Anniversaries

Births: Virginia Dare, the first child of English parents to be born in America, 1587; Antonio Salieri, composer, 1750; Meriwether Lewis, explorer, 1774; Pieter Lichtenthal, writer and composer, 1780; Friedrich Wieck, pianist and teacher, 1785; John Russell, first Earl Russell, statesman, 1792; Franz Josef I, Emperor of Austria-Hungary, 1830; Marshall Field, department-store founder, 1834; Benjamin-Louis Paul Godard, composer, 1849; Otto Harbach (Otto Abels Hauerbach), librettist and lyricist, 1873; Henry Cornelius, film director, 1913.

Deaths: Genghis Khan, Mongol conqueror, 1227; Pope Paul IV, 1559; Guido Reni, painter, 1642; William Boyd, fourth Earl Kilmarnock, rebel general, executed 1746; Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, 1765; James Beattie, poet, 1803; Matthew Boulton, engineer, 1809; Andre-Jacques Garnerin, balloonist, 1823; Sir William Fairbairn, engineer and inventor, 1874; George JS Miller, sculptor, 1876; Frederick Nicholls Crouch, musician and composer, 1896; Sir Henry Thompson, surgeon, 1904; William Henry Hudson, naturalist and writer, 1922; Anita Loos, screenwriter, novelist and playwright, 1981; Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, architectural historian, 1983.

On this day: the French under De la Clue were defeated in the Battle of Lagos by Admiral Boscawen, 1759; the Russians were defeated by Napoleon at Smolensk, 1812; US forces captured Santa Fe, 1846; the Treaty of Alliance forming the North German Confederation was signed, 1866; the Prussians were victorious over the French at the Battle of Gravelotte, 1870; the National Fire Service in Britain was established, 1941; the Tay Road Bridge was opened, 1966; the liner Queen Mary was sold to the town of Long Beach, California, 1967; President Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union, while on holiday in the Crimea, was seized and held prisoner, 1991.

Today is the Feast Day of St Agapitus, St Alipius, St Beatrice or Brites da Silva, Saints Florus and Laurus and St Helena.