1297: Scottish hero William Wallace defeated the English at Stirling Bridge.

1777: The British, under General Howe, the Americans commanded by George Washington at the battle of Brandywine Creek in the American War of Independence.

1841: The commuter age began for the south-east of England when the London to Brighton commuter express train began a regular service taking just 105 minutes.

1885: DH Lawrence was born in Eastwood, Notts - destined to become one of the most controversial novelists of the 20th century.

1895: The FA Cup was stolen from football outfitters William Shillock in Birmingham - 68 years later an 83-year-old man confessed that he had melted it down to make counterfeit half-crown coins.

1914: WC Handy published his St Louis Blues which has since been recorded more than 100 times.

1915: The first Women's Institute was formed in Anglesey, Wales.

1928: The world's first television play was transmitted live by station WGY in New York. The Queen's Messenger had only two characters, but there were four actors, as old-fashioned cameras could not be moved around.

1972: BBC TV quiz Mastermind was first transmitted.

1978: Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov was killed in London, stabbed by a poisoned umbrella point wielded by an unknown secret agent. The unidentified poison brought on a coma and Markov died on 15 September.

2001: Some 3,000 people were killed as passenger jets hijacked by al-Qaida terrorists struck the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth hijacked plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh died in hospital after being attacked by a knifeman in a Stockholm store.