Anniversaries

Births: Philip IV, King of Spain, 1605; Cornelis de Heem, still-life painter, 1631; Giuseppe Tartini, composer, 1692; Dionysios Solomos, poet, 1798; Sir Frederick William Burton, painter, 1816; Karl Evers, pianist and composer, 1819; Asger Hamerik (Hammerich), composer, 1843; Edmund Husserl, philosopher, 1859; Harvey Williams Cushing, neurosurgeon, 1869; Albert I, King of the Belgians, 1875; Walter Connolly, actor, 1887; Sir Adrian Boult, conductor, 1889; Mary Pickford (Gladys Smith), actress, 1893; Ilka Chase, novelist, playwright and actress, 1903; Sonja Henie, skater and actress, 1912.

Deaths: Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus), Roman emperor, 217; John II, Byzantine emperor, killed by accident 1143; Wilhelm, Baron von Humboldt, philologist, 1835; Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti, composer, 1848; Elisha Graves Otis, inventor of the safety lift, 1861; Baron Roland Eotvos, physicist, 1919; Eric Axel Karlfeldt, poet, 1931; Edwin Cannan, economist, 1935; Sir William Henry Hadow, author and musicologist, 1937; Eugene-Marcel Prevost, novelist, 1941; Vaslav Fomich Nijinsky, dancer and choreographer, 1950; Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, painter and sculptor, 1973; Omar Nelson Bradley, general, 1981. On this day: Florida was discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon, 1513; the steamship Great Western began her maiden voyage to New York from Bristol, 1838; the Battle of Atbara was fought, when Lord Kitchener captured the Mahdist leader Mahmud, 1898; the Anglo- French agreement called the Entente Cordiale was signed, 1904; Herbert Henry Asquith became prime minister, 1908; a treaty was signed between Colombia and the United States agreeing control of the Panama Canal Zone, 1914; King Zog of Albania left his country, following the Fascist invasion, 1939; the final assembly of the League of Nations was held, 1946; in Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta and five others were convicted of being involved with Mau Mau, 1953.

Today is the Feast Day of St Dionysius of Corinth, St Julia Billiart, St Perpetuus of Tours and St Walter of Pontoise.