Anniversaries

Births: St Edmund Campion, Jesuit martyr, 1540; Stephanie-Felicite du Crest de Saint-Aubin, Comtesse de Genlis, author, 1746; Robert Burns, poet, 1759; William Somerset Maugham, author, 1874; Adeline Virginia Woolf, author, 1882; Wilhelm Furtwangl er, conductor, 1886; Dame Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, actress, 1891.

Deaths: Lucas Cranach the Younger, painter, 1586; George Augustus Selwyn, MP and wit, 1791; Dorothy Wordsworth, writer and sister of the poet William Wordsworth, 1855; Ouida (Marie Louise de la Ramee), author, 1908; Al (Alphonse) Capone, gangster, 1947; Ava Lavinia Gardner, actress, 1990.

On this day: Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn, 1533; William Henry Fox Talbot published a description of his invention, the photographic negative, 1839; the London Chamber of Commerce met for the first time, 1882; the Pentagon building in Washington was completed, 1943; Maj-Gen Idi Amin deposed Milton Obote, president of Uganda, 1971; Labour MPs David Owen, William Rodgers and former MPs Shirley Williams and Roy Jenkins stated that they were to set up a Council for Social Democracy, 1981.

Today is Burns Night and the Feast Day of the Conversion of St Paul, St Apollo, St Artemas, St Dwynwen, Saints Juventinus and Maximimus, St Poppo, St Praejectus or Prix and St Publius.