Anniversaries

TODAY

Births: Dr Charles Hutton, mathematician, 1737; Letitia Elizabeth Landon, author, 1802; Samuel Sebastian Wesley, composer, 1810; Sir Walter Besant, novelist and philanthropist, 1836; Baron Richard von Krafft- Ebing, physician, 1840; Henry Duff Traill, journalist and author, 1842; Bion Joseph Arnold, electrical engineer and inventor, 1861; John Galsworthy, novelist and playwright, 1867.

Deaths: Augustus Montague Toplady, hymn-writer, 1778; John William Fletcher, evangelist, 1785; Thomas Sheridan, actor, biographer and lexicographer, 1788; Luigi Cagnola, architect, 1833; William Buckland, Dean of Westminster and geologist, 1856; George Combe, phrenologist, 1858; Admiral David (James) Glasgow Farragut, naval officer, 1870; Richard Jefferies, naturalist and essayist, 1887; Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, first Viscount Northcliffe, newspaper proprietor, 1922; Sir Landon Ronald, composer and pianist, 1938; William Randolph Hearst, newspaper proprietor, 1951; Bertolt Brecht, writer, 1956; Leonard Sidney Woolf, publisher, 1969; Jules Romains (Louis Farigoule), novelist, playwright and poet, 1972; Oscar Levant, composer and pianist, 1972; John Boynton Priestley, novelist and playwright, 1984.

On this day: the Portuguese defeated the Castilians at the Battle of Aljubarotta, 1385; Tristan da Cunha was annexed to Great Britain, 1816; Cologne Cathedral, started in 1248, was completed, 1880; Cetewayo, the Zulu chief, was received by Queen Victoria at Osborne, 1882; the landing of 2,000 US Marines helped to capture Peking, thus ending the Boxer uprising, 1900; the British transport Royal Edward was sunk by a German U-boat in the Aegean, with the loss of 1,000 lives, 1915; the Little Entente between Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia was formed, 1920; the Atlantic Charter was enunciated by Churchill and Roosevelt, 1941; Japan surrendered to the Allies unconditionally, 1945; following rioting, British troops were moved to Northern Ireland to restore order, 1969; after peace talks in Cyprus broke down, Turkish troops launched an attack on Nicosia, 1974.

Today is the Feast Day of St Athanasia of Aegina, St Eusebius of Rome, St Fachanan, St Marcellus of Apamea and St Maximilian Kolbe.

TOMORROW

Births: Agostino Carracci, painter, baptised 1557; Jeremy Taylor, theologian, baptised 1613; Gilles Menage, lexicographer, 1613; Napoleon Buonaparte, French Emperor, 1769; Sir Walter Scott, novelist, 1771; Johann Nepomuk Malzel, inventor of musical contrivances, 1772; Thomas De Quincey, essayist and critic, 1785; Sir Henry James Sumner Maine, lawyer and historian, 1822; Leon-Gustave- Cyprien Gastinel, composer, 1823; Edouard de Hartog, composer, 1828; Walter Crane, painter and illustrator, 1845; Walter Page Hines, editor and ambassador, 1855; James Keir Hardie, Labour Party veteran, 1856; Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, composer, 1875; Ethel Barrymore (Ethel Mae Blythe), actress, 1879; Sir Peter Henry Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa), anthropologist and politician, 1880; Edna Ferber, novelist and playwright, 1887; Thomas Edward Lawrence, soldier and writer, 1888; Jacques-Francois-Antoine Ibert, composer, 1890; Prince Louis-Victor de Broglie, physicist, 1892; Gerty Theresa Cori (Radnitz), biochemist, 1896; Thomas Joseph Mboya, Kenyan leader, 1903.

Deaths: Macbeth, King of Scotland, killed in battle 1057; Philippa of Hainault, Queen of Edward III, 1369; Pope Pius II, 1464; Lilian Adelaide Neilson (Elizabeth Ann Brown), actress, 1880; William John Thoms, founder and editor of Notes and Queries, 1885; Joseph Joachim, violinist, 1907; Paul Signac, painter, 1935; William Penn ('Will') Rogers, humorist, killed in an air crash 1935; Rene-Francois-Ghislain Magritte, Surrealist painter, 1967.

On this day: the Jesuits (Society of Jesus) was founded in Paris by Ignatius de Loyola, 1534; Montrose's army overwhelmed the Covenanters at the Battle of Kilsyth, 1645; the Allies under Suvorov defeated the French at the Battle of Novi Ligure, 1799; the Panama Canal was opened officially, 1914; India became independent, 1947; Pakistan, having separated from India, became independent, 1947; the republic of (South) Korea was proclaimed, 1948; the French Congo became independent, 1960; Bahrain became independent, 1971; in Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was deposed and later killed in a military coup, 1975.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of VJ Day, 1945, and the Feast Day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, St Arnulph of Soissons and St Tarsicius.