Anniversaries

Births: George Lillo, playwright, 1693; Myles Birket Foster, painter, 1825; Fernand Leger, cubist painter, 1881; Edwin John Pratt, poet, 1883; Walter Catlett, actor, 1889; Ludwig Erhard, statesman, 1897; Jacques Prevert, poet and novelist, 1900; Charles Augustus Lindbergh, aviator, 1902; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian, 1906.

Deaths: John Rogers, Protestant martyr, burned at the stake 1555; Giambattista della Porta, philosopher, 1615; Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, painter, 1787; Sir William Darling, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, 1962; Karen Carpenter, singer, 1983.

On this day: submarine warfare was declared by Germany, 1915; Britain announced a naval blockade of Germany, 1915; Adolf Hitler assumed the command of the German Army, 1938; Ceylon (Sri Lanka) became an independent state, 1948; the Sunday Times issued the first colour supplement in Britain, 1962; the world's largest hovercraft (165 tonnes) was launched at Cowes, 1968; 236 people died when two trains collided near Buenos Aires, 1970; 23,000 people were killed after an earthquake in Guatemala, 1976; the Ethiopian head of state Brigadier-General Teferi Bante and six others were executed by military council, 1977.

Today is the Feast Day of St Andrew Corsini, bishop, St Isidore of Pelusium, St Joan of Valois, St John de Britto, St Joseph of Leonessa, St Modan, St Nicholas Studites, St Phileas, St Rembert and St Theophilus the Penitent.