Anniversaries

Births: Caligula, Roman emperor, 12; Jahangir, Mogul emperor, 1569; Charles Turner, engraver, 1774; Pierre-Jules Theophile Gautier, novelist and poet, 1811; Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz, physicist, 1821; Charles James Lever, novelist, 1806; Elizabeth Mary Russell (Beauchamp), Countess Russell ("Elizabeth"), novelist, 1866; Maria Montessori, educationist, 1870; Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands, 1880; Edwin DuBose Heyward, novelist and playwright, 1885; Friedrich Adolf Paneth, chemist, 1887; William "Bombardier Billy" Wells, heavyweight boxer, 1889; Fredric March (Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel), actor, 1897; Roland Culver, actor, 1900; William Saroyan, writer, 1908; Richard Basehart, actor, 1914; Alan Jay Lerner, writer and lyricist, 1918; Roy Castle, comedian, musician and dancer, 1932.

Deaths: King Henry V, 1422; John Bunyan, writer, 1688; Francois-Andre Danican Philidor, composer and chess-player, 1795; Sir Arthur Phillip, first Governor of New South Wales, 1814; Ferdinand Lassalle (Lassal), socialist, killed in a duel 1864; Charles-Pierre Baudelaire, poet, 1867; Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston, explorer and administrator, 1927; Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine, novelist, 1931; Harley Granville Barker, actor, playwright and critic, 1946; Georges Braque, Cubist painter, 1963; Rocky Marciano (Rocco Marchegiano), heavyweight boxer, killed in an air crash 1969; John Ford (Sean O'Feeney), film director, 1973; Norman Eric Kirk, New Zealand prime minister, 1974; Urho Kaleva Kekkonen, president of Finland, 1986; Henry Moore, sculptor, 1986; Diana, Princess of Wales, killed in a car crash 1997.

On this day: Henry VI, acceded as King at the age of nine months, 1422; at the Battle of Flores, Sir Richard Grenville engaged the whole Spanish Fleet in the Revenge, but was captured and later died, 1591; Mary Anne "Polly" Nichols, a prostitute, was found dead in Whitechapel, London, the first victim of Jack the Ripper, 1888; the musical show Chu Chin Chow was first performed, London 1916; the first London production of the musical show Tip-Toes was presented, 1926; Kurt Weill's opera Die Dreigroschenoper was first performed, Berlin 1928; women and children were evacuated from London, 1939; Malaya became independent, 1957; Trinidad and Tobago became independent, 1962; a South Korean airliner was shot down by the Soviet Union, killing 269 people aboard, 1983; over 1,000 people died in a tropical storm in the Philippines, 1984; Diana, Princess of Wales, and her friend Dodi Fayed, were killed in a car crash in Paris, 1997.

Today is the Feast Day of St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Paulinus of Trier, St Raymond Nonnatus and The Servite Martyrs of Prague.