Anniversaries

Births: James IV, King of Scotland, 1473; Edmund Kean, actor, 1789; Gottlieb Daimler, automobile pioneer, 1834; Kate Greenaway, artist and children's book illustrator, 1846; Nat 'King' Cole (Nathaniel Adams Coles), singer and pianist, 1919; Rudolf Hametovich Nureyev, ballet star and director, 1938.

Deaths: Harold Harefoot, King of England, 1040; Francois-Alexandre- Frederic, Duc de La Rochefoucauld- Liancourt, author, 1680; Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, playwright and poet, 1741; Helen Hayes (Helen Hayes Brown), actress, 1993.

On this day: the Duchy of Cornwall was created, 1337; Oliver Cromwell declared England to be a Commonwealth, abolishing the position of King, 1649; Captain Lawrence Oates, with Scott's expedition, walked out into the Antarctic wastes, never to return, 1912; Marie Stopes opened her first birth control clinic in London, 1921; the Brussels Treaty, a 50-year treaty of alliance between Britain, France and the Benelux countries, was signed, 1948; the Amoco Cadiz oil- tanker ran aground on the Brittany coast, 1978.

Today is the Feast Day of The Martyrs of the Serapeum, St Gertrude of Nivelles, St Joseph of Arimathea, St Patrick and St Paul of Cyprus.