August 9, 2002 - the date Tim and Janine finally tied the knot, one which will live forever in the memory of Janine and one which will no doubt be magnetised to their fridge at this time each year so Tim doesn't forget the anniversary!

But did you know that August 9 is also the date of some landmark events in history? Here are just a few...

l 1787 - The first American ship to sail around the world set sail. The 212-ton Columbia discovered the Straits of Juan de Fuca, leading into Puget Sound, as well as the mouth of the Columbia River. The voyage took three years.

l 1798 - The Morning Post published Robert Southey’s most famous poem, The Battle of Blenheim. Southey became Poet Laureate in 1813 and held the post until his friend, Wordsworth, succeeded him in 1843.

l 1859 - The escalator was patented by Nathan Ames.

l 1902 - King Edward VII was crowned, after a six-week delay due to an emergency appendectomy.

l 1910 - The first completely self-contained, electric clothes washing machine was patented.

l 1922 - British poet Philip Larkin was born in Coventry in 1922.

l 1930 - Betty Boop had her beginning in Dizzy Dishes, created by Max Fleischer.

l 1936 - German Chancellor Adolf Hitler promoted the Olympic Games in Berlin as a showcase of Aryan supremacy. However, American Jesse Owens confounded the Fuhrer's racist dogma, winning the 100 and 200-metres, long jump, and on August 9, the relay. His team set a new world record, and Hitler, who had planned to shake hands with all victors, left the stadium in a huff!

l 1938 - Tennis great Rod Laver was born. He later became Wimbledon champion in 1961, 1962, 1968 and 1969 and won seven more grand slam titles in America, France and Australia.

l 1942 - The British arrested Mohandas K. Gandhi. He was not released until 1944.

l 1945 - The second atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. The plane carrying the bomb, Bock’s Car, was piloted by Charles Sweeney, who had piloted the Grand Artiste, one of the planes that had accompanied the Enola Gay over Hiroshima.

l 1957 - Melanie Griffith was born to actress mum Tippi Hedren. She later stared in Tony Richardson’s film based on Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, along with Working Girl, Night Moves, Smile, A Stranger Among Us and Born Yesterday.

l 1962 - German author Hermann Hesse died.

l 1963 - Singer and actress Whitney Houston was born. Her cousin, Dionne Warwick, later helped kick-start her career.

l 1969 - The bodies of actress Sharon Tate and four others were discovered, apparently murder victims. Charles Manson was among those eventually convicted of the crime.

l 1974 - President Richard Nixon ended his term as the 37th president of the United States over the Watergate Affair. Before departing with his family in a helicopter from the White House lawn, Nixon smiled farewell and enigmatically raised his arms and spread his first two fingers in a victory salute.

l 1989 - The first Black American to reach such a position of prominence in the American military ranks, General Colin Powell, was named Chief of Staff. He is now the US State Secretary.

l 1996 - Boris Yeltsin was sworn in as president of Russia for the second time. On the same day three years later, he fired Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin and his entire cabinet for the fourth time in 17 months.

l 2002 - Janine Ledger and Tim Horwood married.
This day is also National Day in Singapore. Populated by Indians, Chinese, and Malays, Singapore became independent from Malaysia in 1965.
And Women's Day in South Africa marks the day of the 1956 march of women in Pretoria to protest against the system of passes needed to travel from one part of the country to another.