August 1

Claudius, the scholar-emperor who wrote histories of the Etruscans and Carthaginians and even proposed new letters for the Latin alphabet, was born at Lugdunum in 10 BCE.

Publius Helvius Pertinax, a freedman's son who studied under and then taught grammar in Rome before rising to the throne, was born at Alba Pompeia in 126 CE.

Alphonsus Liguori, moral theologian and founder of the Redemptorists, died at Pagani, Italy, at the age of 90.

In 1817 Giovanni Belzoni's expedition cleared the sand-choked doorway and became the first in modern times to enter the Great Temple of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak, scholar and author of the Bhagavad Gita commentary Gita Rahasya, died in Bombay on 1 August 1920.

Seung Sahn, the Korean Sŏn master who founded the international Kwan Um School of Zen, was born in what is now North Korea.

Yusuf Idris, the Egyptian short-story writer and playwright who drew a realist Arabic drama from village life, died in London.