ON THIS DAY - JULY 23
776 BC: The first Olympic Games opened in Olympia. The foot race was won by Coroibos, a cook.
1759: Work started on the Royal Navy's 104-gun battleship HMS Victory at Chatham, Kent, built from the wood of 6,000 trees, 90% of which were oak.
1888: Crime novelist Raymond Chandler - creator of Philip Marlowe - was born in Chicago. He turned to writing when he was 44, after being fired from his job for alcoholic excesses.
1892: Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, was born. When the Italians invaded in 1936, he went into exile, but resumed full authority after Ethiopia was liberated in 1941.
1904: The first ice cream cone was made by Charles Menches in Missouri.
1940: The Local Defence Volunteers were renamed the Home Guard by Winston Churchill.
1949: Brian Close became the youngest Test cricketer (at that time) when he played against New Zealand at Old Trafford. He was 18 years and 149 days old.
1955: Donald Campbell broke the world water speed record on Ullswater when he reached 202.32mph in Bluebird.
1986: Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson in Westminster Abbey, and was made Duke of York following a 600-year-old tradition for the monarch's second son.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge emerged from St Mary's Hospital with their new baby son to cheers from well wishers. The Duchess said it was ''a special time for any parent''.
