Anniversaries

TODAY

Births: Charles-Camille Saint-Saens, composer, 1835; Aimee Semple McPherson, evangelist, 1890; Alastair Sim, actor, 1900; Jacques Tati (Tatischeff), actor and film director, 1908; John Winston Lennon, composer and singer, 1940.

Deaths: Joseph Farwell Glidden, inventor of barbed wire, 1906; Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Marxist revolutionary, captured and shot 1967.

On this day: Yale College received its charter, 1701; King Alexander of Yugoslavia and Louis Barthou, the French foreign minister, were assassinated, 1934; the breathalyser test came into force in Britain, 1967.

Today is the Feast Day of Saints Andronicus and Athanasia, St Demetrius of Alexandria, St Denis or Dionysius of Paris, St Dionysius the Areopagite, Saints Eleutherius and Rusticus, St Ghislain or Gislenus, St Louis Bertran, St John Leonardi, St Publia and St Savin.

TOMORROW

Births: Jean-Antoine Watteau, painter, 1684; Giuseppe Fortunio Francesco Verdi, composer, 1813; Helen Hayes, actress, 1900.

Deaths: Fra Filippo Lippi, painter, 1469; Edith Piaf (Edith Giovanna Gassion), singer, 1963; Sir Ralph Richardson, actor, 1983; Yul Brynner, actor, 1985; George Orson Welles, actor and producer, 1985.

On this day: Henry Morton Stanley met Dr Livingstone at Ujiji, 1871; the republican revolution began in Central China, 1911; the population of Tristan da Cunha was evacuated from the island, following a volcanic eruption, 1961; Sir John Betjeman became Poet Laureate, 1972; in the General Election, Labour was returned with an overall majority of three, 1974.

Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Cerbonius, St Daniel, Saints Eulampius and Eulampia, St Francis Borgia, St Gereon, St Maharsapor and St Paulinus of York.