If it’s 20 June, we might celebrate any number of marvellous events today. Firstly, the 449th anniversary of the birth of Wilhelm Kettler, Duke of Courland and Semigallia, and owner and wearer of these still unsurpassed trousers:
It may also be the 374th anniversary of the death of the man who cut Charles I’s head off, but may not, because the Richard Brandon who died that day was London’s hangman, but might not have wielded the axe — and his ‘confession’ was published posthumously.
…and finally, and perhaps most excitingly, it is the 251st anniversary of this peerless evening out:
(Salvador Dali wanted to make a film with the Marx Brothers called Giraffes on Horseback Salad, which sounded outlandish when I first heard about it, but doesn’t quite so much now.)
