ON THIS DAY

• 14 AD: Death of Augustus, first Roman emperor.

• 1883: Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, French designer, was born. She revolutionised women’s fashions during the 1920s and also manufactured the famous Chanel No 5 perfume.

• 1934: A plebiscite in Germany gave sole power to the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler.

• 1942: Canadian and British Commandos raided the French port of Dieppe.

• 1977: Comic Groucho Marx died. Years earlier Irving Berlin had written the perfect epitaph for him: “The world would not be in such a snarl, If Marx had been Groucho instead of Karl.”

• 1987: Date of the Hungerford massacre – when gun-crazy Michael Ryan shot dead 16 people in the Berkshire town, and then killed himself.

• 1991: Soviet hardliners toppled President Gorbachev in a dramatic coup. The plotters put tanks on the streets of Moscow, banned demonstrations and imposed a state of emergency.

• 2008: Cyclist Chris Hoy won his third gold medal of the Beijing Games – in the men’s sprint, making him Britain’s most successful Olympian at a single Olympics for 100 years.

• ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Sir Elton John defended the Duke and Duchess of Sussex over their use of private jets and said he provided the couple and their baby son Archie with a private flight to Nice to “maintain a high level of much-needed protection”.

• BIRTHDAYS: Richard Ingrams, former editor of Private Eye, 83; Jill St John, actress, 80; Billy J Kramer, Sixties pop star, 77; Bill Clinton, former US president, 74; John Deacon, rock musician, 69; Kevin Dillon, actor, 55.