Anniversaries

Births: Andre-Marie Ampere, physicist, 1775; Joy Friederike Victoria (Gessner) Adamson, companion of wild animals and author, 1910.

Deaths: David Garrick, actor, 1779; Sir John Soane, architect, 1837; Jean-Francois Millet, painter, 1875; John Ruskin, social reformer, art critic and writer, 1900; Charles Montagu Doughty, poet and traveller, 1926; King George V, 1936.

On this day: the first English parliament met in Westminster Hall, 1265; the trial of King Charles I began, 1649; China ceded Hong Kong to Britain, 1841; the first game of basketball was played, 1892; John Fitzgerald Kennedy was inaugurated as 35th US President, 1961.

Today is the Feast Day of St Euthymius the Great, St Fabian, pope, St Fechin and St Sebastian.