Anniversaries

Births: Charles I, King of England and Scotland, 1600; Tommy Dorsey, trombonist and bandleader, 1905; Indira Gandhi, stateswoman, 1917.

Deaths: Nicolas Poussin, painter, 1665; Thomas Shadwell, poet and playwright, 1692; Theobald Wolfe Tone, Irish republican, committed suicide 1798; Franz Peter Schubert, composer, 1828; Sir Elizabeth Taylor, novelist, 1975.

On this day: Pope Paul III issued a Bull to summon the Council of Trent, 1544; President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, 1863; the Soviet Union counter-attacked at Stalingrad and surrounded the German army, 1942; the first general conference of Unesco was held in Paris, 1946; Rainier III was sworn in as 30th ruling prince of Monaco, 1949; the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth 2 made her first voyage, 1968; the lunar module from the US spacecraft Apollo 12 touched down on the Moon, 1969; in Paris, the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces was signed between Nato and members of the Warsaw Pact, thus ending the "cold war", 1990.

Today is the Feast Day of St Barlaam of Antioch, St Ermenburga and St Nerses I.