Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: John Evelyn, diarist and founder of the Royal Society, 1620; Jan Vermeer (Johannes Van der Meer), painter, 1632; Meyndert Hobbema, painter, 1638; John Keats, poet, 1795; Benoit Fourneyron, engineer and inventor of the water turbine, 1802; Philo Remington, typewriter and small- arms manufacturer, 1816; Sir Joseph Wilson Swan, chemist and inventor of the electric lamp, 1828; Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese leader, 1887; Sir George Hubert Wilkins, polar explorer and aviator, 1888. Deaths: Fra Bartolommeo de Pagholo (Della Porta), painter, 1517; Dan Leno (George Galvin), comedian, 1904; Istvan, Count Tisza, Hungarian statesman, assassinated, 1918; Harry Houdini (Erich Weiss), escapologist, 1926; Otto Rank, psychoanalyst, 1939; Augustus Edwin John, painter, 1961; Mrs Indira Gandhi, Indian prime minister, assassinated 1984; Federico Fellini, film director, 1993; Professor Alan Dudley Bush, composer, conductor and pianist, 1995. On this day: Martin Luther nailed his theses to the church door in Wittenberg, 1517; the first stone of Blackfriars Bridge, London, was laid, 1760; the first telegraph cable across the Pacific was completed, 1902; steel helmets were first issued to British troops on the Western Front, 1915; Sultan Ahmad, Shah of Persia (Iran) was deposed by the majlis (parliament), 1925; the Battle of Britain ended, 1940; British and French troops bombed Egyptian airfields at Suez, 1956; a bomb exploded at the top of the Post Office Tower, London, 1971; the London Evening News ceased publication, 1980. Today is All Hallows' Eve and the Feast Day of St Bee or Bega, St Foillan of Fosses, St Quentin or Quintinus and St Wolfgang.