Anniversaries

Births: Francesco Bartolommeo Conti, lutenist and composer, 1681; Jean-Jacques Barthelemy, abbe and scholar, 1716; Theobald Wolfe Tone, Irish nationalist, 1763; Andre-Marie Ampere, physicist, 1775; John Tiplady Carrodus, violinist and composer, 1836; Ernest Chausson, composer, 1855; Richard Le Gallienne, writer, 1866; Johannes Jensen, poet and novelist, 1873; Hudie Ledbetter ("Leadbelly"), blues artist, 1889; Walter Piston, composer, 1894; George Burns (Nathan Birnbaum), comedian, writer and producer, 1896; Colin Clive (Clive Greig), actor, 1898; Joy Friederike Victoria (Gessner) Adamson, companion of wild animals, and writer, 1910; Federico Fellini, film director, 1920.

Deaths: Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, 1612; Charles Montagu, first Duke of Manchester, 1722; Charles VII (Charles of Bavaria), Holy Roman Emperor, 1745; David Garrick, actor, 1779; John Howard, prison reformer, 1790; Sir John Soane, architect, 1837; Jean-Francois Millet, painter, 1875; William Miller, line-engraver, 1882; Richard Doddridge Blackmore, novelist, 1900; John Ruskin, social reformer, art critic and writer, 1900; Charles Montagu Doughty, poet and traveller, 1926; King George V, 1936; John Robinson Jeffers, poet, 1962; Edmund Charles Blunden, poet and critic, 1974; Derick Heathcoat Amory, first Viscount Amory, statesman, 1981; (Peter John) Johnny Weissmuller, actor and swimmer, 1984; Sir Robert Brown Fraser, first Director- General of ITA, 1985; Audrey Hepburn (Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston), actress, 1993; Sir Matt (Matthew) Busby, football manager and president, 1994.

On this day: Simon de Montfort's parliament met in Westminster Hall, the first at which burgesses and knights attended, as well as the clergy and magnates, 1265; the trial of King Charles I began, 1649; the First Fleet sent to Botany Bay arrived in New South Wales, 1788; London Docks were first opened, 1805; Chile defeated Peru and Bolivia at the Battle of Yungay, 1839; Hong Kong was ceded to Britain by China, 1841; the Mersey Railway Tunnel was opened by the Prince of Wales, 1886; the first game of basketball was played at Springfield, Massachusetts, 1892; during a naval battle at the entrance to the Dardanelles, the German ship Breslau was sunk and the Goeben badly damaged, 1918; Britain and China signed the Treaty of Peking, 1925; the RAF dropped 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin, 1944; Sir Vivian Fuchs, leading the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, arrived at the South Pole, 1958; John Fitzgerald Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th US president, 1961; four crew members of the RAF Red Arrow display were killed in a mid-air collision, 1971; George Bush was sworn in as 41st US president, 1989; Bill Clinton was sworn in as 42nd US president, 1993.

Today is the Feast Day of St Euthymius the Great, St Fabian, pope, St Fechin and St Sebastian.