August 8, 1984: In an era when most of the Manchester United squad thought reasonable preparation for a big game was half a barrel of Boddingtons, Gordon Strachan represented something of an anomaly in that he actually cared about such fripperies as fitness and the like. Wee Gordon, who signed for Manchester United from Aberdeen 24 years ago, famously relied on bananas for the strength that kept him playing until he was 63. Or something.
August 8, 1992: Did you know that Eric Cantona played for Leeds once upon a time? Easy to forget, but the Gallic genius and world class shrugger made his name in Yorkshire before becoming the bargain of the century in his move across the Pennines. Anyway, 16 years ago King Eric showed us that he really was quite good, by bagging a hat-trick in Leeds' 4-3 Charity Shield win over Liverpool.
August 8, 2007: This time last year most people were laughing at Roy Keane for chucking his cash around the joint so wantonly. However, he's the one laughing now (or perhaps just snarling) after a really quite decent season for Sunderland, keeping them in the Premier League with some degree of comfort. A year ago Keane stumped up a British record fee for a goalkeeper, with the £9million lavished on Hearts stopper Craig Gordon.
And On This Day In Real History...
117: Hadrian becomes Roman Emperor. First task is to decide what to do with that massive pile of bricks.
1945: With the war almost over and the day before Nagasaki joins Hiroshima as piles of glowing rubble, Russia decides to declare war on Japan.
1963: They don't make criminals like they used to. A gang of 15 men steal more than £2.6million (when that was worth more than half a Luke Young) in the Great Train Robbery.
1974: Richard 'I Am Not A Crook' Nixon, famous for looking like a potato in an episode of Cheers, announces he will resign as president of the USA, after admitting he helped cover-up the Watergate nastiness.
And At Number One...when Wee Gordon was signing on was 'Two Tribes' by Frankie Goes To Hollywood.