Anniversaries

Births: Francois-Michel Le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, statesman, 1641; Peter Mark Roget, lexicographer, 1779; Charles John Kean, actor, 1811; Sir Edward Frankland, chemist, 1825; Alan Alexander Milne, author and creator of Winnie the Pooh, 1882; ArthurMichell Ransome, critic and writer of children's books, 1884; Antoine Pevsner, sculptor, 1886; Oliver Norvell Hardy, comedian, 1892; Cary Grant (Archibald Alexander Leach), actor, 1904.

Deaths: Jan van Riebeck, founder of Cape Town, 1677; Sir George Hayter, painter, 1871; Joseph Rudyard Kipling, author, 1936; Sydney Greenstreet, actor, 1954; George Morrow, illustrator, 1955; Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell, statesman, 1963; Malcolm Henry Ellis, historian, 1964; Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, designer and photographer, 1980.

On this day: Henry VII of Lancaster and Elizabeth of York were married, 1486; Gorboduc, by Sackville and Norton, the first English tragedy, was performed, 1561; Capt James Cook discovered the Sandwich Islands, 1778; the German Reich was proclaimed in theHall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, 1871; Wilhelm of Prussia was proclaimed the first German Emperor, 1871; the Peace Conference opened at Versailles, 1919.

Today is the Feast Day of St Peter's Chair, Rome, St Desle or Deicolus, St Prisca or Priscilla and St Volusian.