Anniversaries

Births: Francois-Michel Le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, statesman, 1641; Peter Mark Roget, lexicographer, 1779; Sir Francis Grant, portrait painter, 1803 ; Ernst Friedrich Karl Rudorff, pianist and composer, 1840; Alan Alexander Milne, author, 1882; Arthur Michell Ransome, critic and writer of children's books, 1884; Oliver Norvell Hardy, comedian, 1892; Cary Grant (Archibald Alexander Leach), actor, 1904.

Deaths: Sir George Hayter, painter, 1871; Joseph Rudyard Kipling, author, 1936; Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell, statesman, 1963; Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, designer and photographer, 1980; John Frederick, Baron Wolfenden, social reformer, 1985.

On this day: Henry VII of Lancaster and Elizabeth of York were married, 1486; Gorboduc, by Sackville and Norton, the first English tragedy, was performed, 1561; the German Reich or Empire was proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, 1871; the Peace Conference opened at Versailles, 1919.

Today is the Feast Day of St Peter's Chair, Rome, St Desle or Deicolus, St Prisca or Priscilla and St Volusian.