Anniversaries

Births: Horace Walpole, fourth Earl of Orford, writer, 1717; Samuel Rutherford Crockett, novelist, 1860; Georges Claude, inventor of the neon light, 1870; Sir Alan (A.P.) Patrick Herbert, writer and MP, 1890; Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, novelist, 1896; Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey, pathologist, 1898; Konstantin Chernenko, Soviet leader, 1911; Sir Andrzej Panufnik, composer and conductor, 1914; Dr Manfred Worner, secretary- general of Nato, 1934.

Deaths: William Lawes, composer, 1645; Henry, first Viscount Hardinge of Lahore, Governor General of India, 1856; Melanie Klein (Reizes), child psychoanalyst, 1960; Mtys Seiber, composer, 1960; Dame Isobel Baillie, oratorio singer, 1983.

On this day: the St Leger horse race was run for the first time, 1776; Sir James Brooke was appointed Rajah of Sarawak, 1841; fMarks and Spencer opened their first "Penny Bazaar" at Cheetham, Manchester, 1894; the French bombed the Krupps Works at Essen, 1916; the industrial estate at Harlow New Town was opened, 1951; the USS Enterprise, the first nuclear- powered aircraft- carrier, was launched at Newport, Virginia, 1960.

Today is the Feast Day of St Gerard Sagredo of Csanad, St Geremarus or Germer, St Pacificus of San Severino and St Robert Flower of Knaresborough.