Anniversaries

TODAY: Births: George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), novelist, 1819; General Charles-Andre Marie-Joseph de Gaulle, French president, 1890. Deaths: Clive Staples Lewis, writer, 1963; Aldous Leonard Huxley, writer, 1963; John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th US President, assassinated 1963; Anthony Burgess (John Anthony Burgess Wilson), writer, 1993. On this day: Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope, 1497; Margaret Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister, 1990. Today is the Feast Day of St Cecilia or Cecily and Saints Philemon and Apphia.

TOMORROW: Births: William H. Bonney (Billy the Kid), outlaw, 1859; Boris Karloff (William Henry Pratt), actor, 1887. Deaths: Richard Hakluyt, geographer, 1616; Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen, murderer, executed 1910. On this day: the first pillar box was erected (at St Helier, Jersey), 1852; Dr Who was first shown by the BBC, 1963. Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Alexander Nevsky, prince, St Amphilochius, St Clement I, pope, St Columbanus, St Felicitas, St Gregory of Girgenti and St Trudo or Trond.

Lectures

TODAY

National Portrait Gallery: Jill Nott-Bower, "Katharine Mansfield: her story and stories", 3pm.