Anniversaries

Births: Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury and writer, 1643; Dr Samuel Johnson, lexicographer and writer, 1709; Anton Mauve, landscape painter, 1838; Sir Owen Seaman, poet and editor of Punch, 1861; Fay Compton (Virginia Lilian Emeline Compton), actress, 1894; John George Diefenbaker, statesman, 1895; Greta Garbo (Greta Lovisa Gustafsson), actress, 1905; Rossano Brazzi, actor, 1916.

Deaths: Domitian, Roman emperor, murdered 96; Hubert (Huybrecht) van Eyck, painter, 1426; Robert Pollok, poet, 1827; William Hazlitt, critic and essayist, 1830; Joseph Locke, railway engineer, 1860; Dion Boucicault (Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot), playwright and actor, 1890; George MacDonald, poet and novelist, 1905; Dr Dag Hammarskjold, UN secretary-general, 1961; Sean O'Casey, playwright, 1964; Sir John Douglas Cockcroft, physicist, 1951.

On this day: Parliamentary troops inflicted a severe defeat upon the Royalists, Montgomery, 1644; the Anti-Corn Law League was established by Richard Cobden, 1838; the New York Times was first published, 1851; the Irish Home Rule Bill received Royal Assent, 1914; the Soviet Union was admitted to the League of Nations, 1934; following continual interruption of newspaper production by the NGA, the Newspaper Publishers Association announced that all national newspapers in London and Manchester would be closed down on the following day, 1971.

Today is the Feast Day of St Ferreolus of Limoges, St Ferreolus of Vienne, St John Massias, St Joseph of Cupertino, St Methodius of Olympus and St Richardis.