Anniversaries

Births: Roger Martin du Gard, novelist and playwright, 1881; Juan Gris, cubist painter, 1887; Joan Crawford (Lucille Le Sueur), actress, 1904; Donald Malcolm Campbell, land and water speedster, 1921.

Deaths: Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle), novelist, 1842; Raoul Dufy, painter and designer, 1953; Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie, town planner and architect, 1957; Peter Lorre (Laszlo Lowenstein), actor, 1964.

On this day: the Pope declared valid the marriage of Catherine of Aragon to King Henry VIII, although in 1533 he had 'married' Anne Boleyn, 1534; the first officially sponsored group of settlers arrived at Dunedin, New Zealand, 1848; the first trams in London began operating in Bayswater, 1861; the German gun 'Big Bertha' shelled Paris from a distance of 75 miles, 1918; Adolf Hitler became dictator of Germany, 1933; the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Michael Ramsey, visited Rome and met the Pope, the first official meeting between the two churches for 400 years, 1966.

Today is the Feast Day of St Benedict the Hermit, St Ethelwald the Hermit, St Joseph Oriol, St Turibius of Lima and St Victorian.