Anniversaries

Births: Queen Elizabeth I, 1533; Stephen Hales, botanist and inventor, 1677; Thomas Coutts, banker, 1735; Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, statesman, 1836; Anna Mary ('Grandma') Moses, primitive painter, 1860; Dame Edith Sitwell, writer, 1887; Lt-Gen Sir Brian Gwynne Horrocks, soldier and author, 1895; Sir John Anthony Quayle, actor, 1913; Gp Capt Lord Cheshire VC, founder of the Cheshire Homes, 1917; Peter Lawford, actor, 1923; Charles Hardin ('Buddy') Holly, rock singer, 1936.

Deaths: Ferdinand IV ('El Emplazado'), King of Castile and Leon, 1312; Catherine Parr, sixth wife of King Henry VIII, 1548; Hannah More, author and evangelist, 1833; Rene-Francois-Armand Sully Prudhomme, poet, 1907; William Holman Hunt, Pre-Raphaelite painter, 1910; Gertrude Lawrence (Alexandra Dagmar Lawrence-Klasen), actress, 1952; Charles Burgess Fry, cricketer, footballer and journalist, 1956; Patrick Gordon Campbell, third Baron Glenavy, writer and broadcaster, 1981; Liam O'Flaherty, novelist, 1984.

On this day: the French army under Napoleon defeated the Russians at the Battle of Borodino, 1812; the first known reference to 'Uncle Sam' was made in an editorial in the Troy Post, New York 1813; Grace Horsley Darling and William, her father, rescued the crew of the Forfarshire steamship at the Farne Islands, 1838; Sir Francis Younghusband led an expedition to Tibet, where a treaty was signed with the Dalai Lama, 1904; The Fantasticks was produced on the London stage for the first time, 1961; the US ambassador to Brazil, Charles Burke Elbrick, was set free by terrorists in exchange for the release of 15 prisoners, 1969.

Today is the Feast Day of Saints Alcmund and Tilbert, St Anastasius the Fuller, St Cloud or Clodoald, St Grimonia, St John of Nicomedia, St Regina or Reine of Alise and St Sozon.