BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES

Birthdays

Miss Shirley Bassey, singer, 59; Mr David Bowie, rock singer and actor, 49; Mr Stuart Cameron, former chairman, Gallaher Ltd, 72; Professor Stephen Hawking, mathematician, 54; Lord Hollenden, former chairman, I. & R. Morley, 82; Mr Andrew Hunter MP, 53; The Right Rev Edward Knapp-Fisher, Hon Assistant Bishop, Diocese of Chichester, 81; Air Commodore Joan Metcalfe, former director of RAF Nursing Services, 73; Mr Ron Moody, actor, 72; Mr Robert Parry MP, 63; Mr Kenneth Purchase MP, 57; Miss Imelda Read, MEP, 57; Professor Brian Reddaway, economic consultant to the World Bank, 83; Professor Charles Tomlinson, Emeritus Professor of English, Bristol University, 69; Miss Galina Ulanova, former prima ballerina, 86; Sir Geoffrey Whalen, managing director and deputy chairman, Peugeot Talbot, 60; Professor Alan Wilson, Vice-Chancellor, Leeds University, 57.

Anniversaries

Births: William Wilkie Collins, novelist, 1824; Dennis Yates Wheatley, novelist, 1897; Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, Sri Lankan prime minister, 1899; Elvis Presley, rock singer, 1935. Deaths: Galileo Galilei, astronomer, 1642; John Baskerville, printer and typographer, 1775; Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, first Baron Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, 1941; Kurt Schwitters, painter, 1948; Chou En-lai, Chinese leader, 1976. On this day: the British evacuated Gallipoli, 1916; Chequers Court was occupied by its first prime minister tenant, David Lloyd-George, 1921; sugar, bacon and butter were rationed in Britain, 1940; Pan American World Airways filed for bankruptcy, 1991. Today is the Feast Day of St Adrian of Canterbury, St Apollinaris the Apologist, St Erhard, St Gudula, St Lucian of Beauvais, St Pega, St Severinus of Noricum Repense, St Severinus of Septempeda, St Thorfinn and St Wulain.