Anniversaries

Births: Dante (Durante) Alighieri, poet, 1265; Josephine Elizabeth Butler, social reformer, 1828; Alphonse Daudet, novelist, 1840; Vesta Tilley (Matilda Alice Powles, Lady de Frece), male impersonator, music-hall artiste, 1864; Georges Braque, painter, 1882; Dame Daphne du Maurier (Lady Browning), author, 1907; Joe Louis (Joseph Louis Barrow), heavyweight boxing champion, 1914.

Deaths: John Nash, architect, planner of Regent's Park and Regent Street, 1835; Sholem Aleichem (Solomon J. Rabinowitz), Yiddish writer, 1916; Frances Mary Hodgkins, painter, 1947; (Frank James) Gary Cooper, actor, 1961.

On this day: Mary of Scotland was defeated during the rebellion at the Battle of Langside (Glasgow), 1568; the first permanent English settlement was made at Jamestown, Virginia, 1607; the United States declared war on Mexico, 1846; in Algeria, rioting by French settlers led to the French army's seizing power, 1958.

Today is the Feast Day of St Andrew Hubert Fournet, St Erconwald, St Euthymius the Enlightener, St Glyceria of Heraclea, St John the Silent, St Mucius or Mocius, St Peter Regalatus, St Servatius or Servais and St Solomon.