On this day: Nelson destroyed French fleet off Aboukir

On this day in 1798 Horatio Nelson on board the Vanguard destroyed the French fleet off Aboukir in the Battle of the Nile. Picture: Getty

1 August is Lammas, autumn Quarter Day, and the national day of Switzerland.

1560: Scotland’s Parliament abolished papal jurisdiction and approved a Calvinistic confession of faith, founding Presbyterian Church of Scotland under the leadership of John Knox.

1747: The wearing of tartan was prohibited. Penalty for a first offence was six months’ jail and, for a second, seven years’ transportation.

1779: French fleet took over domination of English Channel.

1793: The kilogram was introduced in France as the first metric weight.

1798: Horatio Nelson destroyed French fleet off Aboukir (Battle of the Nile).

1831: New London Bridge, designed by John Rennie, was opened. It lasted 140 years, was then sold and rebuilt in Arizona.

1834: Slavery was abolished in the British Empire.

1904: Japan declared war on China over the Korea question.

1914: Germany declared war on Russia.

1936: The 11th Olympic Games opened in Berlin, when the Olympic flame was carried from Greece for the first time.

1963: Separate representation of the Scottish peerage in terms of Article XXII of the Treaty of Union by 16 of their members was abolished.

1963: Britain agreed to grant independence to Malta in 1964.

1967: University of Dundee, formerly University College, Dundee, incorporated in the University of St Andrews in 1890, became a separate university.

1971: US Defence Department announced pull-out of 3,000 American troops from Vietnam.

1979: The Queen Mother was installed as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, the only woman to hold the position.

1991: Croatia issued general mobilisation call as civil war with Serbia, which had claimed 100 lives in two days, turned into Europe’s most violent conflict since Second World War.

1992: Linford Christie won the 100 metres and oarsmen Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent the coxless pairs at the Olympic Games in Barcelona.

2002: A ban on hunting with dogs came into force in Scotland.

2008: Eleven climbers and guides were swept to their deaths in a storm on 28,251ft Himalayan peak K2.

BIRTHDAYS

Fiona Hyslop, SNP MSP, 50; Coolio (born Artis Ivey), rapper, 51; Robert Cray, blues musician, 61; Chuck D, rapper, 54; Sam Mendes CBE, film director, 49; Professor Laurie Taylor, sociologist and broadcaster, 78; Sir Quentin Thomas, former president, British Board of Film Classification, 70; Graham Thorpe MBE, cricketer, 45; Honeysuckle Weeks, actress, 35; Max Carver, actor, 26; Bastian Schweinsteiger, German World Cup-winning footballer; Joe Elliott, guitarist, singer-songwriter (Def Leppard), 55; David James MBE, TV football pundit and former goalkeeper, 44; Graham Thorpe, former England Test cricketer, 45.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 10BC Claudius, Roman emperor; 1545 Andrew Melville, principal of Glasgow University, and St Mary’s College, St Andrews; 1930 Lionel Bart, composer and lyricist; 1933 Dom DeLuise, actor; 1936 Yves St Laurent, fashion designer; 1942 Jerry Garcia

Deaths: 30BC Mark Antony, Roman politician; 1714 Queen Anne; 1973 Walter Ulbricht, East German leader; 2007 Tommy Makem, Irish folk singer and storyteller; 2011 Stan Barstow, British writer.