BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES

Birthdays

Mr Zaheer Abbas, cricketer, 48; Mr John Ambler, vice-president, Texaco, 61; Baroness Blatch, Minister of State, Home Office, 58; Mr Julian Brazier MP, 42; Sir Trevor Chinn, chairman and chief executive, Lex Service, 60; Mr Robin Cutler, Director-General, Forestry Commission, 61; Lord Digby, Lord-Lieutenant for Dorset, 71; Mr Robert Farnon, composer, 79; Sir Edward Ford, Secretary and Registrar, the Order of Merit, 85; Professor Derek Fraser, Vice-Chancellor, Teesside University, 55; Lord Hambro, chairman, Hambros, 65; Mr James Hele, former High Master, St Paul's School, 69; Mr Wilfred Josephs, composer, 68; Vice-Admiral Sir David Loram, former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, 71; Mr Edwin Mirvish, proprietor, the Old Vic, 81; Mr Ruggiero Ricci, violinist, 77; Mr Christopher Smith MP, 44; Sir Colin Southgate, chairman, Thorn EMI and PowerGen, 57; Miss Nora Swinburne, actress, 93; Professor Frank Thistlethwaite, founding Vice- Chancellor, University of East Anglia, 80; Mr Peter Yates, film director and producer, 66.

Anniversaries

Births: Simn Bolvar, South American liberator, 1783; Alexandre Dumas pere, author, 1802; Edward Frederic Benson, novelist, 1867; Amelia Earhart, aviator, 1898. Deaths: John Dyer, poet, 1758; George Cattermole, painter and illustrator, 1868; Captain Matthew Webb, cross-Channel swimmer, 1883; Peter Sellers, actor, 1980. On this day: Jacques Cartier landed in Canada, claiming the area for France, 1534; Gibraltar was won from Spain by Admiral Sir George Rooke, 1704; 14 people were named as the first life peers, 1958. Today is the Feast Day of St Boris or Romanus, St Christina of Bolsena, St Christina the Astonishing, St Declan, St Gleb or David and St Lewinna.

Lectures

Victoria and Albert Museum: Michael Keen, "The Holy Land in 19th- and 20th-century Books", 2.30pm.