Diary: The List

ROYAL REBUFFS: 1972: eggs thrown by Stirling University students; 1977: snored at by Fred Mulley, Labour defence secretary, during RAF flypast; 1980: kept waiting in desert heat by King Hassan of Morocco; 1983: Maori buttocks bared in New Zealand; 1992: touched by Paul Keating, Prime Minister of Australia, and not curtseyed to by his wife; 1993: booed in Cyprus.

CYPRUS ROYAL VISITS: (only two) 1191: Richard the Lionheart shipwrecked on coast. Crew so badly treated that Richard deposed the local monarch, gave the crown to Guy of Lusignan, then married at Limassol; 1993: Elizabeth II moored her yacht at Limassol harbour and was jeered.

NOT CYPRIOT AT ALL: Harry Enfield as Stavros; cypress trees; sherry; Cyprus Vance; Cyprano de Bergerac.

TODAY is the feast day of St Maglorius, born in Glamorgan in the 6th century. Cured the chieftain of Sark of a skin disease and delivered Jersey from a dragon.

1601: Tycho Brahe Danish astronomer, died in Czechoslovakia. After seeing partial solar eclipse at the age of 14, he became an obsessive stargazer. During his life measured the position of hundreds of stars without a telescope. Notoriously hot-tempered, he lost his nose in a duel at the age of 19 and wore a false silver one for the rest of his life.

1648: Thirty Years' War ended.

1857: Cambridge University Old Boys formed the first football club, in Sheffield.

1945: UN Charter came into force.

1945: Vidkun Quisling, puppet prime minister in Nazi-occupied Norway during the Second World War, executed for treason.

1956: Soviet troops invaded Hungary.

1964: Northern Rhodesia became the Republic of Zambia.

BIRTHDAYS Phil Bennett, rugby player, 45; Sir Robin Day, broadcaster, 70; Mildred Gordon, MP, 70; Sir Robert Sainsbury, grocer, 86; Bill Wyman, Rolling Stones guitarist, 57.

DEATHS Elizabeth Clarke, aged 78, headmistress of Benenden 1954-75; Charles Lamont, aged 95, film-maker; Paolo Bortoluzzi, aged 55, dancer and choreographer.