Anniversaries

Births: Andrea Doria, statesman and admiral, 1466; Andrea Palladio, (Andrea di Pietro della Gondola) architect, 1508; Sir Henry Savile, scholar and mathematician, 1549; Sir Philip Sidney, poet, soldier and courtier, 1554; John Bunyan, writer, baptised 1628; Jonathan Swift, writer, 1667; Mark Lemon, editor of Punch and humorist, 1809; Alkan (Charles-Henri Valentin Morhange), pianist and composer, 1813; Adolphe-William Bouguereau, painter, 1825; Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), writer, 1835; Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose, scientist, 1858; Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, statesman, 1874; Edgar Douglas Adrian, first Baron Adrian, physiologist, 1889.

Deaths: Edmund Ironside, King of the English, 1016; Michael Wolgemut (Wohlgemuth), painter, 1519; William Habington, poet, 1654; John Selden, lawyer and antiquarian, 1654; Marcello Malpighi, anatomist, 1694; Marshal Maurice de Saxe (Hermann Moritz), soldier, 1750; Pope Pius VIII, 1830; James Sheridan Knowles, playwright, 1862; Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, playwright, 1900; Edward John Eyre, explorer, 1901; Ernst Lubitsch, film director, 1947; Wilhelm Furtwangler, conductor and composer, 1954; Beniamino Gigli, operatic tenor, 1957; Patrick Kavanagh, poet, 1967; Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan, playwright, 1977; Zeppo (Herbert) Marx, comedian and agent, 1979; Joyce Irene Grenfell, entertainer, 1979; Richard Llewellyn (Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd), writer, 1983; Cary Grant (Alexander Archibald Leach), actor, 1986.

On this day: Charles XII of Sweden defeated the Russians at Narva, 1700; Mexico declared war on France, 1838; photographs were first transmitted by radio from Britain to the United States, 1924; the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, near London, was destroyed by fire, 1936; Finland was invaded by the Soviet Union, 1939; U Thant, Burmese diplomat, was elected Secretary- General of the United Nations, 1962; Barbados became independent, 1966; the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen became independent, 1967; the Trades Description Act came into force, 1968; because of a union dispute, The Times ceased pub- lication for nearly a full year, 1978.

Today is the Feast Day of St Andrew the Apostle, St Cuthbert Mayne and St Sapor.