BORN ON THIS DAY

AlAN lADD (1913-1964). The American actor — star of The Great Gatsby (1949) and Shane (1953) — was only 5ft 6in and had to stand on a box while performing love scenes. His cool customer persona on screen belied a somewhat calamitous life off it: aged five, he accidentally burned down the family home while playing with matches, and in 1962 ladd shot himself in the shoulder while trying to clean a gun at his ranch. DIANE DE POITIERS (1499-1566). The chief mistress of 16th-century French king Henry II was poisoned by a gold elixir that she drank as an anti- ageing remedy, scientists discovered in 2009. Researchers examining her hair found the concoction, made from gold chloride and diethyl ether, contained 500 times the normal level of gold, as well as mercury.