ON THIS DAY

INDEPENDENCE DAY (LIBERIA) 1745: The first recorded women’s cricket match took place at Gosden Common near Guildford, with neighbouring village Hambledon against Bramley.

■■ 1788: New York became the 11th of the United States.

■■ 1856: George Bernard Shaw, playwright, was born in Dublin. A failed novelist, he was 36 when his first play, Widowers’ Houses, was performed.

■■ 1875: Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist, was born. He was the founder of analytical psychology and first proposed the idea of extrovert and introvert character types.

■■ 1895 Robert Graves, English poet, novelist and critic, was born. He wrote I Claudius in 1934 and more than 100 other books.

■■ 1908: The Federal Bureau of Investigation was established in Washington, DC.

■■ 1945: Clement Attlee’s Labour post-war government came to power with a huge majority. He said: “Labour can deliver the goods.”

■■ 1952: King Farouk of Egypt abdicated after a coup led by General Neguib. On the same date in 1956, President Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal just a month after taking power.

■■ 1952: Eva Peron (Evita), Argentina’s First Lady, died of cancer, aged 33.

■■ 1958: Debutantes were presented at the Royal Court in Britain for the last time.

■■ ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Three Amur tiger cubs went on show for the first time at Highland Wildlife Park. ■■ BIRTHDAYS: John Howard, former prime minister of Australia, 83; Sir Mick Jagger, Rolling Stone, 79; Dame Helen Mirren, above, actress, 77; Roger Taylor, rock musician (Queen), 73; Susan George, actress, 72; Kevin Spacey, actor, 63; Sandra Bullock, actress, 58; Kate Beckinsale, actress, 49.