The summer air in Rochester, New York, hung thick with heat and celebration. It was July 5, 1852, a day after cannons had fired, flags waved and towns across America had burst into patriotic jubilation

A huge explosion at a petrol station in a Rome suburb injured nearly 30 people, two of them seriously, and rattled windows across the Italian capital.

An escaped pet lion chased a woman and two children down a busy street in Pakistan’s Lahore, police said, with dramatic footage showing the big cat leaping a wall before pouncing on them.