On this day: Olympic Games

Prince Andrew and his bride Sarah Ferguson wave to well-wishers after their marriage ceremony on this day in 1986. Picture: PA

23 JULY

National day of Ethiopia and the United Arab Republic

776BC: The first Olympic Games opened in Olympia. The foot race was won by Koroibos, a cook.

1637: Laud’s Prayer Book riot in St Giles’ Cathedral.

1745: Prince Charles Edward Stuart landed on Eriskay.

1759: Work began on the Royal Navy’s 104-gun battleship Victory at Chatham, Kent. She was constructed from 2,200 oak trees.

1812: Battle of Mogilev, immortalised by Tchaikovsky Overture, was fought between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I.

1914: Austria and Hungary issued ultimatum to Serbia after assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

1940: Local Defence Volunteers were renamed by Winston Churchill as the Home Guard.

1940: The London blitz began with an all-night German air raid.

1945: Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, head of state of Vichy France from 1940 to 1944, was put on trial. He died on the same date in 1951 while serving a life sentence for collaboration.

1955: Donald Campbell broke the world water speed record on Ullswater when he reached 202.32mph in Bluebird.

1974: Greece’s military rulers announced they would turn nation back to civilian rule. Constantine Caramanlis returned from exile and was sworn in as premier.

1986: Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson in Westminster Abbey, and was made Duke of York following a 600-year-old English tradition for the monarch’s second son.

1988: Iran accused Iraq of pushing deep into Iranian territory and using chemical weapons.

1991: Sellafield, Cumbria, was chosen by Nirex as site for deep underground depository for low-level radioactive nuclear waste.

1992: Tour coach operator Land Travel collapsed with debts of more than £2 million.

1992: A Vatican commission, led by Joseph Ratzinger, established that it was necessary to limit rights of homosexual people and non-married couples.

1992: Abkhazia declared independence from Georgia.

1995: Comet Hale-Bopp was discovered.

2007: More than 10,000 families were made homeless and thousands more left without electricity and drinking water as large areas of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire were inundated in the worst floods for 50 years.

2008: Canoist John Darwin, who faked his own drowning in 2002, was jailed for more than six years at Teeside Crown Court for a £250,000 insurance fraud. His wife, Anne, who maintained the facade of a grieving widow for five years was also jailed for her part in the fraud

BIRTHDAYS

David Essex OBE, singer and actor, 66; Madeline Bell, soul singer, 71; Graham Gooch OBE, English cricketer and coach, 60; Woody Harrelson, actor, 52; Francis Healy, Scottish rock musician (Travis), 40; Philip Seymour Hoffman, actor, 46; Daniel Radcliffe, actor (Harry Potter), 24; Lord Rogers of Riverside, architect, 80; Slash (born Saul Hudson), rock guitarist (Guns N’ Roses), 48.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1886 Sir Arthur Whitten Brown, Glasgow-born aviator and companion of Alcock on first transatlantic flight; 1888 Raymond Chandler, writer and creator of detective Philip Marlowe1913 Michael Foot, leader, Labour Party 1980-83.

Deaths: 1875 Isaac Singer, inventor of the sewing machine; 1916 Sir William Ramsay, Glasgow-born chemist who discovered inert gases; 2011 Amy Winehouse, singer-songwriter.

On this day: Olympic Games | Hale-Bopp