NOW & THEN

1215: Pope Innocent III declared the Magna Carta invalid.

1572: The St Bartholomew’s Day massacre took place in Paris when thousands of French Huguenots were killed by order of the Catholic French court.

1814: The Capitol and the White House in Washington were burned by British troops under General Ross.

1875: Matthew Webb, Merchant Navy captain, became the first person to swim the English Channel, using the breaststroke, from Dover to Cap Gris Nez in 21 hours 45 minutes.

1891: The motion picture camera was patented by Thomas Edison.

1898: Russia invited major world powers to co-operate in reducing armaments.

1914: Allied troops retreated from Mons.

1921: 62 people died when ZR-2 dirigible balloon collapsed and exploded near Hull.

1931: National government formed at Westminster to cope with economic crisis that defeated Labour administration.

1932: Amelia Earhart made the first transcontinental non-stop flight by a woman, from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey.

1949: The treaty which created the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation came into effect.

1957: Seventeen-year-old Jimmy Greaves scored on his debut for Chelsea in a 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane.

1961: A6 murder in which Michael Gregson was killed and fiancée Valerie Storie raped and shot. After James Hanratty was hanged for the crimes there was controversy over the conviction, but, in 2002, a DNA sample taken from his exhumed body was matched to samples taken from the crime scene.

1961: Former South African Nazi leader Johannes Vorster became South Africa’s minister of justice.

1965: The 450,000-year-old body of a man was found in a Hungarian limestone quarry.

1969: Iraq executed 15 people on charge of spying for United States and Israel.

1972: Dennis Amiss scored 107 for England against Australia – the first century in a One Day International.

1981: Mark Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to life for the murder of John Lennon.

1982: The explorers Sir 2 On this day in 1957 Jimmy Greaves, 17, scored on his debut for Chelsea in a 1-1 draw Ranulph Fiennes and Charles Burton completed three-year Transglobe expedition.

1982: Unemployment in Britain reached an all-time record of 3,292,702 – one in seven of the workforce.

1990: Irish hostage Brian Keenan was freed in Beirut after over four years of captivity.

1991: Ukraine declared independence from the soviet Union.

1995: Computer software developer Microsoft released its Windows 95 operating system.

2006: The International Astronomical Union redefined the term “planet” such that Pluto was to be considered a Dwarf Planet.

2014: Nurse William Pooley flew back to UK for emergency treatment after contracting the ebola virus while treating patients in Sierra Leone.

Dame Antonia (AS) Byatt DBE, British novelist, 82; Stephen Fry, British actor, writer and comedian, 61; Anne Archer, US actress, 71; Rupert Grint, English actor, 30; Steve Guttenberg, US actor, 60; Jean-michel Jarre, French musician, 70; Alexander Mccall Smith CBE, Professor of Medical Law, Edinburgh University, and novelist, 70; Madsen Pirie, president, Adam Smith Institute, 78; Sam Torrance OBE, Scottish golfer and commentator, 65. Births: 1759 William Wilberforce, philanthropist and anti-slavery campaigner; 1787 James Weddell, Antarctic explorer; 1872 Sir Max Beerbohm, author and caricaturist; 1903 Graham Sutherland, artist; 1932 Richard Meale, Australian composer; 1952 Carlo Curley, American organist.

Deaths: 1680 Colonel Thomas Blood, adventurer; 1770 Thomas Chatterton, poet (suicide); 1906 Alfred Stevens, painter; 1949 John Dunne, philosopher; 1958 Johannes Strijdom, South African prime minister; 1989 Felix Topolski, artist; 1998 EG Marshall, American actor; 2013 Julie Harris, American actress; Lord Attenborough CBE, actor and director.