ON THIS DAY

● 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.

● 1928: The world’s first television play was transmitted live by station WGY in New York. The Queen’s Messenger, a 40-minute transmission, had only two characters but there were four actors, as old-fashioned cameras could not be moved around.

● 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 unidentified poison brought on a coma and Markov died on September 15.

● 2001: 2,977 people – 67 of them British – were killed when passenger jets hijacked by al-Qaida terrorists struck the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth hijacked plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.

● 2012: Andy Murray capped an astonishing year by finally clinching his first Grand Slam title – the US Open – a month after being crowned Olympic champion.

● BIRTHDAYS: Brian De Palma, film director, 79; Franz Beckenbauer, former footballer, 74; Roger Uttley, former rugby player/coach, 70; Amy Madigan, actress, 69; Virginia Madsen, actress, 58; Moby, composer and musician, 54; Harry Connick Jr, singer and actor, 52.