Birthdays & Anniversaries

Birthdays

The Prince of Wales, 47; King Hussein of Jordan, 60; Sir Lawrie Barratt, chairman, Barratt Developments plc, 68; Dr Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General, United Nations, 73; Miss Margaret Courtenay, actress, 72; Mr Quentin Crewe, writer and restaurateur, 69; Mr James Crowden, Lord-Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, 68; Mr Paul Dacre, Editor, Daily Mail, 47; Mr Thomas Dawson, former Solicitor General for Scotland, 47; The Right Rev Mgr George Hay, parish priest, 65; M Bernard Hinault, Tour de France winner, 41; Mr Peter Katin, concert pianist, 65; Mr Mark Le Fanu, General Secretary, the Society of Authors, 49; Air Marshal Sir Richard Nelson, 88; Mr Patrick Nicholls MP, 47; Mr Gunther Sachs, former bobsleigh champion, 63; Mr David Shaw MP, 45; Miss Diana Skilbeck, Headmistress, the Queen's School, Chester, 53; Sir Dudley Smith MP, 69; Sir Joseph Smith, former Director, Public Health Laboratory Service, 65; Sir Arthur Watts, former legal adviser, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 64.

Anniversaries

Births: Robert Fulton, steamboat pioneer, 1765; Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini, composer, 1774; Sir Charles Lyell, geologist, 1797; Claude-Oscar Monet, painter, 1840; Leo Hendrik Baekeland, inventor of Bakelite, 1863; Pandit Jawalharlal Nehru, statesman, 1889; Sir Frederick Grant Banting, physician, 1891; Harold Larwood, cricketer, 1904; Joseph Raymond McCarthy, US senator, 1908; Dame Elisabeth Frink, sculptor, 1930. Deaths: Justinian I, Roman emperor, 565; Alexander Nevsky, Russian ruler, 1263; Thomas Parr, ``Old Parr'', reputedly aged 151, 1635; Nell (Eleanor) Gwynn, actress and mistress of Charles II, 1687; Gottfried Wilhelm, Freiherr von Leibniz, philosopher, 1716; Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, philosopher, 1831; Robert Whitehead, inventor of the torpedo, 1905; Frederick Sleigh Roberts, first Earl Roberts, field marshal, 1914; Hector Hugh Munro (``Saki''), writer, killed in action 1916; Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes, novelist, 1947; Robert Emmet Sherwood, playwright, 1955; Tony Richardson, film and theatre director, 1991. On this day: one of the greatest known earthquakes in England occurred, 1318; James Bruce discovered the source of the Blue Nile, 1770; the first London-to-Brighton car run was held, 1896; Lieutenant Eugene Ely, US Navy, was the first man to take off in an aircraft from the deck of a ship, 1910; book tokens first went on sale, 1932; Coventry Cathedral was destroyed by enemy bombing, 1940; the aircraft carrier Ark Royal was sunk, 1941; the New Musical Express published Britain's first pop music chart, 1952; after a subterranean volcano erupted, a new island appeared off Iceland, 1963; colour television transmission was begun in Britain, 1969; Princess Anne married Captain Mark Phillips, 1973. Today is the Feast Day of St Adeotus Aribert, St Dubricius or Dyfrig, St Laurence O'Toole, St Nicholas Tavelic, St Peter of Narbonne and St Stephen of Cuneo.