ON THIS DAY

1704: The Battle of Blenheim took place in Germany, in which AngloAustrian forces under Marlborough and Prince Eugene defeated the French and Bavarian armies. 1860: Annie Oakley, marksman who starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, was born. Nicknamed ‘’Little Sure Shot’’ by Sitting Bull, she was said to have been able to hit the thin edge of a playing card from 30 paces. 1888: John Logie Baird, electrical engineer who helped pioneer television, was born in Helensburgh. 1889: The coin-operated phone was patented in the USA by William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut. 1899: Alfred Hitchcock, English film director who became a US citizen in 1955, was born. 1910: Death of Florence Nightingale, the “Lady With The Lamp”, during the Crimean War. 1915: “Brides in the Bath” murderer George Joseph Smith, who drowned his brides in a zinc bath after ensuring their finances were set up in his favour, was hanged. It was Friday the 13th. 1961: East German border guards stopped cars passing to the east through the Brandenburg Gate, thus sealing the border and preventing an exodus to the West. Barbed wire was erected, later to be replaced by the Berlin Wall. 1964: The last hangings in Britain took place – Peter Allen at Walton Prison, Liverpool, and John Walby at Strangeways, Manchester. 1997: The first episode of South Park aired on Comedy Central. BIRTHDAYS: Fidel Castro, former Cuban leader, 89; Madhur Jaffrey, actress and cookery writer, 82; Feargal Sharkey, singer and music industry executive, 57; Phil Taylor, darts player, 55; Tony Jarrett, former athlete, 47; Alan Shearer, former footballer, 45; Shoaib Akhtar, cricketer, 40; James Morrison, singer/ songwriter, 31. QUOTES OF THE DAY: “If this is Europe, I’ll go back to Syria” - An unnamed migrant speaking amid the chaos on the Greek island of Kos. “You saw my income, my income is 400 million a year. Sure, I would spend that if I am doing well” - Donald Trump on financing his campaign to be a presidential candidate. “In my day job the only type of salsa I know about is the one in my recipes” - Celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott, who is to be a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing. “If I was running a hotel, the emphasis wouldn’t be on the drinks, it would be on the mind” - Philosopher Alain de Botton. “I started to notice a drastic difference in how men would relate to me if I had on baggy jeans or if I had on a skirt. I could feel the animal instinct in them and it scared me. I didn’t want to be looked at in that way, whistled after, followed” - Singer Alicia Keys.