August 19: On this day …

In 1987, unemployed labourer Michael Ryan, armed with two rifles and a handgun, killed 16 people (including his mother) in what became known as the Hungerford Massacre, before turning the gun on himself.

In 1946, William Jefferson Blythe III, better known as US President Bill Clinton, was born in Hope, Arkansas - the same day that Mary Elizabeth Aitcheson, better known as Tipper Gore, wife of Clinton’s Vice President Al Gore, would be born in Washington DC two years later.

In 1944, the liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation began.

In 1921, creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry was born in El Paso, Texas - the same day that actor Jonathan Frakes, Commander William Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation, would be born in 1952.

In 1883, influential fashion designer Coco Chanel was born in the Loire Valley, France.

In 1745, Charles Edward Stuart (better known as ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’), grandson of the deposed Catholic king James II, landed from a French warship at Glenfinnan, Scotland, and launched the Second Jacobite Rebellion, aimed at taking the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland.

In 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts, 5 people were put to death, including Martha Carrier. In total, 24 people, including 17 women and 1 baby girl, died as a result of the Salem Witch Trials.