It’s the 255th anniversary of this remarkable diary entry from parson-naturalist Gilbert White: I’d love to tell you more, but I know almost nothing about him. It’s quoted in Richard Mabey’s Turned out nice again: on living with the weather, who says of it:

30 March, which can mean only one thing — yes, it’s the 39th anniversary of the release of Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, which saw P H Vazak become the first dog nominated for a screenwriting Oscar. I have no idea why Robert ‘Chinatown’ Towne named…

This one’s a bit of a fudge, because I can’t find the actual date it happened on, but it was late March, apparently, so it’s something in the region of… …the 28th anniversary of lapsed aristocrat Jessica Mitford releasing a cover version of Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, featuring a band of…

Ah! 25 March — 153rd anniversary of the day when Lord Glencairn would inherit his title and fortune. Unfortunately for his creditors, he wasn’t Lord Glencairn. Or Lord Gordon-Gordon, Lord Gordon Gordon, or The Hon. Mr. Herbert Hamilton, as he also sometimes claimed. Yes, the man who may have really…

Ah, happy it-would-have-been-your 88th birthday, Barry Cryer. That means it must be time to trot out once again one of the greatest anecdotes ever told — about writing for Ronnie Corbett with Graham Chapman: It’s from this rather fine book, and you’ve probably heard it before, but I suggest there’s…

March 22 1944 — The Sketch reports that Noël Coward’s Post Mortem, set during WWI, has had its world premiere during WWII. The lead character’s mother was played by… er, Brian McIrvine. Why? Well, the show took place in Oflag VII.b, a POW camp in Eichstätt. Here’s young Brian in…

Well, Happy it-would-have-been-your-287th birthday Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, the man who designed this building, which was inexplicably never, er… erected. This is the Oikèma, or ‘house of pleasure’, in Ledoux’s ideal city. (Why, yes, he does mean brothel.) You can read more about it on ArchEyes — or,if you prefer turns of phrase like …a Foucaultian calligram insofar as it cancels the oppositions of showing and naming…

19 March, a date etched forever in the history of the UK because — YES, THAT’S RIGHT — in 1968, it was the first time an audience at the Old Vic saw a 12-foot golden penis being wheeled onstage. Today, you see, is the 54th anniversary of the opening night…

Celebrate Pádraig’s Day if you like, but MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY at about 11.30 tonight, it will be exactly 45 years since engineer Ken Edwards drove past the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) site at Risley in Cheshire and saw… The Silver Man. He screeched to a halt, as well…