Anniversaries

Births: John Rennie, civil engineer, 1761; George Bryan 'Beau' Brummel, English dandy, 1778; Sir James Young Simpson, pioneer of childbirth anaesthetics, 1811; Eugene-Henri-Paul Gauguin, painter, 1848; Charles Rennie Mackintosh, architect, 1868; Knud John Victor Rasmussen, explorer, 1879; Elizabeth Bowen (Elizabeth Dorothea Cole), novelist, 1899.

Deaths: Robert I (the Bruce), King of Scotland, 1329; Luigi Schiavonetti, engraver, 1810; David Cox, landscape painter and water-colourist, 1859; Edwin Thomas Booth, actor, 1893; Wyatt Eaton, portrait and figure painter, 1896; Charles Booth, shipowner and social reformer, 1916; Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis, publisher, 1933; Jean Harlow (Harlean Carpenter), actress, 1937; Hans Arp, painter, engraver, sculptor and poet, 1966; Dorothy Parker (Rothschild), poet and journalist, 1967.

On this day: the Crusaders arrived before Jerusalem, 1099; David II became King of Scotland, 1329; King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France met near Calais at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, 1520; the Cunard liner Lusitania was launched, 1906; the Vatican City was set up in Rome, 1929; Stanley Baldwin became Prime Minister, 1935; King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrived in the US for a state visit, 1939; the BBC television service was resumed, 1946.

Today is the Feast Day of St Antony Gianelli, St Colman of Dromore, St Gottschalk, St Meriadoc or Meriasek, St Paul I of Constantinople, St Robert of Newminster, St Vulflagius or Wulphy and St Willibald.