BIRTHDAYS

Birthdays

The Queen, 69; Professor Gerald Benney, goldsmith and silversmith, 65; Mr Ian Bruce, Director-General, Royal National Institute for the Blind, 50; Mr Thomas Burns, former Editor, the Tablet, 89; Sir George Burton, former chairman, Fisons, 79; Mr Laurence Ellis, former Rector, Edinburgh Academy, 63; Mrs Cheryl Gillan MP, 43; Air Marshal Sir John Hunter-Tod, 78; Sir Robin Ibbs, chairman, Lloyds Bank, 69; Mr Bernard Latham, actor, 44; Mr John McCabe, composer and pianist, 56; Mr Tony Macaulay, composer, 51; Mr Ronald Magill, actor, 75; Dr Halfdan Mahler, Emeritus Director- General, World Health Organisation, 72; Miss Angela Mortimer (Barrett), tennis player, 63; Mr John Mortimer QC, writer and playwright, 72; Sir Geoffrey Palmer, former prime minister of New Zealand, 53; Mr Ben Patterson, MEP, 56; Mr Anthony Quinn, actor, 80; The Right Rev Donald Snelgrove, former Bishop Suffragan of Hull, 70; Maj-Gen Sir John Swinton, Lord-Lieutenant of Berwickshire, 70; Mr Srinivas Venkataraghavan, cricketer, 49.

Anniversaries

Births: Jan van Riebeeck, naval surgeon and founder of Cape Town, 1634; Prince George of Denmark, consort of Queen Anne, 1653; Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel, educationist, 1782; Angela Georgina, first Baroness Burdett- Coutts, millionairess, 1814; Charlotte Bront, novelist, 1816; Ferdinand Gumbert, tenor singer and composer, 1818; Sir Herbert Atkinson Barker, surgeon, 1869.

Deaths: Alexander II, Pope, 1073; St Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1109; Peter Abelard, philosopher and theologian, 1142; King Henry VII, 1509; Jean-Baptiste Racine, playwright, 1699; David Mallet (Malloch), poet and playwright, 1765; Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), novelist, 1910; Baron Manfried von Richthofen, aviator, killed in action 1918; Eleonora Duse, actress, 1924; Robert Seymour Bridges, poet, 1930; John Maynard Keynes, first Baron Keynes, economist, 1946; Sir Richard Stafford Cripps, lawyer, diplomat and statesman, 1952; Franois Duvalier (``Papa Doc''), president of Haiti, 1971.

On this day: the City of Rome was founded, (the traditional date) 753 BC; Baber founded the Mogul Empire in India, 1526; Sir James Thomas Knowles founded the Metaphysical Society, 1869; the Canadian North-West Mounted Police were established, 1873; the Canadians took Vimy Ridge, 1917; the world's first jet-liner service was begun by BOAC flying Comets between London and Rome, 1952; the US Air Force flew a French battalion to Vietnam to defend Dien Bien Phu, 1954; a military Junta took over the government of Greece, 1967.

Today is the Feast Day of St Anastasius I of Antioch, St Anselm of Canterbury, St Beuno, St Conrad of Parzham, St Malrubius or Maelrubha and St Simeon Barsabas and Others.