BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES

TODAY: Major Kenneth Adams, Honorary Fellow, St George's House, Windsor Castle, 78; Mr Rowan Atkinson, actor and comedian, 41; Mr Paul Azinger, golfer, 36; Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Chancellor, Stirling University, 69; Mr Roger Barton, MEP, 51; Sir Ashley Bramall, former chairman of the GLC, 80; Sir Robert Clark, chairman, Mirror Group Newspapers, 72; Mr John Clive, actor and writer, 58; Mr John Croft, painter and criminologist, 73; Mr Angus Deayton, writer and broadcaster, 40; Mr Kapil Dev, cricketer, 37; M Sacha Distel, singer, 64; General Sir Martin Farndale, Master Gunner, St James's Park, 67; Sir Hugh Fish, water technologist, 73; Mr Barry John, former Welsh rugby international, 51; Mr P.J. Kavanagh, poet and novelist, 65; Mr Christopher Lewinton, chairman and chief executive, TI Group, 64; Professor Lord McColl of Dulwich, surgeon, 63; Mr Brian Moffat, chairman, British Steel, 57; Mr Martin O'Neill MP, 51; Lord Plowden, former chairman, Atomic Energy Committee, 89; Mr Bill Sirs, former trade union leader, 76; Mr John Sowden, former chairman, Costain Group, 79; Miss Sylvia Syms, actress, 62; Mr Terry Venables, football manager, 53; Sir Ernest Woodroofe, former chairman of Unilever, 84; Miss Loretta Young, actress, 83.

TOMORROW: Mr Geoffrey Bayldon, actor, 72; Dr Tim Black, chief executive, Marie Stopes International, 58; Mr Alan Butcher, cricketer, 42; Miss Hazel Counsell, circuit judge, 65; Mr Hunter Davies, author and broadcaster, 60; Mr Tony Elliott, founder and chairman, Time Out Group, 49; Sir Peter Graham QC, former First Parliamentary Counsel, 62; Mr Stuart Hampson, chairman, John Lewis Partnership, 49; The Right Rev Christopher Herbert, Bishop of St Albans, 51; Mr Tom Kiernan, rugby player, 57; Mr Ian La Frenais, screenwriter and producer, 59; Mr Malcolm MacDonald, footballer and manager, 46; Mr Ross Norman, squash champion, 37; The Viscount of Oxfuird, a Deputy Speaker, House of Lords, 62; Sir John Page, former chairman, National Ports Council, 81; Professor Keble Sykes, Emeritus Professor of Physical Chemistry, Queen Mary's College, London, 75; Air Commodore the Hon Sir Peter Vanneck, former Lord Mayor of London and MEP, 74; Miss Helen Worth, actress, 45; Mr Will Wyatt, managing director, BBC Network Television, 54.

Anniversaries

TODAY: Births: St Joan of Arc, Maid of Orleans, 1412; Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, balloonist, 1745; Heinrich Schliemann, archaeologist, 1822; Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, composer, 1872; Tom Mix (Thomas Edwin Mix), actor, 1880. Deaths: Fanny Burney (Madame d'Arblay), novelist and diarist, 1840; Louis Braille, deviser of a blind alphabet, 1852; Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US president, 1919; Rudolf Hametovich Nureyev, dancer, 1993. On this day: Harold was crowned King of England in succession to Edward the Confessor, 1066; King Henry VIII was married to Anne of Cleves, "the Flanders Mare", 1540; Samuel Morse gave the first public demonstration of his electric telegraph, 1838; the new Sadler's Wells Theatre opened in London, 1931. Today is the Epiphany (Feast of the Three Kings), Twelfth Night, Old Christmas Day and the Feast Day of St Erminold, St Guarinus or Guerin of Sion, St John de Ribera, St Raphaela Porras and St Wiltrudis.

TOMORROW: Births: James Harrington, political theorist, 1611; St Bernadette of Lourdes (Marie-Bernarde Soubirous), 1844; Charles-Pierre Peguy, poet and socialist, 1873. Deaths: Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII, 1536; Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, engraver and painter, 1801; Thomas Waghorn, traveller, 1850; Nikola Tesla, inventor, 1943; John Berryman, poet, 1972; Dr Alfred Kastler, physicist, 1984; Trevor Wallace Howard, actor, 1988. On this day: Glasgow University was founded, 1450; Calais, held by the English, was recaptured by France, 1558; Galileo discovered the four satellites of Jupiter, 1610; the London General Omnibus Company started operating, 1857; the first woman was elected as foreman of a jury in Britain, 1921. Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Aldric, St Canute Lavard, St Lucian of Antioch, St Raymund of Penafort, St Reinold, St Tillo and St Valentine of Rhaetia.