouncing bomb which was used against the German Mohne and Eder dams in 1943 by the RAF Dambusters Squadron.

• 1956: Abstract expressionist artist Jackson Pollock died when his car hit a tree near East Hampton, New York.

• 1965: Violent race riots broke out in the Watts area of Los Angeles.

• 1975: The UK Government took ownership of British Leyland, the only major British-owned car company.

• 1988: Devastating floods brought chaos to the Sudan. After 13 hours of rain, 1.5 million people had been made homeless, and an unknown number died.

• ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A wildfire on the Canary Island of Gran Canaria forced 1,000 residents to be evacuated after 2,470 acres of land was burned.

• BIRTHDAYS: Eric Carmen, singer, 71; Hulk Hogan, wrestler and actor, 67; Joe Jackson, rock singer, 66; Nigel Martyn, former footballer, 54; Nigel Harman, actor, 47; Chris Hemsworth, actor, 37.