Anniversaries

Births: Emil Georg Konrad Sauer, pianist and composer, 1862; John Cowper Powys, novelist, 1872; Sir Alfred John Munnings, artist, 1878; Ernst Kretschmer, psychologist, 1888; Eddie (Edward Vernon) Rickenbacker (Rickenbacher), First World War fighter pilot, 1890; Juan Pern, president of Argentina, 1895; Rouben Mamoulian, film director, 1898.

Deaths: Henry Fielding, novelist, 1754; Pierre Fournier, typographer and engraver, 1768; Count Vittorio Alfieri, poet, 1803; Franklin Pierce, 14th US President, 1869; Sir John Monash, commander of the Australian Army Corps in France in the First World War, 1931; Gus Kahn, lyricist, 1941; Edith Anna Oenone Somerville, writer, 1949; Kathleen Mary Ferrier, contralto, 1953; Clement Richard Attlee, first Earl Attlee, statesman, 1967; Willy Brandt (Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm), former West German Chancellor, 1992.

On this day: the final consecration of St Mark's, Venice, took place, 1085; King's College London was opened, 1831; 300,000 people died in China during a great typhoon, 1881; the Battle of Loos ended, 1915; Beirut was taken by the British, 1918; the US aircraft-carrier Saratoga was launched, then the world's most powerful warship, 1955; Britain's tallest building, the Post Office Tower, London, opened, 1965; Britain's first legal commercial radio station, LBC (London Broadcasting Company) started transmitting, 1973.

Today is the Feast Day of St Demetrius, St Simeon Senex, St Keyne, St Marcellus, St Pelagia (or Margaret) the Penitent, St Reparata of Caesarea and St Thais.