BORN ON THIS DAY

FIDEL CASTRO (1926-2016). The Cuban dictator was prime minister and then president for 49 years. One of his security guards calculated that the CIA attempted to assassinate him at least 634 times, including with exploding cigars and poisoned cold cream. When he came to power, Castro decreed that every set of the board game Monopoly must be destroyed because of its capitalist ideals. HOWARD MARKS (1945-2016). Described as ‘Britain’s best-known and most charming drug smuggler’, he turned his experiences into a best- selling book, Mr Nice. Born in Wales, he graduated with a physics degree from Oxford before becoming one of the biggest cannabis traffickers in Europe.