World: Anniversary of an Antediluvian

A quarter-century ago this fall, Britain declared war on Hitler's Germany. Fifty years ago, its troops were digging in for the first, fearsome winter of World War I. Ninety years ago this week was born the only man who, in his own words, "passed through both the two supreme cataclysms of recorded history in high Cabinet office." It is a mark of the world's affection and deep respect for Sir Winston Churchill that his birthday is celebrated almost as a national anniversary throughout ' the free world.

In London, tributes to "the only antediluvian," as he styled himself in 1940, range from...