Anniversaries

Births: Richard III, King, 1452; Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Indian leader, 1869; Wallace Stevens, poet, 1879; Julius "Groucho" Marx, comedian, 1890; Ignatius Roy Dunnachie Campbell, South African poet, 1901; Henry Graham Greene, novelist, 1904.

Deaths: Isaac Oliver, miniature painter, 1617; Jose Maria de Heredia, poet, 1905; Max Bruch, composer, 1920; SMarie Stopes, birth control pioneer, 1958; Marcel Duchamp (Henri-Pierre Roche), Surrealist painter, 1968; Katharine Susannah Prichard, novelist, 1969; Rock Hudson (Roy Fitzgerald Scherer), actor, 1985; Sir Peter Brian Medawar, medical scientist, 1987.

On this day: Rome became the capital city of Italy, 1870; Brigham Young, Mormon leader, was arrested for bigamy, 1871; the first rugby football match was played at Twickenham, 1909; Abyssinia (Ethiopia) was invaded by Italy, 1935; Guinea became an independent republic, 1958; Neil Kinnock became leader of the Labour Party, 1983.

Today is the Feast Day of St Eleutherius of Nicomedia, The Guardian Angels and St Leger or Leodegarius.