On this day: London riots |Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima

1825: Bolivia was proclaimed an independent republic, after nearly 300 years of Spanish rule. Today is national day of Bolivia.

1844: The first press telegram in Britain was sent to the Times, announcing the birth at 7:50am of Prince Alfred to Queen Victoria.

1859: “Worth a guinea a box” appeared on Beecham’s Powders’ packets and advertising material to promote the patent medicine. It was one of the first advertising slogans.

1889: The Savoy Hotel in London was opened.

1890: Walter Kemmler, murderer, was the first man to die in the electric chair, at Auburn Prison, New York. It took eight minutes to work.

1915: The Allies landed at Gallipoli.

1926: American Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel, crossing from Cape Gris Nez to Deal in 14 hours 30 minutes, almost two hours faster than her five male predecessors.

1942: Montgomery took command of Eighth Army.

1945: With the approval of president Harry S Truman, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, from a Boeing B29 bomber, Enola Gay.

1949: John Haigh, 39, acid bath murderer, was executed at Wandsworth Prison, London.

1962: Jamaica became independent after being a British colony for more than 300 years.

1970: Kevin Murphy became the first Briton to swim the English Channel both ways non-stop, taking 35 hours and 10 minutes.

1990: State of emergency declared in Pakistan after Benazir Bhutto was dismissed as PM by president Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

1990: Nearly 400 Britons and Americans were rounded up in Kuwait and taken to Iraq as first part of “human shield”.

1991: Serbia and Croatia proclaimed an “absolute and unconditional cease-fire” in the republic of Croatia, saying they would disengage their units.

1997: Korean Air Flight 801, a Boeing 747-300, crashed into the jungle on Guam on approach to the airport, killing 228.

2011: More than 40 people were arrested after rioting saw police attacked and buildings and vehicles set alight in Tottenham, north London, following the fatal shooting by police of Mark Duggan on 4 August.

BIRTHDAYS

Geri Halliwell, ex-Spice Girl, 41; Sir Chris Bonington CBE, British mountaineer and author, 79; Gordon J Brand, golfer, 58; Michael Deeley, British film producer, 81; Reece Dinsdale, actor, 54; Frank Finlay CBE, actor, 87; Romola Garai, actress, 31; Sir Howard Hodgkin CBE, British artist, 81; Jennifer Lyons, American actress, 36; David O’Brien, Irish racehorse trainer, 57; Charles David Montagu Hay, 14th Marquess of Tweeddale, Hereditary Chamberlain of Dunfermline, 66; M Night Shyamalan, director and screenwriter, 43; Oliver Tobias, Swiss actor, 66; Kirsty Wade, athlete, 51; Barbara Windsor MBE, British actress, 76; Michelle Yeoh, Malaysian actress, 51.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1744 David Allan, Scottish genre painter; 1809 Alfred, Lord Tennyson, poet and poet laureate; 1881 Sir Alexander Fleming, bacteriologist and discoverer of penicillin; 1928 Andy Warhol, pop artist.

Deaths: 1623 Anne Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare; 1660 Diego Velásquez, painter; 1978 Pope Paul VI; 2000 Sir Robin Day, broadcaster; 2005 Robin Cook, foreign secretary 1999-2001.