Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: John Calvin, religious reformer, 1509; Mrs Aphra Behn, playwright and novelist, baptised 1640; Sir William Blackstone, jurist, 1723; Sigismund von Neukomm, composer, 1778; Captain Frederick Marryat, novelist, 1792; Robert Chambers, publisher and author, 1802; Sir Arthur Helps, essayist and historian, 1813; Sandford Robinson Gifford, landscape painter, 1823; Camille Pissarro, painter, 1830; Henryk Wieniawski, violinist and composer, 1835; Will Bradley, artist, author and film director, 1868; Marcel Proust, author, 1871; Syrie Gwendoline Maud Barnardo Maugham, interior decorator and former wife of Somerset Maugham, 1879; John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, sixth Viscount Gort, soldier, 1886; Toyohiko Kagawa, reformer and evangelist, 1888; Jimmy McHugh, composer, 1892; Carl Orff, composer, 1895; Evelyn Laye (Elsie Evelyn Lay), actress and singer, 1900. Deaths: Hadrian (Publius Aelius Hadrianus), Roman emperor, 138; El Cid (Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar), Spanish hero, 1099; Ladislaus IV the Cumanian, King of Hungary, assassinated 1290; William I, the Silent, Prince of Orange, assassinated 1584; Theodore II, Tsar of Russia, assassinated 1605; George Stubbs, animal painter, 1806; Fernando Sor, composer, 1839; Louis-Jacques Mande Daguerre, photographic pioneer, 1851; Karl Richard Lepsius, Egyptologist, 1884; Pedro Antonio de Alarcon y Ariza, writer and journalist, 1891; Harry Quilter, barrister, artist and author, 1907; John Arbuthnot Fisher, first Baron Fisher, naval reformer, 1920; Albert Chevalier, music-hall artiste, 1923; (Ferdinand) Jelly Roll Morton, ragtime composer and pianist, 1941; Theodore Sigismund Stribling, novelist, 1965; Earl Warren, US Supreme Court Chief Justice, 1974; Giorgio de Chirico, painter, 1978. On this day: Henry VI of Lancaster was captured by the Yorkists at the Battle of Northampton; 1460; Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen of England, 1553; Peter III, Tsar of Russia, was dethroned, 1762; Mongolia was proclaimed an independent state, 1921; Rheims Cathedral was reopened after restoration from First World War bomb damage, 1938; the Battle of Britain began, 1940; the Allied invasion of Sicily began, 1943; the first parking meters were installed in London, 1958; the communications satellite, Telstar, was launched, 1962; the Cable and Broadcasting Act was passed, permitting cable television to be operated, 1984. Today is the Feast Day of St Amelberga, Saints Rufina and Secunda, The Seven Brothers and St Felicity.