Anniversaries

Births: St Edmund Campion, Jesuit martyr, 1540; Thomas Tanner, antiquary, biographer and bishop, 1674; Comte Joseph-Louis Lagrange, mathematician and physicist, 1736; Robert Burns, poet, 1759; Sir Francis Burdett, politician, 1770; Theodor Steingraber, music publisher and author, 1830; William Somerset Maugham, author, 1874; Adeline Virginia Woolf, author, 1882; Wilhelm Furtwangler, conductor, 1886; Paul-Henri Spaak, statesman, 1899.

Deaths: Lucas Cranach the Younger, painter, 1586; Frederick, first Baron Leighton, painter and sculptor, 1896; Ouida (Maria Louise de la Ramee), author, 1908; Al (Alphonse) Capone, gangster, 1947; Ava Lavinia Gardner, actress, 1990. On this day: Edward III acceded to the English throne, 1327; Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn, 1533; William Henry Fox Talbot published a description of his invention, the photographic negative, 1839; Nelly Bly, journalist, ended a round-the-world trip in just over 73 days, 1890; the Labour MPs David Owen and William Rodgers and former MPs Shirley Williams and Roy Jenkins announced that they were to set up a Council for Social Democracy, 1981.

Today is Burns Night and the Feast Day of The Conversion of St Paul, St Apollo, St Artemas, St Dwynwen, Saints Juventinus and Maximimus, St Poppo, St Praejectus or Prix and St Publius.