Anniversaries

Births: Salvatore Rosa, painter, poet and musician, 1615; Anna Letitia Barbauld (Aikin), poetess, teacher and hymn-writer, 1743; George Edmund Street, architect, 1824; Leon-Joseph-Florentin Bonnat, painter, 1833; Johannes Schreyer, musician and writer, 1856; Kurt Schwitters, artist and poet, 1887; Errol Flynn, actor, 1909.

Deaths: Carl Friedrich Abel, viola player and composer, 1787; James Clarence Mangan, poet, 1849; Jules-Alfred Huot de Goncourt, writer, 1870; Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys, painter, 1904; Francisco (Pancho) Villa (Doroteo Arango), revolutionary, assassinated 1923; Gustaf Allan Petterssen, composer, 1980.

On this day: 147 people were confined in the cell later called the Black Hole of Calcutta, from which only 23 came out alive, 1756; Louis XVI attempted to flee to Varennes, 1791; on the death of her uncle William IV, Queen Victoria ascended the throne, 1837; a new Tay Railway Bridge was opened for public traffic, 1887; the British Government promised independence to Mesopotamia (Iraq), 1920; the Soviet Union and the US agreed to institute a 'hot line' between the White House and the Kremlin, 1963; Sheila Scott arrived at London Airport after being the first Briton to make a round-the-world solo flight, 1966.

Today is the Feast Day of St Adalbert of Magdeburg, St Bain or Bagnus, St Goban, Saints John Fenwick and John Gavan, St Silverius, Pope.