Anniversaries

Births: Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, educational reformer, 1746; John Singer Sargent, portrait painter, 1856; John Griffith (Jack) London, novelist, 1876; Hermann Goering, Nazi leader, 1893.

Deaths: Jan Brueghel the Elder, painter, 1625; Sir Isaac Pitman, printer and publisher, 1897; Nevil Shute (Norway), novelist, 1960; Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, writer, 1976.

On this day: the Royal Aeronautical Society was founded, 1866; the Zulu war began, 1879; Britain's first supermarket was opened by the London Co-operative Society, at Manor Park, Ilford 1948; a Boeing 747 touched down at Heathrow after the plane's first transatlantic flight from New York, 1970.

Today is the Feast Day of St Arcadius, St Benedict or or Benet Biscop, St Caesaria, St Eutropius, St Margaret Bourgeoys, St Tatiana and St Victorian.