Birthdays

1888: Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols, first victim of Jack the Ripper, was found mutilated in Buck’s Row in the East End.

1900: Coca-cola first went on sale in Britain.

1908: At the age of 60, and after a career spanning 43 years, the legendary WG Grace retired from first-class cricket. He scored 54,896 runs (126 centuries), took 2,879 wickets and held 871 catches.

1962: Chris Bonington and Ian Clough became the first Britons to conquer the Eiger’s north face. 1968: Gary Sobers (now Sir

Garfield) of Nottinghamshire became the first cricketer to score six sixes off an over, at Swansea against Glamorgan. The hapless bowler was Malcolm Nash.

1969: Rocky Marciano, pictured, American world heavyweight boxing champion from 1952 to 1956, who retired undefeated, was killed in an air crash in Iowa. 1972: American swimmer Mark Spitz won his fifth gold medal at the Munich Olympics.

1997: Diana, Princess of Wales was killed in a car crash in central Paris along with Dodi Fayed. 2012: The German manufacturer of anti-morning sickness drug thalidomide apologised for the thousands of children born without limbs as a result of its use.

Martin Bell, former broadcaster and MP, 82; Clive Lloyd, former cricketer, 76; Van Morrison, singer, 75; Richard Gere, actor, 71; Edwin Moses, former athlete, 65; Glenn Tilbrook, rock musician

(Squeeze), 63; Todd Carty, actor, 57; Debbie Gibson, singer, 50; Padraig Harrington, golfer, 49; Chris Tucker, actor, 49; Andrei

Medvedev, former tennis player, 46; Ian Harte, footballer, 43.

Quote of the day

“Too often it looks like this government licks its finger and sticks it in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. It is becoming increasingly difficult for backbenchers now to promote and defend government policy as so often that policy is changed or abandoned without notice” – Sir Charles Walker, vice-chairman of the 1922 committee of Conservative backbenchers