14 AD: Death of Augustus, first Roman emperor.

1685: Judge Jeffreys began sentencing people to death at what became known as the Bloody Assize.

1883: Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, French designer, was born. She revolutionised women's fashions during the Twenties and also manufactured the famous Chanel No 5 perfume.

1897: The London Electric Cab Co began operating the first taxi-cab in London's West End and City. The black and yellow electric cars went at 9mph and cost £1.5s (£1.25) for a whole day, including driver. They had a range of just up to 30 miles, but proved uneconomical and were withdrawn in 1900.

1934: A plebiscite in Germany gave sole power to the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler.

1942: Canadian and British Commandos raided the French port of Dieppe.

1953: England, under captain Len Hutton, won the Ashes for the first time since the controversial bodyline tour of 1932-3.

1977: Comic Groucho Marx died. Years earlier Irving Berlin had written the perfect epitaph for him: "The world would not be in such a snarl, If Marx had been Groucho instead of Karl."

1987: Date of the Hungerford massacre - when gun-crazy Michael Ryan shot dead 16 people in the Berkshire town, and then killed himself.

1991: Soviet hardliners toppled President Gorbachev in a dramatic coup. The plotters put tanks on the streets of Moscow, banned demonstrations and imposed a state of emergency.

LAST YEAR: The top UN official in Iraq - Sergio Vieira de Mello - died after a truck bomb devastated the UN's Baghdad HQ.