On this day: Tom Watson won the Open at Turnberry

Events, birthdays and anniversaries for 9 July
On this day in 1977 Tom Watson won the Open at Turnberry, following the "Duel in the Sun" with Jack Nicklaus. Picture: TSPLOn this day in 1977 Tom Watson won the Open at Turnberry, following the "Duel in the Sun" with Jack Nicklaus. Picture: TSPL
On this day in 1977 Tom Watson won the Open at Turnberry, following the "Duel in the Sun" with Jack Nicklaus. Picture: TSPL

National day of Argentina

1191: Richard I, the Lionheart, married Berengaria, reputed to be extremely ugly. Although Queen, she never set foot on English soil.

1357: Charles IV, the Holy Roman emperor, assisted in laying the foundation stone of the Charles Bridge in Prague.

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1540: Henry VIII divorced Anne of Cleves, nicknamed The Flanders Mare, and his fourth wife, after six months of marriage.

1745: En route from France to Scotland, Bonnie Prince Charlie looked on anxiously from his ship, Doutelle, as his other ship, Elisabeth, engaged in a five-hour battle with HMS Lion. Badly damaged and with a number of crewmen killed, both vessels finally withdrew.

1776: The American Declaration of Independence was read on the parade ground at Lower Manhattan to thousands of George Washington’s troops who had moved up from Boston to help defend New York against the British.

1816: Argentina declared independence from Spain.

1867: Queen’s Park Football Club was formed, the first senior club in Scotland.

1877: Wimbledon staged its first lawn tennis championship at its original site in Worple Road, London.

1893: Chicago surgeon Daniel Williams performed the first open heart surgery without anaesthetic.

1917: HMS Vanguard blew up in Scapa Flow with the loss of more than 800 men.

1922: Johnny Weissmuller became the first man to swim 100 metres in less than a minute.

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1926: Chian Kai-Shek was appointed national revolutionary supreme commander in China.

1937: Golfer Henry Cotton won the Open Championship at Carnoustie.

1938: Gas masks were first issued to the civilian population of Britain in anticipation of the Second World War.

1966: Golfer Jack Nicklaus won the Open Championship at Muirfield.

1972: Stan Smith defeated Ilie Nastase in the Wimbledon men’s final.

1977: Tom Watson won the Open Championship at Turnberry, following the classic “Duel in the Sun” with Jack Nicklaus.

1979: Voyager 2 flew past Jupiter.

1982: Margaret Thatcher began her second term of office as prime minister.

1984: York Minster was struck by lightning and the roof destroyed.

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1989: Steffi Graf defeated Martina Navratilova in the Wimbledon ladies’ final.

1990: Saddam Hussein, Iraqi president, denied that his country possessed a nuclear weapon capability.

1991: South Africa were readmitted to the Olympic Games.

1991: Nineteen of the Army’s 55 infantry battalions were targeted for the scrapheap. Manpower was to be cut from 156,000 to 116,000.

1992: The space shuttle Columbus 13 landed.

1995: Pete Sampras won his third Wimbledon title, beating Boris Becker.

1997: Mike Tyson was banned from boxing for biting off part of Evander Holyfield’s ear.

2007: The BBC was fined £50,000 for faking the winner of a phone-in competition on a Blue Peter programme.

2011: South Sudan became a nation in its own right, the climax of a process made possible by the 2005 peace deal that ended a long and bloody civil war.

BIRTHDAYS

Richard Demarco CBE, Portobello-born artist and gallery director, 85; Jim Kerr, Glasgow-born singer (Simple Minds), 56; John Mark Ainsley, tenor, 52; Marc Almond, singer, 59; Steve Coppell, football manager, 60; Tom Hanks, actor, director and writer, 59; David Hockney, artist, 78; Courtney Love, singer and actress, 51; Kenneth Hilton Osborne, Lord Osborne, Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland 1990-2011, 78; Jack White, musician (White Stripes), 40; Richard Wilson OBE, Greenock-born actor director, 79; OJ Simpson, former American football player, actor and convicted felon, 68; Josh Devine, drummer (One Direction), 24; Jimmy Smits, actor, 60; Kelly McGillis, actress, 58; Paolo Di Canio, football manager, 47; Donald Rumsfeld, US politician, 83; Brian Dennehy, actor, 77.

ANNIVERSARIES

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Births: 1888 Simon Marks, 1st Baron Marks of Broughton, founder of Marks & Spencer; 1901 Barbara Cartland, novelist; 1916 Sir Edward Heath, prime minister 1970-74.

Deaths: 1441 Jan van Eyck, Flemish painter; 1797 Edmund Burke, statesman, writer; 1932 King Camp Gillette, safety razor inventor; 1988 Barbara Woodhouse, animal trainer; 2002 Rod Steiger, actor; 2009 Earl Haig of Bemersyde OBE, artist, Deputy Lieutenant of Ettrick and Lauderdale (and Roxburghshire) 1977-93.