BIRTHDAYS

TODAY: Mr George Baker, actor and writer, 64; Mr Cynog Dafis MP, 57; Mr David Davies, chairman and chief executive, Johnson Matthey, 55; The Rev Norman Drummond, Headmaster, Loretto School, 43; Mr Alex Falconer, MEP, 55; Professor Roderick Floud, Provost, London Guildhall University, 53; Sir Anthony Gill, chairman, Docklands Light Railway, 65; Mr David Gower, cricketer, 38; Sir Nicholas Henderson, former diplomat, 76; Miss Gaie Johnson Houghton, jockey, 54; The Earl of Ilchester, managing director, County Border Newspapers, 75; Baroness McFarlane of Llandaff, Professor Emeritus, Department of Nursing, Manchester University, 69; Professor Maxwell McGlashan, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, University College London, 71; Miss Ali MacGraw, actress, 57; Sir William Macpherson of Cluny, High Court judge, 69; Mr William Manchester, Professor Emeritus of History, Wesleyan University, 73; Maj-Gen Giles Mills, former Resident Governor, Tower of London, 73; Professor Sir Dimitri Obolensky, historian, 77; Mrs Marie Patterson, former TUC president, 61; Miss Jane Powell, singer and actress, 66; Mr Charles H. Price, former US ambassador to the United Kingdom, 64; Mr Steve Race, musician and broadcaster, 74; Dr Richard Repp, Master, St Cross College, Oxford, 59; Miss Debbie Reynolds, actress, 63; Mr Bryan Robertson, art historian, 70; Mr Arnold Sidebottom, cricketer, 41; Mr Leonard van Geest, chairman, Littlewoods, 45; Mr Dafydd Wigley MP, 52.

TOMORROW: Vice-Admiral Michael Boyce, 52; Sir Jack Brabham, racing driver, 69; Mr Graham Bright MP, 53; Mr Linford Christie, athlete, 35; Mr Richard Collinge, cricketer, 49; Air Marshal Sir Geoffrey Dhenin, 77; Sir Richard Dobbs, former Lord- Lieutenant of County Antrim, 76; Sir Christopher France, former senior civil servant, 61; Mr George MacDonald Fraser, author and journalist, 70; Mr Paul Gambaccini, disc jockey, 46; Miss Catherine Gaskin, romantic novelist, 66; Mr Brian Glover, actor, 61; Mrs Myra Green, director of the East European Partnership, VSO, 57; Mr Raymond Gubbay, concert promoter, 49; Sir Alec Guinness CH, actor, 81; Mr Barry Hills, racehorse trainer, 58; Sir Ian Hunter, impresario, 76; Miss Penelope Keith, actress, 55; Sir Peter Lazarus, former senior civil servant, 69; Sir Peter Middleton, a deputy chairman, Barclays Bank, 61; Sir Robert Munro, former president of the Fiji Senate, 88; Maj-Gen Christopher Popham, former director, British Atlantic Committee, 68; Mr Michael Rizzello, sculptor and coin designer, 69; Sir Denis Rooke, former chairman, British Gas, 71; Vice-Admiral Sir Hugh Thompson, 64; Miss Sue Townsend, author, 49.

Anniversaries

TODAY: Births: William Harvey, physician, discoverer of the circulation of the blood, 1578; Abb Prvost (Antoine-Franois Prvost d'Exiles), writer, 1697; Prince Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck (-Schnhausen), statesman, 1815; Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov, composer, 1873; Dame Cicely Courtneidge, actress, 1893. Deaths: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France and of England, 1204; Max Ernst, painter and sculptor, 1976; Ren Cutforth, journalist and broadcaster, 1984; Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge, author, 1984. On this day: Old Age pensions were first paid (to British subjects over the age of 70), 1909; the Royal Air Force came into being as a separate arm, 1918; persecution of the Jews in Germany began, 1933; London's Green Belt legislation came into being, 1935. Today is the Feast Day of St Catharine of Palma, St Gilbert of Caithness, St Hugh of Bonnevaux, St Hugh of Grenoble, St Macarius the Wonderworker, St Melito and St Valery or Walaricus. Today is also the beginning of the Hindu New Year.

TOMORROW: Births: Charlemagne (Charles I, Carolus Magnus), King of the Franks and Emperor of the West, 742; Hans Christian Andersen, author, 1805; William Holman Hunt, Pre-Raphaelite painter, 1827; Emile-Edouard Charles-Antoine Zola, novelist, 1840; Sir Neville Cardus, cricket and music writer, 1889; Max Ernst, painter and sculptor, 1891; Serge Lifar, choreographer, 1905. Deaths: Honor-Gabriel Riquetti, Comte de Mirabeau, politician and writer, 1791; Cecil Scott Forester, novelist, 1966; Georges- Jean Raymond Pompidou, President of France, 1974. On this day: the Royal Society was granted its Charter, 1663; Argentina invaded and captured the Falkland Islands, 1982. Tomorrow is the Feast Day of Saints Apphian and Theodosia, St Francis of Paola, St John Payne, St Mary of Egypt, St Nicetius or Nizier of Lyons and St Zosimus.