May 23rd

Today is World Turtle Day! Heroes in a half shell!...Ah they mean the non mutant ones,(spoil sports!), still if you are into your Loggerheads, Leatherbacks or even the humble terrapins and tortoises,well today's the day for you! People dress as turtles, (Donatello?...Michaelangelo?... Leonardo?...Raphael?...Timmy?), etc. To promote conservation and helping to make them thrive, etc.

Also the Feast Day of Aaron the Illustrious...no Craig you are not named after him! He was a Mesopotamian Christian Monk of the century also known as Aaron the Nuts...scrub the above, perhaps you were named for him Craig after all.

1533 The marriage between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.

1666 New Bakers Shop opens in Pudding Lane, London. "We aim to bake it fast, pile it high and sell it cheap", stated the new owner "Cookie" Gregg, "what shall we call it? Mmmm well as it's mine I reckon I should call it 'Greggs', has a nice ring to it. Successful? I reckon we will be I've got the best bread and cake makers this side of Watford, mark my words you come back in September and we'll be roaring along like a house on fire!".

1883 American actor and film innovator, Douglas Fairbanks is born

1910 Jazz great, clarinetists, Artie Shaw is born

1918 England Test cricketer and Footballer, Denis Compton is born

1921 Jazz trumpeter and Sorry I Haven't A Clue host Humphrey Littleton is born.

1934 American, notorious bank-robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are ambushed by police and killed in Black Lake ,Louisiana.

1944 Three time Wimbledon Men's Champion, John Newcombe is born in Sydney, Australia.

1959 Robert Renwick Mortimer, better known as Bob Mortimer, one half of the 'Reeves and Mortimer' comedy duo,(I won't say which one!), is born in Middlesbrough, England.

1998 Legendary British film star Lionel Harbuthnot died after a long illness, (he had pneumonia for 23 years), aged 96yo. He was famous for playing archetypal Northern England types of a certain ilk. Best known for his role as 'Ar Eric' in the follow up to Hobson's Choice, 'Hobson's Pig In A Poke', though an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor escaped his grasp for the role the very next year he was nominated again for his part in the sequel to Henry V, namely Henry Six, in which he played the Duke of Malmesbury's man-servant Dickie Doobers , his stand out line remembered to this day, ''Mind yer 'at me Lordship thum arrers are flyin' thick 'n fast!", a line that still draws a huge laugh from today's more astute filmgoers. Harbuthnot left a wife, ten children, seventeen grandchildren, thirty- three grandchildren, three cats, a dog and two guinea pigs.