Anniversaries

Births: Ann Radcliffe (Ann Ward), novelist, 1764; Henry Hallam, historian, 1777; Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing- machine, 1819; Adolf Schreyer, painter, 1828; 1852; Franz Boas, anthropologist, 1858; Simon Marks, first Baron Marks of Broughton, a founder of Marks and Spencer, 1888; Ian Mikardo, Labour MP, 1908.

Deaths: Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1228; Jan van Eyck, painter, 1440; Edmund Burke, statesman, 1797; Alexander Keith Johnston the elder, geographer, 1871; King Camp Gillette, safety-razor inventor and manufacturer, 1932; Randall Thompson, composer, 1984.

On this day: Henry VIII divorced Anne of Cleves, 1540; a massacre of Christians in Damascus started, 1860; German South-West Africa surrendered to General Smuts, 1915; the Bank of England issued pounds 20 banknotes (previous pounds 20 notes had been withdrawn in 1945), 1970.

Today is the Feast Day of St Everild, St Nicholas Pieck and his Companions, The Martyrs of Gorcum (Holland) and St Veronica de Julianis.