ON THIS DAY

> Happy birthday to... Woody Harrelson, 56; Monica Lewinsky, 45 and David Essex, 71

■ 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.

■ 1888: Crime novelist Raymond Chandler – creator of Philip Marlowe – was born in Chicago. He turned to writing when he was 44, after being fired from his job for alcoholic excesses.

■ 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.

■ 1940: The Local Defence Volunteers were renamed the Home Guard by Winston Churchill.

■ 1949: Brian Close became the youngest Test cricketer (at that time) when he played against New Zealand at Old Trafford. He was 18 years and 149 days old.

■ 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. ■ ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:

Photographs of the Duke of Cambridge and Prince

■ Harry as children were published for the first time to mark a new documentary about Diana, Princess of Wales on the 20th anniversary of her death.

■ BIRTHDAYS: Lord Rogers, architect, 85; David Essex, singer, 71; Graham Gooch, former cricketer, 65; Kate Buffery, actress, 61; Woody Harrelson, actor, 57; Slash, rock guitarist (Guns N’ Roses), 53; Monica Lewinsky, former White House intern, 45.