Anniversaries

TODAY

Births: Henry IV, King of England, 1367; The Rev George Herbert, clergyman and poet, 1593. Deaths: Jesse Woodson James, outlaw, shot in the back, 1882; Kurt Julian Weill, composer, 1950; Henry Graham Greene, novelist, 1991. On this day: Haile Selassie (Ras Tafari) was proclaimed Emperor of Ethiopia, 1930; after two false starts, the Grand National was declared void, 1993. Today is the Feast Day of Saints Agape, Chionia, and Irene, St Burgundofara or Fare, St Nicetas, St Pancras of Taormina, St Richard of Chichester and St Sixtus I, pope.

TOMORROW

Births: Grinling Gibbons, sculptor and woodcarver, 1648; Anthony Perkins, actor, 1932. Deaths: Oliver Goldsmith, playwright, 1774; Martin Luther King, civil rights campaigner, assassinated 1968. On this day: Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation of the world and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I, 1581; a Chinese republic was proclaimed in Tibet, 1912; the North Atlantic Treaty, which created Nato, was signed in Washington, 1949. Tomorrow is Easter Day and the Feast Day of Saints Agathopus and Theodulus, St Benedict the Black, St Isidore of Seville, St Plato and St Tigernach