Anniveraries

Births: Tiberius, Roman emperor, 42 BC; Girolamo Abos, composer, 1715; Rodolphe Kreutzer, violinist and composer, 1766; Francis Danby, painter, 1793; William John Thoms, founder and editor of "Notes and Queries", 1885; Friedrich Wilhelm Kucken, conductor and composer, 1810; John Bright, political reformer, 1811; William Frend de Morgan, artist and novelist, 1839; Alphonse-Marie Leon Daudet, author, 1867; William Christopher Handy, composer and cornetist, 1873; Aleksander Aleksandrovich Blok, poet, 1880; George Simon Kaufman, playwright, 1889; Michael Arlen (Dikran Kouyoumdjian), novelist, 1895; Paul Hindemith, viola player and composer, 1895; Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, Fascist leader, 1896.

Deaths: Henry III, King, 1272; Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the throne, executed 1499; Godfried Schalcken, painter, 1706; Jack Sheppard, highwayman, hanged 1724; William Broome, poet and translator, 1745; Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt, architect, 1745; James Ferguson, astronomer, 1776; John Walter, founder of The Times, 1812; Karl Hess, painter, 1874; Louis Riel, leader of the Metis rebellion in Canada, hanged 1885; George Alfred Henty, author of books for boys, 1902; Carl von Linde, chemist and engineer, 1934; Charles Maurras, writer and philosopher, 1952; William Clark Gable, actor, 1960; William Holden (William Franklin Beedle), actor, 1981; Arthur Bowden Askey, comedian, 1983.

On this day: the Swedish-German Protestant army forced the Catholic army under Count von Wallenstein to withdraw at Lutzen, 1632; Westminster Bridge was formally opened, 1750; Washington was captured by British troops, 1776; Frederick Wilhelm III became King of Prussia, 1797; Hamilton Hume, explorer, discovered the Murray River, 1824; Krakow was annexed by Austria, 1846; the Holborn Empire, London, opened as Weston's Music Hall, 1857; the Suez Canal was formally opened at Port Said, 1869; Amadeus, Duke of Aosta, was elected King of Spain as Amadeo I, 1870; an Anglo-French condominium was set up over the New Hebrides, 1887; Dahomey became a protectorate of France, 1893; British Bechuanaland became a crown colony, 1895; Wyndham's Theatre, London, opened, 1899; the first cartoon film, The Enchanted Drawing, by the US artist James Stuart Blackton, appeared, 1900; Oklahoma became the 46th of the United States, 1907; in Budapest, Hungary was proclaimed an independent republic, 1918; following a period of rampant inflation, a new currency system was introduced in Germany, 1923; Stanley Baldwin warned King Edward VIII that if he married Mrs Wallis Simpson he would offend public opinion and damage the prestige of the throne, 1936; the first London performance of the musical show Applause was presented, 1972; four Egyptian ships entered the Suez Canal; the first commercial vessels to use the canal since its 1967 closure, 1974.

Today is the Feast Day of St Afan, St Agnes of Assisi, St Edmund of Abingdon, St Eucherius of Lyons, St Gertrude of Helfta, St Margaret of Scotland, St Mechtildis of Helfta and St Nikon "Metanoeite".