ON THIS DAY, JULY 13

587 BC Babylon’s siege of Jerusalem ends following the destruction of Solomon’s Temple.

1568 The dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, Alexander Nowell, endears himself to mankind by perfecting a way to bottle beer.

1835 Swedish-American inventor John Ericsson files for a patent for his screw propeller design.

1837 Queen Victoria is the first British monarch to live in Buckingham Palace.

1865 Horace Greeley, the New York Tribune founder and editor, reputedly advises his readers to “Go west, young man”.

1882 A train derailment near Tcherny, Russia, kills 200 people.

1923 The world-famous Hollywood sign is dedicated in the hills above Hollywood, Los Angeles. It originally reads Hollywoodland, but the four last letters are dropped in 1949.

1930 The first football World Cup competition begins in Uruguay. The hosts win the event.

1953 Battle of the Kumsong River begins – it is the last major battle of the Korean war.

1963 The security police disclose the existence of an underground group, the Yu Chi Chan, said to include people trained in Peking and Algeria for sabotage in South Africa.

1968 Gary Player wins the second of his three British Open Golf titles, at Carnoustie.

1978 Hugely influential businessman Lee Iacocca is fired as president of Ford.

1986 South African runner Zola Budd and swimmer Annette Cowley are banned from competing for Britain in the Commonwealth Games because of Britain’s refusal to support sanctions against South Africa.

1998 Bruwer Engelbrecht, 75, the former radio broadcaster who started broadcasting with Piet Pompies, dies of heart failure in Bellville.

2011 Mumbai is rocked by three bomb blasts which kill 26 people and injure 130.

2016 British Prime Minister David Cameron resigns, and is succeeded by Theresa May.

2018 South Africa’s Kevin Anderson beats American John Isner 7-6, 6-7, 6-7, 6-4, 26-24 in the longest (6 hours 36 mins) semi-final in Wimbledon history.