1826: John Wisden, original compiler of Wisden's Cricketers' Almanac, price one shilling (5p), was born in Brighton. He had a sports goods shop in Leicester Square, London, and in 1850 added to cricket records by taking all 10 wickets in a match at Lord's.

1847: Jesse James, American outlaw, was born near Kansas City. With his elder brother Frank he led the first gang to carry out train robberies.

1920: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, one of the world's favourite silent comedians, was alleged to have sexually assaulted Virginia Rappe at a party, and she died a few days later of a ruptured bladder. Arbuckle was accused of manslaughter and, although acquitted after a third retrial, his career was ruined.

1963: Christine Keeler, one of the girls at the centre of the Profumo scandal, was arrested and charged with perjury.

1969: ITV began broadcasting in colour.

1972: Arab terrorists, members of the Black September Group, killed 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games.

1980: The 10-mile St Gotthard road tunnel in Switzerland, the longest in the world, was opened.

1982: Douglas Bader, famed pilot with false legs and leader of "the few" in the Battle of Britain, died.

1987: No Sex Please - We're British closed after 6,671 performances over 16 years - the longest running comedy in the world.

1991: The USSR was no more as the Congress of People's Deputies in Mosocw scrapped the old power structures built up over 70 years and gave the Soviet republics their independence.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A 53-year-old British bomb disposal expert was killed during a roadside ambush near Mosul in northern Iraq.