Anniversaries

Births: Sir Archibald Geikie, geologist, 1835; Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 28th US president, 1856; Sir John William Fortescue, military historian, 1859; Philip Wilson Steer, artist, 1860; Pio Baroja Nessi, novelist, 1872; Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, astronomer, 1882; Earl 'Fatha' Hines, jazz pianist, 1905.

Deaths: St Francis de Sales, 1622; Pierre Bayle, philosopher and writer, 1706; Rob Roy (Robert Macgregor), clan chief, 1734; Thomas Babington Macaulay, first Baron Macaulay, author and statesman, 1859; George Robert Gissing, novelist, 1903; Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, engineer, 1923; Maurice Joseph Ravel, composer, 1937; Victor Emmanuel III, former King of Italy, 1947; Jack Lovelock, athlete and surgeon, killed, 1949; Paul Hindemith, composer, 1963; Sam Peckinpah, film director, 1984.

On this day: Westminster Abbey was dedicated, 1065; in the US, the first patent for chewing gum was issued, 1869; the world's first public film show took place in Paris, 1895; the Irish Free State became the Republic of Ireland, 1937; an earthquake in Pakistan resulted in the death of more than 4,000 people, 1975.

Today is the Feast Day of St Antony of Lerins, The Holy Innocents (Childermas) and St Theodore the Sanctified.