BORN ON THIS DAY

MARC CHAGALL (1887-1985) The artist, known for his paintings of levitating lovers, left the Soviet Union in 1923 and made his home in Paris. Picasso said in the Fifties: ‘When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is.’ Heartbroken after his first wife’s death in 1944, for months he refused to paint — but he resumed when he fell in love again and worked until the day he died, aged 97. NANCY REAGAN (19212016). The American First Lady was Ronald Reagan’s second wife. The former Hollywood actress believed in the power of astrology — a belief that intensified after an astrologer forewarned there would be ‘an incident’ on March 30, 1981 — the day her husband was shot. After that, Nancy regularly consulted an astrologer to help schedule her husband’s meetings.