1794 The United States Navy was formed.

1863 Sir Henry Royce, co-founder of Rolls-Royce Motor Company, was bornin Alwalton, near Peterborough, the son of a miller.

1914 The first successful citrated blood transfusion was performed in a Brussels hospital.

1923 Chemist and physicist Sir James Dewar, who invented the vacuum flask, died in London.

1924 Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan was born in New Jersey.

1931 Arnold Bennett, novelist and writer (Clayhanger) died of typhoid after a visit to Paris.

1958 Nikita Kruschev ousted Prime Minister Bulganin to take power in the USSR.

1966 Football's World Cup was found in a garden by a dog called Pickles after it was stolen from a stamp collection in Westminster Hall a week before.

1977 Two jumbo jets collided on the ground at foggy Tenerife airport killing 574 people.

1989 Bank Holiday Monday was the warmest for 37 years, with the Midlands hotter than the Costa Brava or the Canary Islands.

1991 David Icke, former goalkeeper, BBC sports presenter and Green Party spokesman, announced he had been "chosen" to save the world.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The co-owners of ITV Digital applied to the High Court for the channel to be placed in administration.

BIRTHDAYS: Lord Callaghan of Cardiff, former Labour Prime Minister, 91; Julian Glover, actor, 68; Michael York, actor, 62; Duncan Goodhew, swimmer, 46; Neil Finn, pop singer (Crowded House), 45; Quentin Tarantino, film director, 40; Mariah Carey, singer, 33; Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, footballer, 31.