Births: Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, playwright, 1818; Edward VII, King, 1841. Deaths: James Ramsay MacDonald, statesman, 1937; Arthur Neville Chamberlain, statesman, 1940; Dylan Marlais Thomas, poet, 1953; General Charles de Gaulle, statesman, 1970. On this day: the Cullinan diamond was presented to King Edward VII on his 66th birthday, 1907; the death penalty for murder was abolished in Britain, 1965. Today is the Feast Day of St Benignus or Benen, St Theodore the Recruit and St Vitonus or Vanne.
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