On this day

1297: Scottish hero William Wallace defeated the English at Stirling Bridge. 1777: The British, under General Howe, beat the Americans commanded by George Washington at the battle of Brandywine Creek in the American War of Independence.

1885: DH Lawrence, poet and novelist, was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. 1895: The FA Cup was stolen from football outfitters William Shillock in Birmingham - 68 years later an 83-yearold man confessed that he had melted it down to make counterfeit half-crown coins.

1915: The first Women’s Institute was formed in Anglesey, Wales.

1928: The world’s first television play – The Queen’s Messenger – was transmitted live by station WGY in New York. 1972: The BBC TV quiz programme Mastermind was first transmitted.

2001: 2,977 people - 67 of them British - were killed when passenger jets hijacked by al-Qaida terrorists struck the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington.