BORN ON THIS DAY

STAN lAUREl (1890-1965), right. The comedian from Ulverston in Cumbria — one half of laurel and Hardy — was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson but changed his surname after his girlfriend suggested that having a stage name with 13 letters was bad luck. Earlier this year, a Dutch ophthalmologist, who studied laurel and Hardy’s 92 films, concluded that they probably suffered 88 eye injures across their career, with laurel’s finger the most common cause, followed by his fist.