Anniversaries

Births: Elizabeth of York, Henry VII's queen, 1465; Johann Nikolaus Konrad Gotze, violinist and composer, 1791; William Henry Fox Talbot, photographic pioneer, 1800; Josiah Willard Gibbs, physicist, 1839; Farouk I, King of Egypt, 1920.

Deaths: William Shenstone, poet and gardener, 1763; Jean-Bernard-Leon Foucault, physicist, 1868; Honore Daumier, caricaturist, 1879; Milan IV, former king of Serbia, 1901; Jean- Francisque Raffaelli, painter, etcher and architect, 1924; John Buchan, first Baron Tweedsmuir, governor-general of Canada and novelist, 1940; Axel Martin Fredrik Munthe, physician and writer, 1949; Erno von Dohnanyi, composer, 1960; Sylvia Plath, poet, 1963; Henry Mayo Bateman, cartoonist, 1970; David Garnett, novelist, 1981; Brian Inglis, author and editor, 1993 .

On this day: Napoleon married Marie- Louise of Austria, 1810; the Miracle of Lourdes occurred, when St Bernadette had her vision of the Virgin, 1858; Friedrich Ebert was elected President of the German Republic, 1919; the Lateran Treaty established an independent Vatican State in Rome, covering 108 acres, 1929; a Treaty, signed by 63 countries prohibited the installation of nuclear weapons in the sea-bed beyond a twelve-mile coastal strip, 1971; Margaret Thatcher became the first woman leader of a British political party, 1975; in South Africa, Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years, 1990; The Queen agreed to pay tax on her private income, 1993.

Today is the Feast Day of St Benedict of Aniane, St Caedmon, St Gregory II, Pope, St Lazarus of Milan, St Lucius of Adrianople, St Pascal I, Pope, Saints Saturninus, Dativus, and Others and St Severinus of Agaunum.