Birthdays and anniversaries

Birthdays

Dame Margaret Anstee, former UN Under-Secretary General, 71; Mr Peter Blake, painter, 65; Sir Jack Boles, former Director-General, National Trust, 72; Mr Cyril Fletcher, comedian and broadcaster, 84; Mr Derek Foster MP, 60; General Sir Roland Guy, former Chief of Staff, HQ, BAOR, 69; Mr Eddie Large, comedian, 55; Mr Sidney Lumet, film director, 73; Mr Victor Marks, cricketer, 42; Mr Roy Marsden, actor, 56; Mr George Michael, singer, 34; Mr Richard Morgan, Warden, Radley College, Oxford, 57; Mr Howard Newby, novelist, 79; Sir Kenneth Oxford, former Chief Constable, Merseyside Police, 73; Lord Ravensdale (Nicholas Mosley), writer, 74; Miss Carly Simon, singer and songwriter, 52; Mr Larry Smith, former trade union leader, 75; The Rev Keith Wilkinson, Headmaster, King's School, Canterbury, 49; Professor Sir Arnold Wolfendale, former Astronomer Royal, 70.

Anniversaries

Births: Robert Erskine Childers, writer and Irish nationalist, 1870; George Orwell (Eric Blair), writer, 1903. Deaths: Ernest Theodor Amadeus Hoffman, writer, composer and caricaturist, 1822; George Armstrong Custer, cavalry officer, killed in battle 1876. On this day: the Battle of the Little Big Horn River was fought - Custer's Last Stand, 1876; Dr Douglas Hyde was inaugurated as the first president of the Irish Republic, 1938. Today is the Feast Day of St Adalbert of Egmond, St Eurosia, St Febronia, St Gallicanus, St Gohard, St Maximus of Turin, St Moloc or Luan, St Prosper of Aquitaine, St Prosper of Reggio, St Thea and St William of Vercelli or Monte Vergine.