ON THIS DAY

• 1797: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, second wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and author, in 1818, of Frankenstein, was born in London.

• 1860: The first tram service in Britain opened, at Birkenhead on Merseyside.

• 1871: Lord Rutherford, pioneer of subatomic physics, was born in Spring Grove, New Zealand. In the 1920s he was the first to split the atom.

• 1881: The first stereo system was patented by Clement Ader of Germany.

• 1901: Scotsman Hubert Cecil Booth patented the vacuum cleaner.

• 1937: Joe Louis defeated Welshman Tommy Farr in an epic fight in New York to retain the world heavyweight boxing title.

• 1939: The great evacuation of children from British cities began. With the Second World War four days away, thousands of youngsters were moved to the country to avoid anticipated German bombing.

• 1963: The ‘Hotline’ between the US president and the Soviet premier was established to reduce the risk of an accidental nuclear war. A group of London Metropolitan University students gathered outside Downing Street to express their distress at the UKBA’s decision to strip it of its right to admit foreigners.

• ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:

A “well-organised” gang used drones to fly class A drugs and mobile phones into UK jails, delivering contraband straight to inmates’ windows, a court heard.

• AUGUST 30 BIRTHDAYS:

Sue MacGregor, broadcaster, 78; Mark Strong, actor, 56; Cameron Diaz, actress, 47; Andy Roddick, tennis player, 37.