Anniversaries

Births: Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Emperor of the West, 742; Hans Christian Andersen, author, 1805; Emile Zola, novelist, 1840; Max Ernst, Surrealist painter and sculptor, 1891.

Deaths: Samuel Finley Breese Morse, inventor, 1872; CS Forester, novelist, 1966; Georges-Jean-Raymond Pompidou, President of France, 1974.

On this day: the Royal Society was granted its Charter, 1663; the first parliament of Italy met at Turin, 1860; the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race was first broadcast, 1927; Nato Allied Command, Europe, was set up, 1951; Argentina invaded and captured the Falkland Islands, 1982.

Today is the Feast Day of Saints Apphian and Theodosia, St Francis of Paola, St John Payne, St Mary of Egypt, and St Nicetius or Nizier of Lyons.