Anniversaries

Births: Sir Joshua Reynolds, painter, 1723; Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, painter, 1796; Luigi Arditi, violinist and composer, 1822; Henri Viotta, conductor and composer, 1848; Jens Otto Harry Jespersen, linguist and philologist, 1860; George A. Birmingham (the Rev James Owen Hannay), novelist, 1865; Roald Amundsen, polar explorer, 1872; Trygve Halvdan Lie, statesman, 1896; Ginger Rogers (Virginia Katherine McMath), actress and dancer, 1911.

Deaths: Pope Innocent III, 1216; Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of Henry VIII, 1557; Pierre-Jean de Beranger, poet, 1857; Ned Buntline (Edward Zane Carroll Judson), western writer, 1886; Gottfried Keller, novelist and poet, 1890; William Hamilton Gibson, illustrator, writer and naturalist, 1896; Sir Victor Alexander Haden Horsley, physician, 1916; Nicholas II, last Tsar of Russia, 1918; Alexandra (Aleksandra Fyodorovna), Tsarina of Russia, 1918; Joseph Hilaire Belloc, writer, 1953; John Phillips Marquand, novelist, 1960.

On this day: the Muslim Era began when Mohamed began his flight from Mecca to Medina (The Hejira), 622; the first banknotes in Europe were issued by the Bank of Stockholm, 1661; Mozart's opera Il Seraglio was first performed, Vienna, 1782; the Tsar of Russia (Nicholas II) and all his family were murdered by Bolsheviks at Ekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk), 1918; the world's first parking meters were installed in Oklahoma City, 1935; the first atomic test bomb was exploded at Los Alamos, New Mexico, 1945; the Mont Blanc road tunnel, between France and Italy, was opened, 1965; the Bill to abolish the Greater London Council received Royal Assent, 1985.

Today is the Feast Day of St Athenogenes, St Eustathius of Antioch, St Fulrad, St Helier, St Mary Magdalen Postel and St Reineldis.