Anniversaries

Births: Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of King Henry VIII, 1515; Philip Dormer Stanhope, fourth Earl of Chesterfield, literary patron and statesman, 1694; Jean-Etienne Guettard, botanist and geologist, 1715; Christian Kalkbrenner, singer, composer and writer, 1755; William Smith, abolitionist and emancipator, 1756; Theodore Edward Hook, popular song writer and playwright, 1788; Michael Faraday, physicist and chemist, 1791; George Bentham, botanist, 1800; Moritz Karasowski, pianist and composer, 1823; Shigeru Yoshida (Takeuchi), statesman, 1878; Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, suffragette, 1880; Sir Reginald George Stapledon, agriculturist, 1882; Erich von Stroheim (Erich Oswald Stroheim), actor and film director, 1885; Paul Muni (Muni Weisenfreund), actor, 1895.

Deaths: Sturluson Snorri, poet and historian, killed 1241; Selim I, Sultan of Turkey, 1520; Johann Agricola (Schneider or Schnitter), Protestant reformer, 1566; Alessandro Allori, painter, 1607; Thomas Doggett, actor and donor of the Thames watermen's coat and badge, 1721; Nathan Hale, American revolutionary patriot, hanged 1776; Mary Martha Sherwood (Butt), author of children's books, 1851; Gustave Rodolphe Clarence Boulanger, painter, 1888; Alain-Fournier (Henri-Alban Fournier), writer, killed in action on the Marne 1914; Ivan Minchov Vazov, poet and novelist, 1921; Sir Charles Santley, bass- baritone, 1922; Thomas Burke, novelist and author, 1945; Frederick Soddy, physicist and chemist, 1956; Oliver Joseph St John Gogarty, physician and writer, 1957; Mary Roberts Rinehart, novelist, 1958; William Edmund, first Baron Ironside, soldier, 1959; Harry Warren (Salvatore Guaragna), composer, 1981; Axel Springer, publisher, 1985.

On this day: Sir Philip Sidney was mortally wounded at the relief of the Spanish colony of Zutphen in the Netherlands, 1586; Sir Robert Walpole became the first prime minister to move into No 10 Downing Street, 1735; France was declared to be a Republic, 1792; in France, the Revolutionary Calendar came into use, 1792; Joseph Smith announced the discovery of the Book of Mormon, 1827; Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, ordering the freeing of slaves, 1862; Otto von Bismarck became prime minister of Prussia, 1862; Wagner's opera Das Rheingold was first performed, Munich, 1869; the British cruisers Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy were torpedoed by German U-boats, 1914; Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were admitted to the League of Nations, 1921; Gene Tunney beat Jack Dempsey for the world heavyweight boxing title, 1927; at a pit disaster at Gresford, North Wales, 265 miners were killed 1934; Independent television began operating in Britain, 1955; Juan Peron, Argentinian leader, was deposed, 1955; Mali became independent, 1960; in San Francisco, a woman was arrested after trying to shoot President Gerald Ford, 1975.

Today is the Feast Day of St Bodo, St Emmeramus, St Felix III (IV), pope, St Laudus or Lo, St Maurice of Agaunum, St Phocas the Gardener, St Salaberga, St Thomas of Villanova and The Theban Legion.