Anniversaries

TODAY

Births: Antoninus Pius, Roman emperor, 86; Henry III, King of France, 1551; Robert Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln, writer, 1587; Henri Jacques de Croes, violinist, conductor and composer, 1705; The Rev William Kirby, entomologist, 1759; Henry Peter Brougham, first Baron Brougham and Vaux, Lord Chancellor, 1778; Valentin Bender, clarinettist and composer, 1801; Lajos Kossuth, statesman, 1802; William Dyce, painter, 1806; George Cadbury, chocolate manufacturer and social reformer, 1839; William Hesketh Lever, first Viscount Leverhulme, soap manufacturer and philanthropist, 1851; Arthur Rackham, illustrator, 1867; Giuseppe Saragat, president of Italy, 1898; Ricardo Cortez (Jacob Krantz), actor and director, 1899; William Gordon (Billy) Reid, popular composer, 1902; Gustaf Allan Petterssen, composer, 1911.

Deaths: Meyer Amschel Rothschild, banker, 1812; Giovanni Battista Donati, astronomer, 1873; James Abram Garfield, 20th US President, after being shot 1881; Thomas John Barnardo, physician and philanthropist, 1905; Pauline Frederick (Beatrice Pauline Libbey), stage and film actress, 1938; Raimu (Jules Muraire), actor, 1946; Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (Brent of Bin Bin), novelist, 1954; Sir David Alexander Cecil Low, cartoonist, 1963; Chester Floyd Carlson, inventor of xerographic copying system, 1968; Roy Kinnear, actor and comedian, 1988.

On this day: led by Edward, the Black Prince, the English defeated the French at the Battle of Poitiers, 1356; Auckland, New Zealand, was founded, 1840; the Battle of Alma (Crimean War) was fought, 1854; the Germans started the siege of Paris, 1870; Melville Reuben Bissell, inventor, patented the first carpet-sweeper, 1876; the Germans took Kiev, 1941; Finland signed an armistice with the USSR, 1944; William Joyce, known as 'Lord Haw-Haw', was sentenced to be hanged, after a trial at the Old Bailey, 1945; St Christopher and Nevis became independent, 1983; two severe earthquakes hit Mexico City, killing more than 4,200 people, 1985.

Today is the Feast Day of St Emily de Rodat, St Goericus or Abbo, St Januarius of Benevento, St Mary of Cerevellon, St Peleus and his Companions, St Sequanus or Seine, St Susanna of Eleutheropolis and St Theodore of Canterbury.

TOMORROW

Births: Alexander the Great, 356 BC; Christian Benjamin Uber, lawyer and musical enthusiast, 1746; Sir Titus Salt, MP, manufacturer and philanthropist, 1803; Friedrich Gauermann, painter, 1807; Charles Voss, pianist and composer, 1815; Sir James Dewar, chemist and physicist, inventor of the vacuum flask, 1842; Henry Arthur Jones, playwright, 1851; Sir George Robey (George Edward Wade), comedian, 1869; Upton Beall Sinclair, novelist, 1878; Ildebrando Pizzetti, composer, 1880; Charles Walter Stansby Williams, author and playwright, 1886; Kenneth More, actor, 1914.

Deaths: Robert Emmet, Irish nationalist, executed 1803; Utamaro Kitagawa, painter, 1806; Admiral Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy Bt, 1839; Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm, philologist and folklorist, 1863; Sir Titus Salt, MP, manufacturer and philanthropist, 1876; Theodor Fontane, poet and novelist, 1898; Pablo Martin Meliton de Sarasate y Navascuez, violinist and composer, 1908; Annie Besant (Wood) 'Ajax', theosophist, 1933; Dr Andrew Claude De La Cherois Crommelin, astronomer, 1939; Sir Edward Denison Ross, orientalist, 1940; Fiorello Henry La Guardia, mayor of New York, 1947; Nikolaos Skalkottas, composer, 1949; Jean Julius Christian Sibelius, composer, 1957; George Seferis (Giorgos Stylianou Seferiades), poet and diplomat, 1971.

On this day: Aetius, Roman general, defeated the Huns under Attila at Chalons-sur-Marne, 451; Richard I defeated the French at Gisors, 1198; Salisbury Cathedral was consecrated, 1258; Ferdinand Magellan and a fleet of five ships set off from Seville on a circumnavigation of the world, 1519; the Treaty of Hampton Court was signed between Queen Elizabeth I and Louis I de Bourbon, 1562; the Treaty of Ryswick was signed by France, England, Spain and Holland, 1697; the French defeated the Prussians at the Battle of Valmy, 1792; the Amateur Dramatic Company, consisting of Dickens, Forster, Jerrold, Leech and Lemon, appeared in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour at Miss Kelly's Theatre, Dean Street, London, 1845; during the Crimean War, the Russian army was defeated by the Allied (Britain, France and Turkey) armies at the Battle of Alma, 1854; six Victoria Crosses were awarded for gallantry at the Battle of Alma, 1854; Delhi was recaptured from the Indian mutineers by the British, 1857; the Methodist Church of Great Britain and Ireland was established, 1932; the first London production of the musical comedy Once Upon a Mattress was presented, 1960; the liner Queen Elizabeth II was launched at Clydebank, 1966.

Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Candida of Carthage, Saints Fausta and Evilasius, Saints Theodore, Philippa and their Companions and St Vincent Madelgarius.