Anniversaries

Births: Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux, playwright and novelist, 1688; George Lillo, playwright, 1693; William Harrison Ainsworth, novelist, 1805; Myles Birket Foster, painter, 1825; Richard d'Ivry (Richard Yrvid), composer, 1829; Valentine Cameron Prinsep, artist, 1838; Fernand Leger, cubist painter, 1881; Jacques Prevert, poet and novelist, 1900; Charles Augustus Lindbergh, aviator, 1902; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian, 1906.

Deaths: Lucius Septimius Severus, Roman emperor, 211; John Rogers, Protestant martyr, burned at the stake 1555; Robert Blair, poet, 1746; Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, painter, 1787; Edward George Villiers Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby, politician and ambassador, 1948; Sir William Darling, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, 1962; Karen Carpenter, singer, 1983; Liberace (Wladiziu Valentino), pianist, 1987.

On this day: Adolf Hitler assumed command of the German army, 1938; the Yalta Conference opened, 1945; Ceylon (later known as Sri Lanka) became an independent state, 1948; sweet rationing ended in Britain, 1953; The Sunday Times issued the first colour supplement in Britain, 1962; the world's largest hovercraft (165 tonnes) was launched at Cowes, 1968.

Today is the Feast Day of St Andrew Corsini, bishop, St Isidore of Pelusium, St Joan of Valois, St John de Britto, St Joseph of Leonessa, St Modan, St Nicholas Studites, St Phileas, St Rembert and St Theophilus the Penitent.