Birthdays and Anniversaries

Birthdays

King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden, 50; Princess Juliana of the Netherlands, 87; Sir James Adams, consultant, Control Risks Group, former ambassador to Egypt, 64; Dr Gerald Aylmer, historian, 70; Mrs Janey Buchan, MEP, 70; Mrs Barbara Calvert QC, a Recorder of the Crown Court, 70; Miss Jill Clayburgh, actress, 52; Sir Robin David, circuit judge, 74; Mr Dickie Davies, sports commentator, 63; Lord Diamond, former leader of the SDP in the House of Lords, 89; Mr Michael Elder, actor and writer, 65; The Rev Paul Fiddes, Principal, Regent's Park College, Oxford, 49; Dame Isabel Graham-Bryce, former chairman, Oxford Regional Hospital Board, 94; Mr Leslie Grantham, actor, 50; Mr William Henry, former chairman, Coats Paton, 81; Mr Alfred Lomas, MEP, 68; Lord McIntosh of Haringey, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, House of Lords, 63; Mr Keith Povey, Chief Constable, Leicestershire, 53; Lord Sanderson of Bowden, former chairman, Scottish Conservative Party, 63.

Anniversaries

Births: Casimir III, King of Poland, 1310; William Lilly, astrologer and fortune-teller, 1602; Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, founder of the Brothers of Christians schools, Rheims, 1651; Mary II, Queen, 1662; Jacques-Louis David, painter, 1748; David Thompson, explorer, 1770; Johann Karl Friedrich Gauss, mathematician and astronomer, 1777; William Mulready, painter, 1786; Richard Redgrave, painter, 1804; Jean-Francois Portaels, painter, 1818; Karl Kammerlander, song-writer and composer, 1828; Sir John Lubbock, first Baron Avebury, banker, writer and entomologist, 1834; Karl Piutti, organist and composer, 1846; Franz Lehar, composer, 1870; Jaroslav Hasek, novelist, 1883; Joachim von Ribbentrop, politician, 1893. Deaths: Pierre du Terrail, Seigneur de Bayard, soldier, killed 1524; John Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly, soldier, 1632; Eustache Le Sueur, painter, 1655; James Montgomery, journalist, poet and hymn-writer, 1854; Sir Henry Rowley Bishop, composer, 1855; Robert Fitzroy, admiral and hydrographer, 1865; Sarah Josepha Hale (Buell), editor, and poet for children, 1879; Edouard Manet, Impressionist painter, 1883; Jens Peter Jacobsen, poet and novelist, 1885; Carl August Nicolas Rosa, operatic impresario, 1889; Gustav Freytag, novelist and playwright, 1895; William Henry Welch, pathologist, 1934; Alfred Edward Housman, poet and scholar, 1936; Edwin Stanton Porter, film director, 1941; Beatrice (Potter) Webb, writer and socialist, 1943; Otto Jespersen, philologist, 1943; Adolf Hitler, dictator, committed suicide 1945; Eva Braun, mistress of Adolf Hitler, committed suicide 1945; Sir Almroth Wright, bacteriologist, 1947; George Balanchine, choreographer, 1983; Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield), rhythm and blues singer, 1983; Sir John William Max Aitken, newspaper publisher, 1985. On this day: under an Edict issued by Galerius Valerius Maximianus, Christians were legally recognised by the Roman Empire, 311; General George Washington was inaugurated as first US President, 1789; John Luther (''Casey'') Jones, immortalised in song, was killed when his Cannonball express crashed into a freight train near Vaughn, Mississippi, 1900; Debussy's opera Pelleas et Melisande was first performed, Paris 1902; the World Fair opened in St Louis, Missouri, 1904; the New York World's Fair opened, 1939; the Organisation of American States was founded, 1948; the first London performance of the musical show My Fair Lady was staged, 1958; the first London production of the comic operetta Candide was staged, 1959; the Brighton Belle train made its last journey from Victoria to Brighton, 1972; four of President Nixon's top aides resigned over Watergate charges, 1973; the South Vietnamese government surrendered unconditionally to the Vietcong, 1975; 125,000 people died following a cyclone in the coastal areas of Bangladesh, 1991. Today is the Feast Day of St Eutropius of Saintes, St Forannan, St Gualfardus or Wolfhard, Saints Marianus, James and Others, St Maximus of Ephesus and St Pius V, pope.