Anniversaries

Births: Joseph-Marie Jacquard, silk-weaver and inventor, 1752; Gustav Mahler, composer, 1860; Marc Chagall, painter and designer, 1887; George Cukor, film director, 1899.

Deaths: Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan, playwright, 1816; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author, 1930; Dame Flora Robson, actress, 1984.

On this day: Kelvin Hall exhibition building in Glasgow was destroyed by fire, 1925; the BBC broadcast the first gramophone record programme, 1927; the Vatican City became a sovereign state, 1929; the first air display was held at Farnborough, 1950; the liner United States captured the Blue Riband of the Atlantic from the Queen Mary on her maiden voyage, 1952.

Today is the Feast Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Saints Ethelburga, Ercongota and Sethrida, St Felix of Nantes, St Hedda of Winchester, St Palladius and St Pantaenus.