On this day: Freuchie won Village Cricket Cup

In 1985 Freuchie, in Fife, won the Village Cricket Cup at Lords, the first time a Scottish club side had played there. Picture: Jack Crombie

Partridge, woodcock and wild duck shooting season begins.

1644: The Marquis of Montrose defeated the Covenanters at the Battle of Tippermuir.

1689: Russia began taxing men’s beards.

1714: Death of St Giles, patron saint of Edinburgh and Elgin.

1715: King Louis XIV of France died after a reign of 72 years, the longest of any major European monarch.

1720: Prince James Frances Edward Stewart (the “Old Pretender”) married Polish princess Maria Clementine Sobieska at the Italian Cathedral of Monte Fiascone.

1752: The Liberty Bell, an iconic symbol of American independence, arrived in Philadelphia.

1804: Professor Harding discovered Juno, a “minor planet” between Mars and Jupiter that takes four years to orbit the Sun.

1853: The first triangular-shaped postage stamps were issued by the Cape of Good Hope.

1879: Britain signed peace treaty with Zulus in South Africa.

1891: Fingerprinting first adopted as an aid to crime-solving by police in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1893: The Government of Ireland Bill 1893 (known as the “second Home Rule Bill”) ws vetoed by the House of Lords by 419 votes to 41, having been passed by the House of Commons.

1914: St Petersburg, Russia changed its name to Petrograd.

1916: Bulgaria declared war on Romania.

1923: An earthquake shook Japan, leaving Tokyo and Yokohama in ruins and causing nearly 200,000 deaths.

1938: Benito Mussolini cancelled the civil rights of Italian Jews.

1939: Germany’s Fuhrer Adolf Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to invade Poland, provoking the Second World War.

1939: The BBC Home Service on the radio began.

1941: Jews living in Germany were required to wear the yellow Star of David.

1945: Japan formally surrendered aboard USS battleship Missouri to end the Second World War.

1969: Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi became head of state of Libya, after leading a military coup overthrowing King Idris.

1971: The only remaining gas street lamp in Glasgow was lit for the final time.

1971: The British penny and the threepenny piece coins ceased to be legal tender.

1972: North Sea cod war began as Iceland extended its fishing limits from 12 to 50 miles.

1973: George Foreman defeated Jose Roman to win the first world heavyweight title fight to be held in Japan.

1981: British garages started selling petrol by the litre.

1985: Freuchie, in Fife, won the Village Cricket Cup at Lord’s Cricket Ground, the first time a Scottish club side had played at the hallowed venue.

1989: The ten England and Wales water authorities became public companies.

1994: A political row erupted over the transfer of four republican terrorists to jails in Northern Ireland hours after the IRA ceasefire came into effect.

1997: It was reported in Paris that the driver of the car in which Diana, Princess of Wales died was three times over the drink-drive limit and may have been driving at 120mph.

2004: Beslan school hostage crisis commenced when armed terrorists took children and adults hostage in North Ossetia, Russia.

2010: Financial services firm Standard Life announced the axing of 600 jobs, with 480 to go at its Edinburgh headquarters.

BIRTHDAYS

Barry Gibb CBE, singer (Bee Gees), 69; Gloria Estefan, singer, 58; Bruce Foxton, musician (The Jam), 60; Simon Geoghegan, rugby union player, 47; Ruud Gullit, footballer, manager and television pundit, 53; Allen Jones, artist and sculptor, 78; Baron Parkinson, politician, 84; Manuel Pinero, golfer, 63; Mary Jean “Lily” Tomlin, comedienne and actress, 76; Daniel Sturridge, footballer, 26; Gael Monfils, tennis player, 29; Sebastian Rozenthal, former Rangers footballer, 39.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1653 Johann Pachelbel, composer and organist; 1732 Thomas Alexander Erskine, 6th Earl of Kelly; 1854 Engelbert Humperdinck, composer; 1866 James “Gentleman Jim” Corbett, world heavyweight boxing champion; 1875 Edgar Rice Burroughs, author (creator of Tarzan); 1923 Rocky Marciano, world heavyweight boxing champion.

Deaths: 1159 Adrian IV, the only Englishman (Nicholas Breakspear) elected Pope; 1557 Jacques Cartier, explorer who discovered Canada; 1912 Samuel Coleridge Taylor, composer; 1963 Guy Burgess, spy; 1967 Siegfried Sassoon, war poet; 1998 Viscount Rothermere, newspaper proprietor (Daily Mail); 2001 Brian Moore, sports commentator; 2013 Tommy Morrison, world heavyweight boxing champion.