Anniversaries

Births: Stan Laurel (Arthur Stanley Jefferson), comedian, 1890; Lupino Lane (Henry Lupino), singer and entertainer, 1892.

Deaths: John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, 1722; Sir John Charles Walsham Reith, first Baron Reith of Stonehaven, first director-general of the BBC, 1971.

On this day: the Automobile Association was founded, 1905; Winston Churchill offered France indissoluble union with Britain, 1940.

Today is the Feast Day of St Aurelian, St Benno of Meissen, Saints Cyr and Julitta, Saints Ferreolus and Ferrutio, St Lutgard and St Tychon of Amathus.