Anniversaries

Births: Valentin Adamberger (Adamonti), tenor, 1743; John Paul Jones, naval hero, 1747; Catherine Maria Fanshawe, painter and poet, 1765; Alexander Wilson, ornithologist, 1766; Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore, at sea, off Port Morant, Jamaica 1781; Sir William Jackson Hooker, botanist, 1785; Nicholas I, Tsar of Russia, 1796; Karl Engel, musicologist, 1818; Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, 1832; Walter Runciman, first Baron Runciman, shipowner, 1847; Elisabeth Lutyens, composer, 1906.

Deaths: Henry II, King, 1189; Jan Huss, religious reformer, burnt at the stake 1415; Ludovico Ariosto, poet, 1533; St Thomas More, executed 1535; Edward VI, King, 1553; Baron Pierre-Narcisse Guerin, painter, 1833; Sir Edwin Chadwick, physician and sanitary pioneer, 1890; Henry-Rene Albert-Guy de Maupassant, writer, 1893; Odilon Redon, painter and engraver, 1916; Wilhelm, Graf von Mirbach-Harff, ambassador, assassinated in Moscow 1918; Edward Goodrich Acheson, chemist, 1931; Kenneth Grahame, children's author, 1932; Aneurin Bevan, statesman, 1960; William Harrison Faulkner, novelist, 1962; Sarah Gertrude Millin (Liebson), author, 1968; Daniel Louis Armstrong, jazz musician, 1971; Otto Klemperer, conductor, 1973; Thorley Walters, actor, 1991.

On this day: the Grand Council of Nimes met under Pope Urban II, 1096; the Treaty of Edinburgh was signed between England, France and Scotland, 1560; Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle set out on his exploration of North America, 1669; at the Battle of Sedgemoor, the last to be fought on English soil, the troops of James II defeated the Duke of Monmouth, 1685; the Battle of Wagram was fought when Napoleon defeated the Archduke Charles of Austria, 1809; Pope Pius VII was taken prisoner by the French after he had excommunicated Napoleon, 1809; the Republican Party was established at Ripon, Wisconsin, in the United States, 1854; Queensland, Australia, was separated from New South Wales as a colony in its own right, 1859; Louis Pasteur successfully treated a subject with his anti-rabies vaccine, 1885; the Duke of York (later King George V) married Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, 1893; Brooklands motor racing circuit was opened, 1907; Col Thomas Edward Lawrence, a British soldier, took over command of the Arab Revolt against Turkey, 1917; the first airship to cross the Atlantic, the British R34, reached New York, having taken 108 hours, 12 minutes, 1919; the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formally constituted, 1923; the first all-talking feature film, The Lights of New York, was shown, New York 1928; the first London performance of the operetta Maritza was staged, 1938; President Roosevelt enunciated the Four Freedoms in a speech, 1940; the Big Top tent at Barnum and Ringling's circus at Hartford, Connecticut, caught fire, killing 107 people, 1944; the frontier between East Germany and Poland was declared to be the Oder-Neisse Line, 1950; the Saar became part of West Germany, 1959; Nyasaland, renamed Malawi, became independent, 1964; Malawi became a republic, 1966; civil war erupted in Nigeria, when fighting broke out between federal troops and men from the province of Biafra, 1967.

Today is the Feast Day of St Dominica, St Goar, St Godeleva, St Mary Goretti, St Modwenna, St Romulus of Fiesole, St Sexburga and St Sisoes.

Wills

Mr Brian Leonard Redhead, of Macclesfield, Cheshire, the broadcaster and journalist, left estate valued at pounds 675,754 net.