1789: Eight thousand rampaging Parisians stormed the notorious Bastille Prison to free the inmates and herald the start of the French Revolution.

1925: Poet of the people Woodie Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma. The folk singer composed nearly 1,000 songs and it was said that "when you hear them, you hear America singling."

1911: Thomas Terry Hoare-Stevens said a big "well, hello" to the world on this day. The typical English actor is better known as the suave and sophisticated Terry Thomas.

1881: Billy the Kid bit the bullet when he was shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett. The infamous outlaw was only aged 21 at the time of his death but it was said he had killed a man for every year of his life.

1868: Alvin J. Fellows went to great lengths to get into the history books when he invited... the first tape measure.

1965: The first close up pictures of the red planet Mars were beamed back to earth by the Mariner 4 space probe.

1869: It certainly wasn't butter. Margarine was patented by Hippolyte Mege-Mouries of France.