Anniversaries

Births: Edward V, King of England, 1470; Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, painter, 1699; Daniel Boone, frontiersman, 1734; Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, violinist and composer, 1739; Marie Antoinette, Austrian princess and Queen of King Louis XVI of France, 1755; Johan Joseph Wenzel, Count Radetzky, field marshal, 1766; James Knox Polk, 11th US President, 1795; Auguste Charles Leonard Vianesi, conductor, 1837; Georges Sorel, socialist, 1847; Warren Gamaliel Harding, 29th US President, 1865; The Aga Khan III, 1877; Victor Thomas Trumper, cricketer, 1877; Leo Perutz, author, 1884; Harlow Shapley, astronomer, 1885; Luchino Visconti, Duca di Modrone, film director, 1906.

Deaths: Henry Stafford, second Duke of Buckingham, courtier, executed 1483; Sir Samuel Romilly, lawyer, committed suicide 1818; Jenny Lind (Johanna Maria), soprano, 1887; William Powell Frith, painter, 1909; George Bernard Shaw, playwright, 1950; Leo Baeck, German-born reform rabbi, 1956; James Grover Thurber, humorous writer and cartoonist, 1961.

On this day: North Dakota and South Dakota became the 39th and 40th of the United States, 1889; Ladysmith, in Natal, South Africa, was besieged by the Boers, 1899; the Daily Mirror was first published, as a daily newspaper for women, 1903; Russia declared war on Turkey, 1914; Lord Balfour made his Declaration regarding a Jewish national home in Palestine, 1917; the world's first regular broadcasting station, KDKA Pittsburgh, started transmitting, 1920; the first crossword puzzle to appear in a British newspaper was published in the Sunday Express, 1924; Haile Selassie was crowned as Emperor of Ethiopia, 1930; the first London production of the musical show The Gay Divorce was staged, 1933; the world's first high-definition television service began, transmitted by the BBC from Alexandra Palace, London, 1936; the Odeon Cinema opened in Leicester Square, London, on the site of the old Alhambra Theatre, 1937; a newspaper for the United States forces in Europe, the Stars and Stripes, was published in London from the offices of the Times, 1942; the book publisher Penguin was acquitted of obscenity in the matter of publishing DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, 1960; President John F. Kennedy announced that the Soviet Union was dismantling the missile sites in Cuba, 1962; Lyndon Baines Johnson was re-elected as US President, 1964; King Feisal ascended the throne of Saudi Arabia, 1964; James Earl Carter was elected as 38th US President, 1976.

Today is the Feast Day of All Souls, St Marcian of Cyrrhus and St Victorinus of Pettau.