Anniversaries

Births: Cornelius Jansen, Roman Catholic reformer, 1585; Evelyn Arthur St John Waugh, novelist, 1903; Francis Bacon, painter, 1909.

Deaths: Alfred the Great, King of England, 901; John Locke, philosopher, 1704; John Smeaton, engineer, 1792; David Jones, author and painter, 1974; John Braine, novelist, 1986; Pietro Annigoni, painter, 1988.

On this day: Harvard College was founded at Newe Towne, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1636; Michael Faraday made the first dynamo, 1831; the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange began a world economic crisis, 1929; the House of Commons voted in favour of Britain's joining the Common Market, with a majority of 112, 1971.

Today is the Feast Day of St Abraham of Ephesus, Saints Anastasia and Cyril, St Faro, St Fidelis of Como, St Jude or Thaddeus, St Salvius or Saire and St Simon.