Births: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, playwright and novelist, 1547; Horatio, Viscount Nelson, admiral, 1758; Mrs Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, novelist, 1810; Sir Billy Butlin, holiday camp pioneer, 1899. Deaths: Gustavus Vasa, King of Sweden, 1560; Ferdinand VII, King of Spain, 1833; Bruce Bairnsfather, cartoonist, 1959. On this day: Henry Robinson opened the first marriage bureau, in Threadneedle Street, London, 1650; the police force inaugurated by Sir Robert Peel started duty in London, 1829. Today is the Feast Day of St Gabriel, St Michael and St Raphael, archangels, Saints Rhipsime, Gaiana and Companions and St Theodota of Philippolis.
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