Birthdays

Birthdays

TODAY: The Duke of Gloucester, 51; Mr H.W. "Bunny" Austin, former tennis player, 89; Sir Kenneth Barnes, former senior civil servant, 73; The Right Rev Alan Chesters, Bishop of Blackburn, 58; Mrs Joan Clanchy, Headmistress, North London Collegiate School, 56; Mr Howard Clark, golfer, 41; Mr Gordon Clough, radio presenter, 61; Mr Michael Cockerell, television reporter, 55; Mr Richard Dales, High Commissioner to Zimbabwe, 53; Mr Peter Fowler, High Commissioner to Bangladesh, 59; Mr Stuart Graham, former chairman, International Commodities Clearing House, 74; Mr Tim Maby, radio news reporter and presenter, 48; Sir Ian McGregor, tropical medicine authority, 73; Mr David Martin, MEP, 41; Mr Malcolm Pyrah, show jumper, 54; Mr Graham Riddick MP, 40; Miss Alison Steadman, actress, 49; Mr Dennis Turner MP, 53; General Sir Harry Tuzo, former deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, 78; Professor John Varey, former principal, Westfield College, 73; The Right Rev Maurice Wood, former Bishop of Norwich, 79; Mr Steve Wright, disc jockey, 41.

TOMORROW: Mr Jacques Arnold MP, 48; Mr Gerhard Berger, motor racing driver, 36; Sir Donald Bradman, cricketer, 87; Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, 67; Sir Hugh Byatt, former diplomat, 68; Sir Stewart Crawford, former diplomat, 82; Lord Dormand of Easington, former government minister, 76; Miss Sian Edwards, conductor and music director, English National Opera, 36; The Earl of Eglinton and Winton, former managing director, and deputy chairman, Gerrard & National Holdings, 56; Lady Antonia Fraser, author, 63; Mr David Hart, trade union leader, 55; Mr Michael Holroyd, author, 60; Mr Bernhard Langer, golfer, 38; Mr John Lloyd, tennis player, 41; Mr Andrew MacKay MP, a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, 46; Mr James Molyneaux MP, 75; Sir Mark Potter, High Court judge, 58; Viscount Rothermere, newspaper proprietor, 70; The Right Rev Richard Rutt, former Bishop of Leicester, 70; Mother Teresa, missionary, 85; Mr Jack Thompson MP, 67; Mr Andy Turnell, jockey, 47; Mr Robin Waterfield, bookseller and publisher, 81; Lt-Gen Sir John Watts, former chief of Defence Staff, Omani Armed Forces, 65; Mr Edmund Weiner, lexicographer, 46.

Anniversaries

TODAY: Births: Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford, statesman, 1676; Joseph- Michel Montgolfier, balloonist, 1740; Prince Albert, Consort to Queen Victoria, 1819; John Buchan, first Baron Tweedsmuir, Governor-General of Canada and novelist, 1875; Guillaume Apollinaire (Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitsky), poet, 1880; Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood, novelist, 1904. Deaths: Frans Hals, painter, 1666; Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, naturalist and microscopist, 1723; Thomas Cooke, miser, 1811; Louis-Philippe, "Citizen King" of France, 1850; Hermann Goldschmidt, painter and astronomer, 1866; Lon (Alonso) Chaney, actor, 1930; Ralph Vaughan Williams, composer, 1958; Sir Francis Charles Chichester, aviator and yachtsman, 1972; Charles Augustus Lindbergh, pioneer aviator, 1974; Charles Boyer, actor, 1978. On this day: Julius Caesar landed in Britain, 55 BC; Frederick the Great repelled the Russian invading army at the indecisive Battle of Zorndorf, 1758; Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah was first performed, Birmingham Festival, 1846; Krakatoa, the island volcano, began erupting, killing over 36,000 people, 1883; under the 19th Amendment women in the United States were granted the right to vote, 1920. Today is the Feast Day of St Bregwine, archbishop of Canterbury, St Elizabeth Bichier des Ages, St Herluin, St John Wall, St Mary Desmaisieres, St Pandonia and St Teresa Jornet Ihars.

TOMORROW: Births: Confucius, philosopher, 551 BC; Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, philosopher, 1770; The Hon Charles Stewart Rolls, motor manufacturer, 1877; Samuel Goldwyn (Samuel Gelbfisch), film magnate, 1882; Cecil Scott Forester, novelist, 1899; Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th US president, 1908. Deaths: Titian (Tiziano Vecelli), painter, of the plague 1576; Toms Luis de Victoria, composer, 1611; Sir Rowland Hill, founder of penny postage, 1879; "Le Corbusier" (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret), architect, 1965; Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett, novelist, 1969; Haile Selassie, deposed Emperor of Ethiopia, 1975; Earl Mountbatten of Burma, murdered by the IRA 1979. On this day: the Battle of Long Island was fought, the British driving back the American army, 1776; the first balloon ascent was made in Britain by James Tytler at Edinburgh, 1784; the Declaration of the Rights of Man was adopted by the French National Assembly, 1789; Edwin Laurentine Drake was the first in the United States to strike oil, at Titusville, Pennsylvania, 1859; the interior of the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, was destroyed by fire, 1892; the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 3, carrying two dogs, 1958. Today is the Feast Day of St Caesarius of Arles, St David Lewis, Little St Hugh, St Marcellus of Tomi, St Margaret the Barefooted, St Monica and St Poemen.