Anniversaries

Births: Alessio Baldovinetti, painter, 1427; Cornelis Janssen (van Ceulen), painter, 1593; Sophia, Electress of Hanover, 1630; James II, King of Great Britain and Ireland, 1633; William Penn, Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, 1644; Ferdinand VII, King of Spain, 1784; Sir Edward Sabine, astronomer, 1788; Adolphe Monticelli, painter, 1824; William George Cusins, conductor and composer, 1833; Viktor Langer, conductor, teacher and composer, 1842; Masaoka Shiki, poet, 1867; Joseph, first Baron Duveen of Millbank, art dealer, 1869; Alexander von Zemlinsky, composer, 1871; Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, novelist, 1879; Eamon De Valera, statesman, 1882; Katherine Mansfield (Beauchamp) (Kathleen Middleton Murry), writer, 1888; Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th US President; 1890; ee cummings (Edward Estlin Cummings), poet and painter, 1894; Lillian Gish (Lillian Diana de Guiche), actress, 1894; Hannah Arendt, political philosopher, 1906; Allan Jones, film actor and singer, 1907.

Deaths: Harold, King of the English, killed in battle 1066; Joachim von Sandrart, painter and historian, 1688; James Francis Edward Keith, soldier, 1758; John Philpot Curran, statesman, 1817; Samuel Phillips, journalist and novelist, 1854; Johann Christian Clausen Dahl, landscape painter, 1857; Albrecht Francois Lieven de Vriendt, painter, 1900; Helen de Guerry Simpson, novelist, killed in a London air raid 1940; Dame Marie Tempest (Mary Susan Etherington), actress, 1942; Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, general, committed suicide 1944; Maud Diver (Katherine Helen Maud Marshall), novelist, 1945; Errol Flynn, actor, 1959; Dame Edith Mary Evans, actress, 1976; (Harry Lillis) Bing Crosby, singer, 1977; Keenan (Francis Xavier Aloysius) Wynn, actor, 1986; Leonard Bernstein, conductor and composer, 1990.

On this day: the Battle of Hastings was fought at Senlac Hill, Pevensey, Sussex, 1066; William I acceded to the throne of England, 1066; Mary, Queen of Scots was tried, 1586; the trial of Marie Antoinette took place, 1793; the Prussians were defeated by Napoleon at the Battle of Jena- Auerstadt, 1806; the Treaty of Schonbrunn was signed, 1809; bread riots took place in Hyde Park, London, 1855; the comic opera Rip Van Winkle was first produced, London, 1882; the former US President Theodore Roosevelt was shot at by John Schrank, 1912; 439 lives were lost in an explosion at Senghenydd colliery, south Wales, 1913; Oxford degrees were first conferred on women, 1920; 810 lives were lost when the battleship HMS Royal Oak was torpedoed in Scapa Flow 1939; Charles Yeager made the first supersonic air flight (670mph) in California, 1947; the first London production of the musical show Can-Can was presented, 1954; 50p coins were issued to replace the 10-shilling note, 1969; the first close-up television pictures of Mars were transmitted to Earth by the US Mariner 9 spacecraft, 1971.

Today is the Feast Day of St Angadriama, St Burchard of Wurzburg, St Callixtus I, pope, St Dominic Lauricatus, St Justus of Lyons, St Manaccus and St Manechildis.