ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1815 Grace Darling, heroine of the 1838 North Sea rescue of SS Forfarshire; 1849 Frances Hodgson Burnett, playwright and author; 1864 Henri de Toulouse-lautrec, painter; 1868 Scott Joplin, pianist and composer; 1919 David Kossoff, actor and anti-drugs campaigner;.

Deaths: 1572 John Knox, Protestant reformer; 1990 Dodie Smith, dramatist and novelist; 1991 Freddie Mercury, rock singer; 1996 Sorley Maclean, poet and teacher; 2004 Arthur Hailey, novelist; 2005 Pat Morita, actor; 2019 Clive James CBE, writer.