Anniversaries

Births: Tiberius, Roman emperor, 42 BC; Francis Danby, painter, 1793; William John Thoms, founder and editor of Notes and Queries, 1885; John Bright, political reformer, 1811; William Frend de Morgan, artist and novelist, 1839; Alphonse-Marie Leon Daudet, writer, 1867; Aleksander Aleksandrovich Blok, poet, 1880; Michael Arlen (Dikran Kouyoumdjian), novelist, 1895; Paul Hindemith, viola player and composer, 1895; Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley Bt, Fascist leader, 1896.

Deaths: Henry III, King, 1272; Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the throne, executed 1499; Jack Sheppard, highwayman, hanged 1724; John Walter, founder of The Times, 1812; George Alfred Henty, author of books for boys, 1902; Carl von Linde, chemist and engineer, 1934; Charles Maurras, writer and philosopher, 1952; William Clark Gable, actor, 1960; William Holden (William Franklin Beedle), actor, 1981; Arthur Bowden Askey, comedian, 1983.

On this day: Westminster Bridge was formally opened, 1750; British troops captured Washington, 1776; the Suez Canal was formally opened at Port Said, 1869; an Anglo-French condominium was set up over the New Hebrides, 1887; Dahomey became a protectorate of France, 1893; British Bechuanaland became a crown colony, 1895; Wyndham's Theatre, London, opened, 1899; the first cartoon film, The Enchanted Drawing, by the American artist James Stuart Blackton, appeared, 1900; in Budapest, Hungary was proclaimed an independent republic, 1918; following a period of rampant inflation, a new currency system was introduced in Germany, 1923; Stanley Baldwin warned King Edward VIII that if he married Mrs Wallis Simpson he would offend public opinion and damage the prestige of the throne, 1936; four Egyptian ships entered the Suez Canal - the first commercial vessels to use the canal since its 1967 closure, 1974.

Today is the Feast Day of St Afan, St Agnes of Assisi, St Edmund of Abingdon, St Eucherius of Lyons, St Gertrude of Helfta, St Margaret of Scotland, St Mechtildis of Helfta and St Nikon "Metanoeite".