Anniversaries

Today: Births: Carlo Dolci, painter, 1616; Alexis Feodorovich Lvov, composer, 1799; Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet and essayist, 1803; Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, first Baron Lytton, novelist, 1803; Jakob Christopher Burckhardt, art historian, 1818; Tom Sayers, bare-knuckle pugilist, 1826; William Maxwell Aitken, first Baron Beaverbrook, newspaper proprietor, 1879; Miles Malleson, actor and director, 1888; Igor Ivan Sikorsky, inventor of the helicopter, 1889; Theodore Roethke, poet, 1908. Deaths: Gaspard (Doughet) Poussin, painter, 1675; Pedro Caldern de la Barca, playwright and poet, 1681; William Paley, philosopher, 1805; John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley, explorer of Australia, 1828; Gustav Theodore Holst, composer, 1934; Henry Ossawa Tanner, negro painter, 1937; Joseph, first Baron Duveen of Millbank, art dealer, 1939; Sir Frank Watson Dyson, astronomer, 1939; Jacques Feyder, film director, 1948; Robert Capa, war photographer, killed in Vietnam 1954; Sydney Box, film producer, 1983. On this day: Captain Cook sailed on his first voyage, 1768; the people of Buenos Aires deposed the Spanish viceroy, 1810; Lloyd's insurance society received a Royal Charter, 1871; the House of Commons passed the Bank Holiday Act, 1871; Gilbert and Sullivan's opera HMS Pinafore was first produced, 1878; the British House of Commons passed the Irish Home Rule Act, 1914; the Second Battle of Ypres ended, 1915; Transjordan became independent, 1923; Jesse Owens, a black athlete, broke five world records at the Olympic Games in Berlin, 1936; the Battle of Anzio ended, 1944; a British expedition team climbed Kanchenjunga, 1955; the new Coventry Cathedral, designed by Sir Basil Spence, was consecrated, 1962; an America Airlines DC-10 crashed on take-off at Chicago, killing 275 people, 1979. Today is the Feast Day of St Bede, St Dionysius of Milan, St Gennadius of Astorga, St Gregory VII, Pope, St Leo or Lye of Mantenay, St Madeleine Sophie Barat, St Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi and St Zenobius.

Tomorrow: Births: Charles, Duc d'Orleans, poet, 1391; Jacopo da (Carucci) Pontormo, painter, 1494; Sir Harry Vane, statesman, 1613; John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, military commander, 1650; Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, writer, 1689; Edmond Louis-Antoine Huot de Goncourt, novelist, 1822; Sir Hubert von Herkomer, painter, 1849; Princess Mary of Teck (Queen Mary, consort of King George V), 1867; Al Jolson (Asa Yoelson), singer and entertainer, 1886; Sir Eugene Aynesley Goossens, composer and conductor, 1893; John Wayne (Marion Michael Morrison), actor, 1907; Robert Morley, actor and playwright, 1908; Sir Matt (Matthew) Busby, football manager and president, 1909. Deaths: St Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 604; Samuel Pepys, diarist, 1703; Thomas Southerne, playwright, 1746; Jacques Laffitte, banker and politician, 1844; Jean-Joseph Benjamin Constant, painter, 1902; Wilbur Daniel Steele, short story writer, 1970; Jacques Lipchitz, sculptor and poet, 1973; George Brent (George Brendan Nolan), film actor, 1979. On this day: Napoleon Buonaparte was crowned King of Italy in Milan Cathedral, 1805; the wild boy Kaspar Hauser was discovered in the marketplace of Nuremberg, 1828; the Russian army defeated the Poles following their revolt, Ostrolenka 1831; the Confederate Army surrendered in Texas, so ending the American Civil War, 1865; in the United States, President Johnson proclaimed an amnesty to all Confederate States, 1865; Michael Barrett, a Fenian terrorist, was hanged for causing an explosion and 13 deaths - Britain's last public execution, 1868; Mount Etna in Sicily started a series of violent eruptions, 1870; Ismailia was annexed to Egypt, 1871; Vauxhall Bridge, London, was opened, 1906; Emily Duncan, the first woman magistrate in Britain, was appointed a Justice of the Peace, 1913; in South Africa, a Nationalist government was elected with apartheid policies, 1948; Guyana became independent, 1966; an Icelandic gunboat shelled and holed a British trawler, 1973. Tomorrow is Pentecost (Whit Sunday) and the Feast Day of St Dyfan, St Lambert of Venice, St Mariana of Quito, St Philip Neri, St Priscus or Prix of Auxerre and St Quadratus of Athens.