Anniversaries

Births: Daniel Bernoulli, mathematician, 1700; Anthony Hope (Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins), novelist, 1863; Mrs Patrick Campbell (nee Beatrice Stella Tanner), actress, 1865; Amy Lowell, poet, 1874; Alban Maria Johannes Berg, composer, 1885; Ronald Colman, actor, 1891; Brendan Behan, playwright, 1923.

Deaths: Nevil Maskelyne, astronomer royal, 1811; Francis Danby, painter, 1861; Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, novelist, 1881; Sir Frederic Truby King, mothercraft specialist, 1938; Elizabeth Mary Russell (Beauchamp), Countess Russell ("Elizabeth"), novelist, 1941; George Norman Douglas, novelist and essayist, 1952; Alexandre Nikolayevich Benois, painter and theatre designer, 1960; Sergei Vladimirovich Ilyushin, aircraft designer, 1977; Bill Haley (William John Clifton Haley), rock musician, 1981; Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, Russian leader, 1984.

On this day: Bishop John Hooper, burned at the stake for heresy 1555; Burke and Wills, Australian explorers, reached the estuary of the Flinders river, 1861; Verdi's opera Falstaff was first performed, Milan, 1893; Sybil Thorndike made her London debut in The Marquis, 1908; the British Military Service Act (conscription) came into force, 1916; the Balkan Entente was signed by Romania, Greece, Yugoslavia and Turkey at Athens, 1934; soap rationing began in Britain, 1942; The Threepenny Opera had its first London performance, 1956; a terrible blizzard raged in the United States, killing 64 people, 1969; the first trial flight of the Boeing 747 jumbo jet took place, 1969; due to a month-long miners' strike, the British government declared a state of emergency, 1972; Lithuania voted to secede from the Soviet Union, 1991.

Today is the Feast Day of St Alto, St Ansbert, St Apollonia, St Nicephorus of Antioch, St Sabinus of Canosa and St Teilo.