Birthdays

Mr John Alldis, conductor, 66; Dame Gillian Brown, former diplomat, 72; Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, a Lord Justice of Appeal, 62; Sir Lawrence Byford, management consultant, 70; Mrs Leila Campbell, former chairman, ILEA, 84; General Sir George Cooper, former Chief Royal Engineer, 70; Mr Eddie Fisher, singer, 67; Miss Rhonda Fleming, actress, 72; Professor Alexander Goehr, composer, 63; Sir Alan Hardcastle, former head of Government Accountancy Service, 62; Mr Roy Keane, footballer, 24; Mr Leonard Lickorish, former Director-General, British Travel Association, 74; Mrs Barbara Mills QC, Director of Public Prosecutions, 55; Miss Kate O'Mara, actress, 56; Mr David Rowland, chairman of Lloyd's, 62; Lord Stewartby, former government minister, 60; Mrs Elizabeth Thomas, literary consultant, 76; Mr Richard Wells, Chief Constable, South Yorkshire, 55; Miss Jane Wyatt, actress, 84.

Anniversaries

Births: Bernhard Nieuwentijt, mathematician, 1654; Johann Georg Gmelin, chemist and naturalist, 1709; Samuel Arnold, organist and composer, 1740; Armand Gensonne, Girondist revolutionary, 1758; Sir Charles James Napier, military commander, 1782; Camillo Benso, Conte di Cavour, statesman, 1810; Jay Cooke, banker, 1821; Charles Samuel Keene, artist and illustrator, 1823; Nicolo Coccon, organist and composer, 1826; Hugo Eckener, aeronautical engineer, 1868; Laurence Robert Binyon, poet and playwright, 1869; Herbert Clark Hoover, 31st US president, 1874; Douglas Stuart Moore, composer, 1893. Deaths: John de Witt and Cornelius de Witt, statesmen, assassinated 1672; Guillaume Dubois, statesman and Cardinal, 1723; Ferdinand VI ''the Wise'', King of Spain, 1759; Allan Ramsay, portrait painter, 1784; Johann Michael Haydn, composer, 1806; Karl Wilhelm Naundorff, French pretender, 1845; Henri Ethelbert Louis Victor Hebert, Comte de Richemont, French pretender, 1853; John Wilson Croker, politician and writer, 1857; Sir George Thomas Staunton, writer on China, 1859; Charles Wentworth Dilke, antiquarian, critic and journalist, 1864; Charles Eline Francatelli, chef, 1876; Edward William Lane, translator of the Thousand and One Nights, 1876; George Long, scholar and editor, 1879; Louis Vulliemin, historian, 1879; Otto Lilienthal, aviator, 1896; Oswald Veblen, mathematician, 1960. On this day: the Scots defeated the English at the Battle of Otterburn, 1388; the Spanish and the English defeated the French at the Battle of St Quentin, 1557; the French took Arras, 1640; the foundation stone of the Royal Greenwich Observatory was laid by King Charles II, 1675; a revolt in Ecuador challenged the rule of Spain, 1809; Missouri became the 24th of the United States, 1821; the Mines Act prohibited women and young children from working underground, 1842; the Smithsonian Institution in Washington was established, 1846; the Marine Aquarium was opened in Brighton, 1872; the first Promenade Concert was given by (later Sir) Henry Wood at the Queen's Hall, London, 1895; the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland was founded (later ''Royal''), 1897; heavy losses were inflicted by the Japanese on the Russian Fleet off Port Arthur during the Battle of the Yellow Sea, 1904; the Parliament Act was passed, reducing the power of the House of Lords, 1911; British Members of Parliament voted to receive salaries for the first time (pounds 400 p.a.), 1911; after the defeat of Bulgaria, the Balkan War ended with the Treaty of Bucharest, 1913; France declared war on Austria-Hungary, 1914; the Treaty of Sevres was signed between the Allies and Turkey, 1920; strikes and riots broke out in Germany, 1923; the Quebec Conference opened, 1943; the moon satellite Orbiter I was launched, 1966. Today is the Feast Day of St Laurence of Rome.