Anniversaries

Births: Frederick III, King of Denmark and Norway, 1609; Marie-Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, Comtesse de La Fayette, novelist, baptised 1634; John Caldwell Calhoun, statesman, 1782; Charles Edward Stephens, pianist and composer, 1821; Numa-Denis Fustel de Coulanges, historian, 1830; Stephen Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th US President, 1837; Stephane Mallarme, poet, 1842; Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, composer, 1844; Joseph Staudigl, baritone, 1850; Rudolf Diesel, engineer and inventor, 1858; Arthur Neville Chamberlain, statesman, 1869; Gian Francesco Malipiero, composer, 1882; Kurt Koffka, psychologist, 1886; Wilfred Owen, poet, 1893; Betty Compson (Eleanor Luicime Compson), actress, 1897; Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria, chief of the Russian secret police, 1899; Friederich Robert Donat, actor, 1905.

Deaths: St Edward the Martyr, King of the English, murdered 978; Pope Honorius III, 1227; Jacques-Bernard de Boweg Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templars, burnt at the stake 1314; Ivan IV (the Terrible), Tsar of Russia, 1584; Philip Massinger, playwright, 1640; Robert Charnock, priest and Jacobite conspirator, with accomplices Edward King and Thomas Keyes, executed for the attempted assassination of King William III 1696; Jenny Diver (Mary Young) 'Queen of the Pickpockets', hanged 1741; Sir Robert Walpole, first Earl of Orford, statesman, 1745; Laurence Sterne, clergyman and author, 1768; Anne-Robert- Jacques Turgot, statesman, 1781; John Horne Tooke, politician, 1812; Sir Henry Pottinger Bt, soldier and diplomat, 1856; Pierre-Eugene-Marcelin Berthelot, organic chemist, 1907; George I, King of the Hellenes, assassinated 1913; Duke of the Abruzzi (Luigi Amadeo), explorer, 1933; Eleutherios Venizelos, statesman, 1936; Charles Hazlewood Shannon, lithographer and painter, 1937; Sir Henry Simpson Lunn, travel agency founder, 1939; William Churchill De Mille, film and theatrical producer, 1955; Louis Bromfield, novelist, 1956; Farouk I, ex-king of Egypt, 1965; Lauritz Melchior, tenor, 1973; Umberto II, ex-king of Italy, 1983.

On this day: the First Lateran Council began, 1123; the Austrians defeated the French at the Battle of Neerwinden, 1793; in Tolpuddle, Dorset, six farm labourers were sentenced to be transported for forming a trade union, 1834; a five-day revolution broke out in Milan against Austrian rule, 1848; the American Express Company was organised at Buffalo, New York, 1850; the Alhambra Theatre, London, opened as the Royal Panopticon of Science and Art, 1854; the rising of the Communards began in Paris, 1871; Prince Bismarck resigned as Chancellor of Germany, 1890; the telephone link between London and Paris was opened, 1891; the planet Pluto was discovered by the US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, 1930; the first 'walk in space' was made, by Alexei Leonov from the Soviet spaceship Voskhod 2, 1965; 700,000 barrels of oil were spilled into the sea when the Torrey Canyon oil tanker grounded off the Cornish coast, 1967; Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the Cambodian head of state, was deposed by right-wing leaders, 1970.

Today is the Feast Day of St Alexander of Jerusalem, St Anselm of Lucca, St Cyril of Jerusalem, St Edward the Martyr, St Frigidian or Frediano and St Salvator of Horta.