Anniversaries

TODAY

Births: Adam Smith, political economist, 1723; Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky, composer, 1882; Dame Ivy Compton- Burnett, novelist, 1884; Federico Garcia Lorca, poet and playwright, 1898.

Deaths: Orlando Gibbons, composer and organist, 1625; O. Henry (William Sydney Porter), short-story writer, 1910.

On this day: the hot-air balloon was first demonstrated by the Montgolfier brothers, 1783; Ramsay MacDonald formed a minority Labour Government in Britain, 1929; Robert Francis Kennedy, a US senator, was shot by an assassin, 1968; Mikhail Gorbachev received the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, 1991.

Today is the Feast Day of St Boniface of Mainz or Crediton, St Dorotheus of Tyre, St Sanctius or Sancho and St Tudno.

TOMORROW

Births: Diego Rodriguez da Silva y Velazquez, painter, baptised 1599; Aleksander Sergeyevich Pushkin, poet, novelist and playwright, 1799; Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Antarctic explorer, 1868; Thomas Mann, novelist, 1875; Robert Cedric Sherriff, playwright and novelist, 1896.

Deaths: Jeremy Bentham, philosopher and jurist, 1832; Carl Gustav Jung, psychiatrist, 1961.

On this day: Finland declared war on the USSR, 1919; the Allied invasion of Normandy took place - D-Day, 1944; Princess Margaret married Anthony Armstrong-Jones 1960; Croatia and Slovenia declared themselves 'independent and sovereign' republics, 1991.

Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Ceratius or Cerase, St Claud of Besancon, St Eustorgius II of Milan, St Gudwal or Gurval, St Jarlath, St Norbert and St Philip the Deacon.