On this day

776 BC:

The first Olympic Games opened in Olympia. The foot race was won by Coroibos, a cook.

1759:

Work started on the Royal Navy’s 104-gun battleship HMS Victory at Chatham, Kent, built from the wood of 6,000 trees, 90% of which were oak.

1892:

Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, was born. When the Italians invaded in 1936, he went into exile but resumed full authority after Ethiopia was liberated in 1941.

1904:

The first ice cream cone was made by Charles Menches in Missouri.

1955:

Donald Campbell broke the world water speed record on Ullswater when he reached 202.32mph in Bluebird.

1986:

Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson in Westminster Abbey, and was made Duke of York following a 600-yearold tradition for the monarch’s second son.