Anniversaries

Births: Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor, 121; Leonardo da Vinci, painter, sculptor and architect, 1452; Marie de' Medici, Queen of France, 1573; David Hume, philosopher and historian, 1711; John James Audubon, naturalist and artist, 1785; Ferdinand-Victor Eugene Delacroix, painter, 1798; Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher, 1889; Anita Loos, screenwriter, novelist and playwright, 1893; Rudolf Hess, Nazi leader, 1894; John Grierson, documentary film maker, 1898; Jean Vigo, film director, 1905.

Deaths: John Wilkes Booth, actor and assassin, shot while trying to escape, 1865; Dame Cicely Courtneidge, actress, 1980; William "Count" Basie, jazz pianist and bandleader, 1984.

On this day: Port Hamilton (So-Do), Korea, was occupied by the British, 1885; the Duke of York (later King George VI) married Elizabeth Bowes- Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth), 1923; a new building for the Madame Tussaud's waxwork exhibition opened in London, 1928; German planes bombed Guernica in Spain during the Civil War, 1937; an accident at the Soviet nuclear power station at Chernobyl resulted in a massive nuclear leak, 1986.

Today is the Feast Day of St Franca of Piacenza, St Paschasius Radbertus, St Peter of Braga, St Richarius or Riquier and St Stephen of Perm.