On this day ...

SEPTEMBER 5

1847: Jesse James, American outlaw, was born near Kansas City. With his elder brother Frank, he led the first gang to carry out train robberies.

1963: Christine Keeler, above, one of the women at the centre of the Profumo scandal, was arrested and charged with perjury.

1972: Palestinian terrorists, members of the Black September Group, killed 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games.

1980: The 10-mile St Gotthard road tunnel in Switzerland, the longest in the world, was opened.

1982: Douglas Bader, famed pilot with false legs and leader of “the few” - the several hundred RAF pilots who defeated the German Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain - died.

1987: No Sex Please, We’re British closed after 6,671 performances over 16 years the longest running theatre comedy in the world.

1991: The USSR was no more as the Congress of People’s Deputies in Moscow scrapped the old power structures built up over 70 years and gave the Soviet republics their independence.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A new poll revealed that almost seven out of 10 people believed nurses were underpaid. BIRTHDAYS: Johnny Briggs, actor, 83; Dick Clement, scriptwriter, 81; George Lazenby, actor, 79; Raquel Welch, actress, 78; Werner Herzog, film director, 76; Al Stewart, singer/songwriter, 73; Michael Keaton, actor, 67; Johnny Vegas, above, comedian, 48; Adam Hollioake, cricketer, 47.