Events: In 1907 King Edward VII appointed Florence Nightingale to the Order of Merit; in 1947 the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine; in 1968 demonstrators staged a sit-in at the BBC’s new studios in Cardiff, protesting at the shortage of Welsh-language programmes; in 1974 the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act was introduced, giving the police powers to detain people without charge for up to seven days.
Births: John Ray, botanist whose three-volume Historia Plantarum (1686-1704) described 18,600 species of plants, born in Black Notley, Essex, 1627; Gertrude Jekyll, painter and garden designer, born in London, 1843; Sir John Ambrose Fleming, electrical engineer, born in Lancaster, 1849; Busby Berkeley, film director and choreographer known for his vast and elaborate patterns of dancers, born in Los Angeles, 1895; C. S. Lewis, writer and scholar, born in Belfast, 1898.
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Deaths: Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York, Cardinal and King Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor, died in Leicester, 1530; Claudio Monteverdi, composer, died in Venice, 1643; Prince Rupert, Royalist commander in the Civil War, died in London, 1682; Giacomo Puccini, composer, died in Brussels, 1924; Graham Hill, twice world champion racing driver, died in a plane crash near Elstree, Hertfordshire, 1975; Natalie Wood, US actress, drowned off Catalina island, California, 1981; Cary Grant, British-born US actor, died in Davenport, Iowa, 1986.