Anniversaries

Births: James Ward, animal painter, 1769; Pierre-Athanase Larousse, lexicographer and encyclopaedist, 1817; Louis Riel, rebel leader of the Metis in Canada, 1844; George Edward Bateman Saintsbury, critic and scholar, 1845; Douglas Robert Jardine, cricketer, 1900; Diana Dors (Diana Fluck), actress, 1931.

Deaths: Marcus Junius Brutus committed suicide 42 BC; Thomas Pride, Cromwellian soldier, 1658; Michel Marie Charles Verlat, painter, 1890; Ludwig Straus, violinist, 1899; William Gilbert Grace, cricketer, 1915; John Boyd Dunlop, inventor of the pneumatic rubber tyre, 1921; Al Jolson (Asa Yoelson), singer and actor, 1950.

On this day: the first parliament of Great Britain met, 1707; 25,000 women paraded in New York to demonstrate in favour of women's suffrage, 1915; Russian forces invaded East Prussia, 1944; the Soviet army advanced through Hungary, 1944; the United Nations General Assembly met for the first time, New York 1946; Britain, France, the US and the Soviet Union agreed to end the occupation of Germany, 1954; the Hungarian revolt against Soviet leadership began, 1956; George Blake, serving a 42-year sentence for espionage, escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison, 1966; Gary Gabelich in Blue Flame made the world land speed record of 631.367mph, Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah 1970.

Today is the Feast Day of St Allucio, St Elfleda or Ethelfleda, St Ignatius of Constantinople, St John of Capistrano, St Romanus of Rouen, St Severinus or Seurin of Bordeaux, St Severinus Boethius and St Theodoret.