Anniversaries

Births: Thomas Attwood, organist and composer, 1765; James Thomson, poet, 1834; Manuel de Falla, composer, 1876; Boris Karloff (William Henry Pratt), actor, 1887.

Deaths: Angelo Allori (Il Bronzino), painter and poet, 1572; Thomas Tallis, organist and composer, 1585; Richard Hakluyt, geographer, 1616; Sir Roger Newdigate, antiquary, 1806; Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen, murderer, executed 1910; Walter Greaves, painter, 1930; Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge, Orientalist, 1934; Andre-Georges Malraux, novelist, 1976; Merle Oberon (Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson), actress, 1979; Leslie Mitchell, radio and television presenter, 1985.

On this day: Moliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme was first performed, Paris 1670; the first pillar box was erected (at St Helier, Jersey), 1852; the first meeting of the General Medical Council was held, London 1858; HMS Rawalpindi was sunk by the German craft Scharnhorst and Gneisenau off Iceland, 1939; Dr Who was first shown by the BBC, 1963; Britain's first commercial radio station was opened on the Isle of Man, 1964; more than 4,000 people lost their lives in an earthquake in southern Italy, 1980; John Major became Prime Minister, 1990.

Today is the Feast Day of St Alexander Nevsky, prince, St Amphilochius, St Clement I, pope, St Columbanus, St Felicitas, St Gregory of Girgenti and St Trudo or Trond.