On this day: Andy Murray in US Open final

British tennis No1 Andy Murray played in his first ever Grand Slam final in the US Open on this day in 2008. Picture: Getty

23BC: The first recorded ritual Sumo wrestling bout took place. Each year a priest still officiates for the Ceremony of the Crows at the Kamo Shrine, Kyoto, Japan.

1664: The Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam was seized by the English and renamed New York, in honour of James, Duke of York.

1886: When public diggings for gold were permitted, thousands flocked to the Witwatersrand, where a town sprang up, founded this day as Johannesburg. It became South Africa’s largest city.

1888: The first Football League matches were played.

1926: Germany was admitted to League of Nations.

1944: The first German V2 rockets fell in Britain.

1954: South-east Asia Defence Treaty and Pacific Charter was signed in Manila by Britain, France, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines.

1960: Penguin Books charged with public obscenity for publishing DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

1968: Virginia Wade beat Billie Jean King to win US Open Tennis Championship.

1972: Israeli Air Force, in retaliation for slaying of Israeli athletes at Munich Olympics, attacked ten Palestinian guerrilla bases and naval installations in Syria and Lebanon.

1977: Canadian swimmer Cindy Nicholas, 19, crossed the Channel both ways in 19 hours, 55 minutes.

1990: European finance ministers, meeting in Rome, agreed to prime minister John Major’s plan for monetary union.

1992: CBI director-general became the first employers’ representative to address the TUC in its 124-year-history.

1994: US Air Flight 427, on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport, suddenly crashed in clear weather killing all 132 aboard; resulting in the most extensive aviation investigation in world history and altering manufacturing practices in the industry.

2005: Two EMERCOM Il-76 aircraft landed at a disaster aid staging area at Little Rock Air Force Base; the first time Russia has flown such a mission to North America.

2008: British tennis No1 Andy Murray played in his first ever Grand Slam final. He faced Swiss player Roger Federer at the US Open, losing in straight sets. It was the first time in 11 years that a British player had featured in the final of a Grand Slam event.

BIRTHDAYS

Martin Freeman, actor, 43; Jeannette Altwegg CBE, Olympic ice-skating champion, 84; David Arquette, actor, 43; Frankie Avalon, American singer, actor and playwright, 74; Anne Diamond, television presenter, 60; Michael Frayn, playwright and novelist, 81; Judith Hann, television writer and presenter, 72; Sir Peter Maxwell Davies CBE, composer, Master of the Queen’s Music, 80; Geoff Miller OBE, English cricketer, 62; Pink, pop singer, 35; Victor Ubogu, rugby player, 50; Louise Minchin, journalist and TV presenter, 46; Ruby Bridges, American civil rights activist, 60; Aimee Mann, American rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, 54; Morten Gamst Pderesen, Norwegian footballer, 33; Richard Hughes, drummer (Keane), 39; Markus Babbel, German footballer, 42; Tom Gullikson, tennis coach and former player, 63.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1157 King Richard I (the Lionheart); 1775 John Leyden, Denholm-born physician and poet; 1830 Frederick Mistral, French writer, lexicographer and Nobel prize winner for literature; 1841 Antonin Dvorák, composer; 1886 Siegfried Sassoon, war poet, novelist and critic; 1889 Robert Taft, ES senator; 1896 Howard Dietz, publicist, lyricist and librettist; 1897 Jimmie Rodgers, singer (the “Father of Country Music”); 1921 Sir Harry Secombe, comedian and singer; 1922 Sid Caesar, comedian; 1925 Peter Sellers, comedian and actor; 1929 Roger Byrne, Manchester United captain who died in Munich air disaster; 1932 Patsy Cline, country music singer; 1935 James Clay, saxophonist and flautist; 1951 Tim Gullikson, tennis player; 1969 Gary Speed MBE, Welsh footballer and manager.

Deaths: 1397 Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Buckingham, 1st Earl of Essex; 1539 John Stokesley, English church leader; 1784 Ann Lee, founder of American Shakers sect; 1831 John Aitken, Scottish music publisher; 1949 Richard Strauss, composer; 1954 André Derain, painter; 1965 Dorothy Dandridge, actress, singer and dancer; 1970 Percy Spencer, inventor of the microwave oven; 1985 John Franklin Enders, scientist and Nobel laureate (“The Father of Modern Vaccines”); 2003 Leni Riefenstahl, film director and photographer.