ON THIS DAY
1530: Ivan IV (the Terrible) was born. He was crowned first Tsar of Russia in 1547. He earned his description from his oppressive rule, in which more than 3,000 were executed.
1919: The world’s first scheduled air flights began, between London and Paris.
1928: Anfield’s famous Kop terracing at Liverpool’s football ground was opened. It was most likely named after the Battle of Spion Kop in the Boer War. The word “kopje” means small hill.
1960: The 17th Olympic Games opened in Rome, at which Briton Anita Lonsbrough won gold in the 200m breaststroke. The lightheavyweight boxing gold medal was won by an American youth named Cassius Clay.
1978: The Shroud of Turin went on show for the first time on the high altar at St John’s Cathedral in Turin.
1985: A re-enactment of the Battle of Edgehill by the Sealed Knot Society turned into the “real thing”, and Warwick General Hospital filled up with costumed Cavaliers and Roundheads waiting for treatment of battle scars.
1989: The spacecraft Voyager 2, completing its 12-year voyage to Neptune, sent back pictures of the planet’s moon Triton and revealed two additional moons.
2008: GB’s triumphant Olympians flew home from Beijing with 19 golds and the nation’s best medal haul for 100 years.
2012: The Voyager 1 spacecraft entered intersellar space, becoming the first man-made object to do so.
2012: Olympic gold medal hero Mo Farah celebrated his second double success of the summer after his wife gave birth to twin girls.
THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A man
hiking 9,000ft up in the Sierra Nevada told how he was struck by a lightning bolt that blasted away his clothes, burned a hole in one of his shoes and left him with severe burns.
BIRTHDAYS: Sean Connery, actor, 88; Frederick Forsyth, novelist, 80; Martin Amis, author, 69; Gene Simmons, rock musician (Kiss), 69; Elvis Costello (Declan MacManus), rock musician, 64; Tim Burton, film director, 60; Joanne Whalley, actress, 54; Claudia Schiffer, supermodel and actress, 48.