Anniversaries

TODAY: Births: Queen Elizabeth I, 1533; Thomas Coutts, banker, 1735; Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, statesman, 1836; William Friese-Greene, pioneer of the cinema, 1855; Anna Mary (''Grandma'') Moses, primitive painter, 1860; Dame Edith Sitwell, writer, 1887; Bruce Frederick Cummings (''W.N.P. Barbellion''), diarist and biologist, 1889; Lt-Gen Sir Brian Gwynne Horrocks, soldier and author, 1895; Sir John Anthony Quayle, actor, 1913; Gp Capt Lord Cheshire, VC, 1917; Peter Lawford, actor, 1923; Charles Hardin (''Buddy'') Holly, rock singer, 1936. Deaths: Catherine Parr, sixth wife of King Henry VIII, 1548; Hannah More, author, 1833; John Greenleaf Whittier, poet and naturalist, 1892; William Holman Hunt, painter, 1910; Gertrude Lawrence (Alexandra Dagmar Lawrence-Klasen), actress, 1952; Charles Burgess Fry, cricketer, footballer and journalist, 1956; Patrick Gordon Campbell, third Baron Glenavy, writer and broadcaster, 1981; Liam O'Flaherty, novelist, 1984. On this day: the French army under Napoleon defeated the Russians at the Battle of Borodino, 1812. Today is the Feast Day of Saints Alcmund and Tilbert, St Anastasius the Fuller, St Cloud or Clodoald, St Grimonia, St John of Nicomedia, St Regina or Reine of Alise and St Sozon.

TOMORROW: Births: Richard I, King (Coeur de Lion), 1157; Joseph-Etienne Frederic Mistral, Provencal poet, 1830; Antonin Dvork, composer, 1841; William Wymark Jacobs, short-story writer, 1863; Siegfried Lorraine Sassoon, poet and critic, 1886; Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, politician, 1901; Peter Richard Henry Sellers, actor and comedian, 1925. Deaths: George Bradshaw, printer and publisher of railway guides, 1853; Andre Derain, painter, 1954; Sir Leonard George Holden Huxley, physicist, 1988. On this day: New Amsterdam in North America was surrendered by the Dutch to the English and renamed New York, 1664; Germany was admitted to the League of Nations, 1926; the first V2 flying bombs landed in London, 1944; the first non- stop flight from London to Canada was completed, 1944; the Treaty of Peace with Japan was signed by 49 powers in San Francisco, 1951; the Severn Road Bridge was officially opened, 1966; Milton Obote became the first president of the Republic of Uganda, 1967; in Vietnam, Australian Warrant Officer Keith Payne was awarded the VC, 1969; President Ford granted a full pardon to Richard Nixon for ''any offences he might have committed while in office'', 1974. Tomorrow is the Feast Day of Saints Adrian and Natalia, St Corbinian, St Disibod, St Eusebius, St Kingsmark or Cynfarch Oer, St Nestabus, St Nestor, St Sergius I, pope and St Zeno.