Anniversaries

TODAY Births: Myles Birket Foster, painter, 1825; Charles Augustus Lindbergh, aviator, 1902; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian, 1906. Deaths: Lucius Septimius Severus, Roman emperor, 211; Liberace (Wladiziu Valentino), entertainer, 1987. On this day: the command of the German Army was assumed by Adolf Hitler, 1938; Ceylon became an independent state, 1948; sweet rationing ended in Britain, 1953; the Sunday Times issued the first colour supplement in Britain, 1962. Today is the Feast Day of St Andrew Corsini, bishop, St Isidore of Pelusium, St Joan of Valois, St John de Britto, St Joseph of Leonessa, St Modan, St Nicholas Studites, St Phileas, St Rembert and St Theophilus the Penitent.

TOMORROW Births: Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne, writer, 1626; Sir Robert Peel, statesman, 1788; John Boyd Dunlop, inventor of the pneumatic tyre, 1840. Deaths: Thomas Carlyle, author and historian, 1881; Marianne Craig Moore, poet, 1972; Joseph Leo Mankiewicz, film director and author, 1993. On this day: the Spanish captured Minorca from the British, 1782; Rossini's The Barber of Seville was first performed, Rome 1816; the Sunday Telegraph was first published, 1961; Laker Airways collapsed with debts of £270m, 1982. Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Adelaide of Bellich, St Agatha, St Avitus of Vienne, St Bertulph or Bertoul of Renty, Saints Indractus and Dominica and St Vodalus or Voel.