BORN ON THIS DAY

ADOLPHE SAx (1814-94). The Belgianborn maker of musical instruments invented the saxophone. He was an accident-prone child, who was hit on the head by a brick, swallowed a needle, fell on to a stove and once drank sulphuric acid. He went bankrupt three times fighting lawsuits from rivals and lived his later years in poverty. MIKE NICHOLS (1931-2014). The Oscarwinning Berlin- born director of The Graduate and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? moved to the U.S. aged seven to escape the Nazis and arrived in New York with just two phrases, ‘I do not speak English’ and ‘Please do not kiss me’. Nichols had lost his hair aged four, and wore wigs and false eyebrows for the rest of his life.