Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1573; Heinrich Himmler, Nazi head of the SS, 1900. Deaths: Edgar Allan Poe, novelist, 1849; William Barnes, Dorset dialect poet, 1886; Oliver Wendell Holmes, physician and writer, 1894; Sir Charles Hubert Hubert Hastings Parry, composer, 1918; Marie Lloyd (Matilda Alice Victoria Wood), music hall comedienne, 1922; Marguerite Radclyffe Hall, author, 1943; Clarence Birdseye, inventor of quick-freezing, 1956; Mario Lanza (Alfredo Arnold Cocozza), singer, 1959. On this day: the Battle of Lepanto was fought, 1571; the London Philharmonic Orchestra gave its first performance, 1932; the German Democratic Republic was set up in Eastern Germany, 1949; the first pictures of the far side of the moon were taken by the Soviet spacecraft Lunik III, 1959; the Independent was first published, 1986. Today is the Feast Day of St Artaldus or Arthaud, St Helanus, St Justina of Padua, St Mark, pope and St Osyth.