Anniversaries

Today: Births: John Harvard, founder of the University, baptised 1607; Gertrude Jekyll, landscape architect, 1843; Carlo Levi, novelist, painter and journalist, 1902. Deaths: Giovanni Bellini (Giambellini), painter, 1516; Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal and Lord Chancellor, 1530; Hans Holbein the Younger, painter, 1543; Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini, composer, 1924. On this day: the Eighth Army opened its offensive, 1943. Today is the Feast Day of St Brendan of Birr, St Radbod, St Saturninus or Sernin of Toulouse and St Saturninus, martyr.

TOMORROW: Births: Andrea Palladio, (Andrea di Pietro della Gondola) architect, 1508; Sir Philip Sidney, poet, soldier and courtier, 1554; John Bunyan, writer, baptised, 1628; Jonathan Swift, author, 1667. Deaths: Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, playwright, 1900; Joyce Irene Grenfell, entertainer, 1979. On this day: the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, near London, was destroyed by fire, 1936. Today is the Feast Day of St Andrew the Apostle, St Cuthbert Mayne and St Sapor.