Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: Denis Papin, physicist and inventor, 1647; Jean-Francois de Galaup de la Perouse, sailor and explorer, 1741; Pope Leo XII, 1760; Thomas Tredgold, engineer and carpenter, 1788; Alexander Campbell Mackenzie, composer, 1847; Claude-Achille Debussy, composer, 1862; Dorothy Parker (Rothschild), humorist and writer, 1893. Deaths: Philip VI, King of France, 1350; Richard III, King, killed at Bosworth Field 1485; Jean-Honore Fragonard, painter, 1806; Warren Hastings, first governor-general of India, 1818; Franz Joseph Gall, neurophysiologist and founder of phrenology, 1828; George Shillibeer, pioneer of London's first bus service, 1866; "Lord" John Sanger, circus entrepreneur, 1889; Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne Cecil, third Marquess of Salisbury, statesman, 1903; Michael Collins, Irish nationalist leader, killed in ambush 1922; Roger Martin du Gard, novelist and playwright, 1958; William Richard Morris, first Viscount Nuffield, motor manufacturer, 1963. On this day: the Scots were defeated by the English at the Battle of the Standard (Northallerton), 1138; Richard III was defeated by Henry VII's men at the Battle of Bosworth Field, 1485; the Civil War began in England, 1642; the Geneva Conference adopted the ideas put forward by Jean-Henri Dunant, and the International Red Cross organisation was founded, 1864; the first regular BBC television service began, 1932; Pope Paul VI made the first papal visit to South America when he arrived in Colombia, 1968; following a change in the licensing laws, public houses in England and Wales were allowed to stay open all day, 1988. Today is the Feast Day of St Andrew of Fiesole, St John Kemble, St Sigfrid of Wearmouth, St Symphorian and St Timothy.