Anniversaries

Births: George Gordon, sixth Baron Byron, poet, 1788; Theodor Georg von Karajan, writer on music, 1810; August Strindberg, playwright, 1849; Beatrice Potter Webb, social reformer, 1858; U Thant, Secretary- General of the United Nations, 1909.

Deaths: William Paterson, financier and founder of the Bank of England, 1719; Queen Victoria, 1901; Robert Brough, painter, killed in a railway disaster 1905; James Bryce, first Viscount, politician, 1922; Pope Walter Richard Sickert, painter, 1942; Herbert Sutcliffe, cricketer, 1978; Walter McLennan Citrine, first Baron, trade-union leader and statesman, 1983; Sir Arthur Bryant, historian, 1985.

On this day: Spain ceded the Falkland Islands to Britain, 1771; British troops were massacred by the Zulus at Isandhlwana, 1879; Edward VII acceded to the throne, 1901; 120,000 citizens marched on the Winter Palace, St Petersburg, only to be fired at, 'Bloody Sunday' 1905; Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour prime minister, took office, 1924; the first broadcast of a football match took place, Arsenal v Sheffield United at Highbury, London 1927; the Allied landings began, Anzio 1944.

Today is the Feast Day of St Anastasius the Persian, St Berhtwald of Ramsbury, St Blesilla, St Dominic of Sora, St Vincent Pallotti and St Vincent of Saragossa.