Anniversaries

TODAY: Births: Mata Hari (Margaretha Geertruide Zelle), German spy, 1876; Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey, archaeologist and anthropologist, 1903; Deaths: Caroline, Queen of George IV, 1821; Konstantin Stanislavsky (Konstantin Sergeyevich Alekseyev), theatre director, 1938; Oliver Norvell Hardy, film comedian, 1957; On this day: Louis Philippe was proclaimed "citizen king" of France, 1830; the Daylight Saving Act, which permanently established British Summer Time, was passed, 1925; Today is the Feast Day of Saints Agapitus, Sixtus II and Felicissimus, St Albert of and Trapani, St Cajetan or Gaetano, St Claudia, St Dogmetius the Persian, St Donatus of Arezzo and St Victricius.

TOMORROW: Births: Frank Richards (Charles Harold St John Hamilton), author and creator of "Billy Bunter", 1876; Deaths: Thomas a Kempis (Thomas Hammerken von Kempen), Augustinian monk and writer, 1471; George Canning, statesman, 1827; Frank Winfield Woolworth, chain store founder, 1919; Louise Brooks, actress, 1985; Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, inventor of the jet engine, 1996. On this day: the Battle of Britain began, 1940; President Richard Nixon resigned, the first US President to do so, 1974; John McCarthy, the journalist held hostage by Islamic Jihad in the Lebanon since 1986, was freed, 1991. Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Altman, Saints Cyriacus, Largus and Smaragdus, St Dominic, The Fourteen Holy Helpers and St Hormisdas the Martyr.