BORN ON THIS DAY

FRANCISCO FRANCO (1892-1975). The rightwing military dictator came to power after his victory during the Spanish Civil War. He was so wily a negotiator that Hitler later told Italy’s Benito Mussolini he ‘would rather have four teeth pulled out than meet that man again’. EDITH CAVELL (1865-1915). The British nurse was executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape occupied Belgium, where she ran a red Cross hospital. A mountain is named after her: Mount Edith Cavell, in Alberta, Canada, which is three times the height of Mount Snowdon in Wales.