Today’s birthdays

Sir Kit Mcmahon, Chairman, Midland Bank, 1987-91, is 91; Mrs Winifred Ewing, former MSP,

89; Miss Josephine Veasey, former mezzo-soprano, 88; Mrs Alice Munro, author; winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2013, 87; Prof Lord Desai, economist, 78; Sir Thomas Farmer, founder, Kwik-fit, 78; Mr Keith Stackpole, former Australia cricketer, now commentator, 78; Dr Gavin Strang, former Labour MP, 75; Mr John Motson, former football commentator, 73; Miss Virginia

Wade, former tennis player; Wimbledon Ladies’ Singles Champion, 1977; now commentator, 73; Mr Sunil

Gavaskar, former India cricket captain, 69; Sir Tony Baldry, former Conservative Government Minister, 68; Prof Graham

Johnson, concert accompanist; Senior Professor of Accompaniment, Guildhall School of Music, 68; Gen Sir

Peter Wall, Chief of the General Staff, 2010-14; Chief Royal Engineer, 2009-13, 63; Miss Fiona Shaw, actress, 60; and Mr

Jonas Kaufmann, operatic tenor, 49. Today is the anniversary of the birth of John Calvin, the reformer, in 1509. It is also the anniversary of Allied landings in Sicily in 1943.