Birthdays

Sir Anthony Battishill, former chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue, 62; Dame Joyanne Bracewell QC, High Court judge, 65; Mr Mark Cox, tennis player, 56; Sir Douglas Dodds-Parker, former MP, 90; Mr Paul Daniel, musical director, English National Opera, 41; Mrs Elizabeth Emanuel, royal dressmaker, 46; Mr Peter Fraenkel, civil engineer, 84; Sir Anthony Goodenough, High Commissioner to Canada, 58; Sir Michael Hamilton, former MP, 81; Mr David Hanson MP, 42; Mr Brian Iddon MP, 59; Mr Billy Jenkins, blues guitarist, bandleader and composer, 43; Mr Ralph Kestenbaum, joint managing director, Gerald Metals, 70; Mr Philip Madoc, actor, 65; M Pierre Mauroy, former French prime minister, now Mayor of Lille, 71; Sir James Mirrlees, economist, and Nobel Prizewinner, 63; Maj-Gen Sir Jeremy Moore, defence consultant and former commander, Land Forces, Falkland Islands, 71; Sir Ian Prosser, chairman and chief executive, Bass plc, 56; Mr George Rochberg, composer, 81; The Right Rev James Roxburgh, Assistant Bishop, Liverpool, 78; Sir John Ure, writer, company director and former diplomat, 68; Mr John Wright, cricketer, 45.

Births: Luke Hansard, printer of Hansard, 1752; Mrs Sarah Siddons (Kemble), actress, 1755; William Crotch, composer and musical prodigy, 1775; Charles Alfred Stothard, antiquarian draughtsman, 1786; Phineas Taylor Barnum, showman, 1810; Agnes Zimmermann, pianist and composer, 1845; Cecil John Rhodes, colonial developer and politician, 1853; Dwight Filley Davis, statesman and founder of the Davis Tennis Cup, 1879; Jan Kubelik, violinist, 1880; Jean Cocteau, poet, novelist and artist, 1889; Georges Pompidou, president of France, 1911.

Deaths: Sir Robert Strange, line engraver, 1792; Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore, 1826; Joseph-Nicephore Niepce, pioneer in photography, 1833; Sir Austen Henry Layard, archaeologist, 1894; John Joseph Curtin, prime minister of Australia, 1945; Wilhelm Backhaus, pianist, 1969; Walter Adolph Gropius, architect, 1969; Thomas Joseph Mboya, Kenyan statesman, assassinated 1969; Georgette Heyer, novelist, 1974.

On this day: in London, the Star Chamber was abolished, 1641; the Parliamentarians were defeated by the Royalists at the Battle of Lansdown, 1643; George Hammond, the first British ambassador to the US was appointed, 1791; the British were defeated by the American forces at the Battle of Chippewa, 1814; the gold sovereign coin was first issued, 1817; the Spectator was first published, 1828; the travel agents Thomas Cook and Son were founded when the first excursion train was run from Leicester to Loughborough, 1841; the Salvation Army was founded, when William Booth held the first open-air Christian Mission at Mile End, London, 1865; after the General Election, the Labour Party received its first absolute majority, 1945; the National Health Service came into operation, 1948.

Today is Tynwald Day, Isle of Man and the Feast Day of St Antony-Mary Zaccaria and St Athanasius the Athonite.