1967: The famous film of Bigfoot was shot by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin in the wilderness of northern California. They'd been riding along the banks of a creek when their horses reared and threw them and they got their first glimpse of the American yeti. With surprising presence of mind, the fallen Patterson grabbed his camera and ran after the 7ft tall creature, filming it as it made off into the dense undergrowth.

1780: Numerical religious nutcase Thomas Horne was born. He spent 17 years of his life counting every word and letter in the Bible. He concluded that there were 773,693 words and 3,566,480 letters. If you don't believe him, count them yourself!

1822: Happy birthday to the Sunday Times which was printed for the first time on this day.

1632: Many congratulations also to Sir Christopher Wren.

1973: Today was the day of the famous Watergate 'Massacre' when president Richard Nixon fired Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox. Attorney General Elliott Richardson resigned and his deputy William Ruchelhaus was fired as a wild backlash to their refusal to carry out the order.