August 7, 1959: Former England captain Billy Wright announces his retirement from football at the age of 35. A true one-club man, Wright had made 541 appearances for Wolves and had become the first man to play 100 times for England, captaining them on 90 occasions. Wright was rewarded for his gentlemanly qualities with a CBE soon after his retirement. A true hero.
August 7, 1995: FIFA rule that Bayern Munich need only pay Tottenham £1.4m for the services of Jurgen Klinsmann. Spurs had wanted up to £6m for the German but made the schoolboy error of sending FIFA a copy of Klinsmann's contract. In it, Spurs had agreed to sell Klinsmann after a year if someone paid £1.4m. At that point, Tottenham's argument fell down a tad.
August 7, 1997: Bruce Grobelaar, John Fashanu, Hans Segers and businessman Heng Suan Lim are cleared of match-fixing despite overwheleming evidence. Grobelaar's defence was amusingly that he was just gathering evidence to hand over to the police. Riiiiiight.
August 7, 2003: Chelsea agree to pay £12.5m for Juan Veron despite two underwhelming years at Old Trafford. with Claudio Ranieri describing him in a press conference as 'the best player in the world'. Clearly he wasn't, and he would make a grand total of seven league appearances for the Blues before buggering off on loan to Inter Milan. Chelsea recouped zero money when he finally left their books in 2007. Nice work, Roman.
On This Day In Real History...
1858: Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa to be the capital of Canada. Seemingly at random.
1925: The Daylight Saving Act is passed - meaning that we all have to remember to change our clocks twice a year.
1990: The ANC formally stop the war against white rule in South Africa - a gesture that eventually leads to the end of Apartheid.
1998: Bombs explode outside the American Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, killing 200 people and injuring thousands. The Islamic Army for the Liberation of Holy Places claims responsibility. They are of course al-Qaeda.
At Number One on the day that Chelsea signed Veron was 'Breathe' by Blu Cantrell feat. Sean Paul. Where is he now, we wonder?