Ben Affleck, actor, is 35 today

Feast day of The Assumption of the Virgin Mary, St Tarsicius, and St Arnulf of Soissons.

1543: The Jesuit order (Society of Jesus) was founded by Ignatius de Loyola in Paris, with the aims of protecting Catholicism against the Reformation and carrying out missionary work.

1771: Sir Walter Scott, creator of the historical novel, was born in Edinburgh.

1843: The Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen were opened to the public.

1945: Japan surrendered unconditionally to the US and their allies, bringing an end to WWII.

1947: The Union Flag was run down for the last time in New Delhi as India gained independence from Britain.

1948: The republic of South Korea was proclaimed.

1960: Britain’s first motorway restaurant was opened on the M1 at Newport Pagnell.

1965: The National Guard was called in to quell race riots in Watts, Los Angeles, which left 28 dead and 676 injured.

1969: The three-day Woodstock pop festival began in upstate New York. More than 400,000 people watched artists like The Who, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Santana and Jimi Hendrix – but massive traffic jams, adverse weather and shortage of food led to the event being declared a disaster area.

1987: Caning was officially banned in Britain, except in independent schools.

On this day last year

The United Nations Secretary-General told Israeli television that the world body would seek to deploy more peacekeepers in Lebanon ‘as quickly as possible.’ Kofi Annan told Israel’s Channel 2 he thought the process of meeting the terms of a Security Council resolution for a ceasefire, could take weeks or months. Meanwhile, the Syrian leader said a new Middle East had emerged as a result of what he called Hezbollah’s victory over Israel in Lebanon. President Bashar al-Assad was speaking a day after a United Nations-backed ceasefire came into effect.

Birthdays

Jim Dale, actor, 72; Tony Robinson, actor/writer/presenter, 61; Jenny Hanley, actress, 60; The Princess Royal, 57; Robert “Jack” Russell, former cricketer, 44; Ben Affleck, actor, 35; Mikey Graham, Boyzone, 35; Natasha Henstridge, actress, 33.