Anniversaries

Sunday 18 April 1999 23:02 BST
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Births: Giuseppe Catrufo, composer, 1771; David Ricardo, economist, 1772; John Phillip, painter, 1817; Edward John Gregory, painter and engraver, 1850; Lucien Levy-Bruhl, philosopher, 1857; Sydney Francis Barnes, cricketer, 1873; Getulio Dornelles Vargas, Brazilian president, 1883; Richard Arthur Warren Hughes, novelist, 1900; Jayne Mansfield (Vera Jayne Palmer), actress, 1933.

Deaths: Pope Leo IX, 1054; Robert II, king of Scotland, 1390; Philipp Melanchthon (Schwarzerd), church reformer, 1560; Paolo Veronese (Cagliari), painter, 1588; Thomas Sackville, first Earl of Dorset, poet and statesman, 1608; Anton van Diemen, colonial administrator, 1645; Queen Christina of Sweden, 1689; Nicholas Saunderson, mathematician, 1739; Richard Price, nonconformist minister and writer, 1791; Benjamin Rush, physician and abolitionist, 1813; George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron, poet, 1824; Sir Robert Smirke, architect, 1867; Owen Jones, architect, 1874; Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, statesman and novelist, 1881; Charles Robert Darwin, biologist, 1882; Warren De La Rue, astronomer and chemist, 1889; John Addington Symonds, critic and poet, 1893; Sir George Scharf, art critic, 1895; Pierre Curie, chemist and physicist, 1906; Hugo Winkler, archaeologist, 1913; Charles Pierce, philosopher and scientist, 1914; Sir Squire Bancroft (Butterfield), actor-manager, 1926; William Martin Conway, first Baron Conway, art critic and mountaineer, 1937; Sir Henry John Newbolt, poet and writer, 1938; Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners, composer, 1950; Konrad Adenauer, statesman, 1967; Frankie Howerd (Francis Alex Howard), comedian, 1993.

On this day: Sir Francis Drake sailed into the harbour of Cadiz and sank the Spanish fleet at harbour - he called this "singeing the King of Spain's beard", 1587; the Treaty of London was signed, under which Belgium became an independent kingdom, and Luxembourg a Grand Duchy, 1839; Planquette's opera Les Cloches de Corneville was first produced in Paris, 1877; the San Francisco earthquake and fire ended, with 452 people dead, 1906; the first London production of the musical show The Bing Boys are Here was presented, 1916; the opera Monsieur Beaucaire was first produced, London, 1919; Prince Rainier III of Monaco married Grace Kelly, actress, 1956; Bangladesh was admitted to the Commonwealth, 1972.

Today is the Feast Day of St Alphege or Elphege of Canterbury, St Expeditus, St Geroldus and St Leo IX, Pope.

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