Anniversaries

Births: Leonardo da Vinci, painter, sculptor and architect, 1452; David Hume, philosopher and historian, 1711; Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher, 1889.

Deaths: Nelson Keys, comedian, 1939; William 'Count' Basie, jazz pianist and bandleader, 1984; Broderick Crawford, actor, 1986.

On this day: as a result of the Pazzi Conspiracy, Giuliano de' Medici was stabbed to death while at High Mass at the Cathedral in Florence, 1478; the Duke of York (later King George VI) married Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth), 1923; a new building for the Madame Tussaud's waxwork exhibition opened in London, 1928; German planes bombed Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, 1937; Tanganyika and Zanzibar united to form Tanzania, 1964; an accident at the Soviet nuclear power station at Chernobyl resulted in a massive nuclear leak, 1986.

Today is the Feast Day of St Franca of Piacenza, St Paschasius Radbertus, St Peter of Braga, St Richarius or Riquier and St Stephen of Perm.