Anniversaries

Births: Karl Heinrich Graun, tenor and composer, 1701; David Hume, philosopher and historian, 1711; Prince Joseph Antony Poniatowski, soldier, 1763; Robert Browning, poet, 1812; Richard Norman Shaw, architect, 1831; Johannes Brahms, composer, 1833; Euphrosyne Parepa de Boyesku Parepa-Rosa, soprano, 1836; Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer, 1840; Archibald Philip Primrose, fifth Earl of Rosebery, statesman, 1847; Rabindranath Tagore, poet, 1861; Alfred Edward Woodley Mason, novelist, 1865; Margaret Fairless Barber (Michael Fairless), essayist, 1869; Archibald MacLeish, poet and librarian, 1892; Josip Broz Tito, president of Yugoslavia, 1892; Gary Cooper (Frank James Cooper) actor, 1901; Maria Eva Duarte Pern (Ibarguren), Argentinian leader, 1919; Anne Baxter, actress, 1923;

Deaths: Johann Jacob Froberger, composer, 1667; Caspar David Friedrich, landscape painter, 1840; Thomas Barnes, editor of The Times, 1841; Henry Peter, first Baron Brougham, statesman and lawyer, 1868; Samuel Cousins, mezzotint engraver, 1887; James Nasmyth, engineer and inventor of the steam hammer, 1890; William Hesketh Lever, first Viscount Leverhulme, soap millionaire, 1925; Paul Doumer, French president, assassinated by the Russian Paul Gorgoulov 1932; George Lansbury, leader of the Labour Party, 1940; Sir James George Frazer, anthropologist, author of The Golden Bough, 1941; Paul Felix Weingartner, composer and conductor, 1942; Max Miller, comedian, 1963; John Masters, novelist, 1983; Dawn Addams, actress, 1985.

On this day: the first Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, opened in London, 1663; HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship, was launched at Chatham, 1765; Greece was proclaimed an independent kingdom, 1832; the Battle of Spotsylvania began during the American Civil War, 1864; the Soufriere volcano, St Vincent, erupted, killing over 1,000 people, 1902; the Cunard liner Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine, with a total of 1,198 lives lost, 1915; the qualifying age of women voters was reduced from 30 to 21 (the "Flappers' Vote"), 1928; Neville Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister, 1940; Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, 1945; the Western European Union Council held its inaugural meeting, 1955; the new High Altar in St Paul's Cathedral was dedicated as a Commonwealth War Memorial, 1958; Leonid Brezhnev became chief of state of the Soviet Union, 1960.

Today is the Feast Day of St Domitian of Maestricht, St John of Beverley, St Letard or Liudhard and Saints Serenicus and Serenus.