ON THIS DAY - AUGUST 1

NATIONAL DAY OF SWITZERLAND

10BC: Roman Emperor Claudius I was born in Lyons.

1714: Queen Anne, the last Stuart sovereign, died aged 49, to be succeeded by George I under the Act of Settlement of 1701.

1778: The first savings bank opened, in Hamburg.

1798: The Battle of the Nile when Nelson beat the French fleet at Aboukir Bay.

1831: New London Bridge was opened by King William IV. It was sold to an American in 1968 and rebuilt in Arizona.

1834: Slavery was abolished in all British dominions.

1873: The Clay Street Hill Railroad, San Francisco's cable-powered street car system, began running.

1903: Martha Jane Cannary, better known as frontierswoman Calamity Jane, died near Deadwood, Dakota. Her final request was to be buried next to Wild Bill Hickok.

1932: The first Mars bar, made in Slough, went on sale.

1945: The Family Favourites record request programme began on the BBC.

2012: Rowers Helen Glover and Heather Stanning claimed Team GB's first gold medal of London 2012.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Downing Street revealed that Prime Minister David Cameron gave royal baby Prince George a box-set of books by much-loved children's author Roald Dahl.

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