Anniversaries

TODAY: Births: Alexander Cruden, compiler of the Concordance of the Holy Scriptures, 1701; John Jackson, portrait painter, 1778; Edouard Marie-Ernest Deldevez, conductor and composer, 1817; William Worrall Mayo, physician, 1819; Walt Whitman, author and poet, 1819; Henry Sidgwick, philosopher, 1838; Will Hicok Low, artist and writer, 1853; Pope Pius XI (Achille Ratti), 1857; Professor Graham Wallas, economist, 1858; Walter Richard Sickert, painter, 1860; Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, explorer, 1863; William Heath Robinson, illustrator, 1872; Charles Greeley Abbot, astrophysicist, 1872; Helen Waddell, poet and scholar, 1889; Florence Desmond (Dawson), actress, 1905; Judith Wright, author and poet, 1915. Deaths: Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), painter, 1594; Franz Joseph Haydn, composer, 1809; Evariste Galois, mathematician, 1832; William Smith, abolitionist and emancipator, 1835; Joseph Grimaldi, comic actor and clown, 1837; George Green, mathematician and physicist, 1841; Elizabeth Blackwell, physician (the first woman doctor), 1910; John White Alexander, painter, 1915; Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi "protector" of Bohemia and Moravia, assassinated 1942; Adolf Eichmann, Nazi war criminal, hanged 1962; Jack Dempsey, heavyweight boxer, 1983. On this day: Samuel Pepys discontinued writing his diary because of failing eyesight, 1669; in France, the Reign of Terror began, 1793; Rossini's opera The Thieving Magpie was first performed, Milan 1817; the universal right to vote was abolished in France, 1850; the trans-Siberian railway was begun, 1891; the Peace of Vereeniging brought the end of the Boer War, 1902; during the American Civil War, the Battle of Fair Oaks started, 1862; the Union of South Africa was formed from Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, 1910; the White Star liner Titanic was launched at Belfast, 1911; the Australian airman Harry George Hawker reached a record height of 11,450 feet, 1913; the Battle of Jutland began, 1916; the Daily Chronicle and the Daily News ceased separate publication and became the News Chronicle, 1930; in Germany, the Gothic, or Black Letter printing type, was officially abandoned in favour of the Roman character, 1941; the Union of South Africa became a republic, 1961. Today is the Feast Day of Saints Cantius, Cantianus, Cantianella and Protus, St Mechtildis of Edelstetten and St Petronilla.

TOMORROW: Births: Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury, statesman, 1563; Henry Francis Lyte, hymn-writer, 1793; Brigham Young, Mormon leader, 1801; John Edward Masefield, poet and novelist, 1878; John Drinkwater, author and playwright, 1882; Charles Kay Ogden, linguist and originator of Basic English, 1889; Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, inventor of the jet engine, 1907; (Beatrice) Joan Caulfield, actress, 1922; Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jean Mortenson), actress, 1926. Deaths: Cornelius Huysmans, painter, 1727; James Gillray, caricaturist, 1815; Sir David Wilkie, painter, at sea off Gibraltar 1841; Charles Lever, novelist, 1872; Lizzie Andrew Borden, alleged axe murderess, 1927; Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, novelist, 1941; Ion Antonescu, Romanian dictator, executed for war crimes 1946; John Dewey, educationist and philosopher, 1952; Eric Honeywood Partridge, lexicographer, 1979; Helen Adams Keller, blind, deaf and mute scholar, 1968. On this day: the Act of Settlement, regulating succession to the throne, was passed, 1701; the French fleet was defeated at the Battle of the "Glorious First of June" near Brest, 1794; the US frigate Chesapeake was captured by HMS Shannon, 1813; Sir James Clark Ross located the magnetic North Pole, 1831; Prince Otto of Bavaria became King of Greece, 1835; the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain was founded, 1841; lunch was served on the first Pullman train on a British railway which ran from St Pancras to Bedford, 1874; Bombardier Billy Wells was knocked out by Georges Carpentier in the heavyweight boxing championship of Europe, 1913; the first Zeppelin air raid took place over Britain, 1915; the Battle of Jutland ended, 1916; British forces completed their evacuation of Crete, 1941; a combined television and radio licence was introduced in Britain, 1946; the first Premium Bonds were drawn, 1957; General Charles de Gaulle became prime minister of France, 1958; Andreas Baader, a leader of the West German terrorist Baader-Meinhoff gang, was captured in Frankfurt, 1973; the monarchy was abolished in Greece, and George Papadopoulos became the first president of the republic, 1973. Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Candida or Wite, St Caprasius of Lerins, St Inigo or Eneco, St Justin, St Pamphilus of Caesarea, St Proculus the Bishop, St Proculus the Soldier, St Simeon of Syracuse, St Theobald of Alba and St Wistan.