ON THIS DAY
1704: The Battle of Blenheim took place in Germany, in which Anglo-Austrian forces under Marlborough and Prince Eugene defeated the French and Bavarian armies.
1860: Annie Oakley, marksman who starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, was born. Nicknamed “Little Sure Shot” by Sitting Bull, she was said to have been able to hit the thin edge of a playing card from 30 paces.
1888: John Logie Baird, electrical engineer who helped pioneer television, was born in Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire.
1889: The coin-operated phone was patented in the USA by William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut.
1899: Alfred Hitchcock, English film director who became a US citizen in 1955, was born. He made the first British sound film Blackmail (1929) - although dialogue only began in reel two as the studio was not equipped in the early sequences. He made many films, including Rebecca in 1940 and Psycho in 1960.
1910: Death of Florence Nightingale, the “Lady With The Lamp” during the Crimean War.
1915: “Brides in the Bath” murderer George Joseph Smith, who drowned his brides in a zinc bath after ensuring their finances were set up in his favour, was hanged. It was Friday the 13th.
1961: East German border guards stopped cars passing to the east through the Brandenburg Gate, thus sealing the border and preventing an exodus to the West. Barbed wire was erected, later to be replaced by the Berlin Wall.
1964: The last hangings in Britain took place - Peter Allen at Walton Prison, Liverpool, and John Walby
at Strangeways, Manchester.
1997: The first episode of South Park aired on Comedy Central. ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
Scientists revealed they believed they’d found the largest volcanic region on earth - under the ice of Antarctica.
BIRTHDAYS: Madhur Jaffrey, actress and cookery writer, 85; Feargal Sharkey, singer and music industry executive, 60; Phil Taylor, darts player, 58; Tony Jarrett, former athlete, 50; Alan Shearer, former footballer, 48; Shoaib Akhtar, former cricketer, 43; James Morrison, singer/songwriter, 34.