Birthdays and anniversaries

Birthdays

Mr Ken Bruce, broadcaster, 45; Sir Gordon Bryce, former Chief Justice of the Bahamas, 83; The Earl of Clarendon, former chairman and managing director, Seccombe, Marshall and Campion, 63; Dr Macdonald Critchley, neurologist, 96; Mr Andrew Davis, conductor, and musical director, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 52; The Very Rev Dr Victor de Waal, former Dean of Canterbury, 67; Mr Abba Eban, former Israeli foreign minister, 81; Mr Glynn Edwards, actor, 65; Sir Norman Fowler MP, 58; M Valery Giscard d'Estaing, former president of France, 70; Mr Hughie Green, former quizmaster, 76; Mr Marcus Hope, ambassador to Zaire, 54; Mr David Jason, actor, 56; Mr David Jones, chief executive, Next, 53; Sir Chips Keswick, chairman, Hambros Bank, 56; Mr Barry McGuigan, featherweight boxing champion, 35; Dame Alix Meynell, former senior civil servant, 93; Miss Libby Purves, journalist and broadcaster, 46; Miss Elaine Stritch, actress and singer, 69.

Anniversaries

Births: (Eleanor) Nell Gwynn, actress and mistress of Charles II, 1650; Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, statesman and diplomat, 1754; Oswald Achenbach, landscape painter, 1827; Henry Havelock Ellis, psychologist, 1859; James Augustine Joyce, author, 1882; Les (Leslie) Dawson, comedian, 1934. Deaths: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, composer, 1594; Bertrand Russell, third Earl Russell, philosopher, 1970; Alistair Maclean, novelist, 1987; Bernard Braden, broadcaster, 1993; Fred Perry, tennis-player, 1995; Donald Pleasance, actor, 1995. On this day: King Stephen was defeated and captured at the Battle of Lincoln, 1141; Buenos Aires was founded by Pedro de Mendoza, 1535; the first parliament assembled of Great Britain and Ireland, 1801; Greece declared war on Turkey, 1878; bread rationing was introduced in Britain, 1917; a mob in Dublin burned down the British Embassy, 1972. Today is the Feast Day of St Adalbald of Ostrevant, St Joan de Lestonnac, The Martyrs of Ebsdorf and The Purification.