Birthdays and Anniversaries
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Your support makes all the difference.Birthdays
TODAY: Mr Alexander Bennett, former chairman, Whitbread and Co, 83; Air Commandant Dame Jean Bromet, former Director, WRAF, 84; Mr Basil Collins, former chairman, Nabisco, 73; Mrs Chris Evert-Lloyd, tennis champion, 42; Miss Jane Fonda, actress, 59; Sir James Hill MP, 70; Mr Peter Johnson, Headmaster, Wrekin College, 49; Sir Frederick Lawton, former Appeal Court judge, 85; Mr Albert Lee, rock guitarist, 53; Mr Geoff Lewis, horse-racing trainer, 61; Mr Wyndham Milligan, former Principal, Wolsey Hall, Oxford, 89; Sir John Nabarro, consultant physician, 81; Mr Steve Perryman, footballer, 45; Mr Anthony Powell, novelist, 91; Mr John Quayle, actor, 58; Sir John Quinton, former chairman, Barclays Bank, 67; Flt Lt William Reid VC, 75; Mr Thomas Robinson, former president, DRG, 84; Brigadier Vera Rooke, former director, Army Nursing Services, 72; Mr Walter Spanghero, rugby player, 53; Mr Greville Starkey, former jockey, 57; Mr Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor, 52; Mr Peter Tinniswood, playwright, 60; Mr Cyril Townsend MP, 59; Mr Doug Walters, cricketer, 51; Mr Alan Williams MP, 51; Mr Carl Wilson, rock guitarist, 50; Professor Robert Worcester, chairman, Market & Opinion Research International, 63.
TOMORROW: Air Chief Marshal Sir John Aiken, 75; Lady Archer of Weston-super-Mare, scientist, 52; Sir Douglas Brown, High Court judge, 65; Mr Robin Corbett MP, 63; Viscount Davidson, former government whip, 68; Mr Noel Edmonds, television presenter, 48; Mr Maurice Gibb, singer, of the Bee Gees, 47; Mr Robin Gibb, singer, of the Bee Gees, 47; Miss Patricia Hayes, actress, 87; Mrs Karin Jonzen, sculptor, 82; Dr Judith McClure, Headmistress, St George's School, Edinburgh, 51; Sir Trefor Morris, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, 62; Mr Chris Old, former England cricketer, 48; The Rev Lord Sandford, former government minister, 76; Lord Stott, former Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland, 87; The Duke of Westminster, Chancellor, Manchester Metropolitan University, 45; Mr Ken Whitmore, playwright, 57; Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, journalist, 73.
Anniversaries
TODAY: Births: Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1118; Masaccio (Tommaso di Giovanni), painter, 1401; Jean Racine, playwright, 1639; Benjamin Disraeli, first Earl of Beaconsfield, writer and statesman, 1804; Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (Joseph Stalin), Soviet leader, 1879; Frank Hampson, creator of "Dan Dare", 1918. Deaths: Giovanni Boccaccio, author, 1375; Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, novelist, 1940; General George Smith Patton, military leader, 1945; Lion Feuchtwanger, novelist and playwright, 1958; Sir (Jack) John Berry Hobbs, cricketer, 1963. On this day: the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock in North America, 1620; anaesthetics were used for the first time in Britain, 1846; Charley's Aunt was first performed, 1892; the Port of London Authority was inaugurated, 1908; the first crossword puzzle in a newspaper was published, by the New York World 1913; General Charles de Gaulle was elected president of the French Fifth Republic, 1958; the first flight of Man around the moon took place when Apollo 8 was launched, 1969. Today is the Feast Day of St Anastasius II of Antioch, St Glycerius, St John Vincent, St Peter Canisius and Saints Themistocles and Dioscorus.
TOMORROW: Births: Jean-Henri Fabre, naturalist, 1823; Charles Stuart Calverley, poet and parodist, 1831; William Hale White ("Mark Rutherford"), novelist, 1831; John Nevil Maskelyne, stage magician, 1839; Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini, composer, 1858; Edwin Arlington Robinson, poet, 1869; Edgard (Edgar Victor Achille-Charles) Varese, composer, 1883; Alan Dudley Bush, composer, conductor and pianist, 1900. Deaths: Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Guercino), painter, 1666; George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), novelist, 1880; Nathanael West (Nathan Wallenstein Weinstein), novelist, 1940; Helen Beatrix Potter, author and artist, 1943; Richard Frederick Dimbleby, broadcaster, 1965; David Penhaligon MP, killed in a car accident 1986; Lord (Ted) Willis, playwright, politician and author, 1992. On this day: James Stuart, the Old Pretender, landed at Peterhead, 1715; the first pantomime in England was staged, 1716; the Ministry of Pensions was first set up, 1916; Southern Rhodesia left the Commonwealth, 1966; Kurt Waldheim was elected UN Secretary-General, 1971; a Pan American jumbo jet crashed on Lockerbie in Scotland, killing all 259 passengers and crew, and 11 people on the ground, 1988. Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Chaeremon and Others, St Flavian of Tuscany, St Ischyrion and St Zeno.
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