Anniversaries

Births: Henry V, King, 1387; Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, soldier and diplomat, 1745; Nathan Mayer Rothschild, banker, 1777; William Marsden, physician and hospital founder, 1796; Sir Anthony Panizzi (Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi), bibliophile and scholar, 1797; Francis Parkman, historian, 1823; Sir Edward Marshall Hall, criminal law advocate, 1858; Andrew Bonar Law, statesman, 1858; Ellsworth Huntington, geographer and explorer, 1876; Alfred Noyes, poet, 1880; Sir Alexander Korda (Sandor Laszlo Korda), film director and producer, 1893; Robert Malise Bowyer Nichols, poet, 1893.

Deaths: Pope Martin I, 655; Tomas de Torquemada, Dominican monk and Spanish Inquisitor-General, 1498; Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, physicist, 1736; Louis XVIII, King of France, 1824; Grace Aguilar, novelist and historian, 1847; Edward Bouverie Pusey, theologian, 1882; Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton Bt, physician, 1916; Sir Ronald Ross, bacteriologist, 1932; (Count) John Francis McCormack, tenor, 1945; Vesta Tilley (Matilda Alice Powles, Lady de Frece), male impersonator, music hall artiste, 1952; Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery, statesman and journalist, 1955; Michael Carr (Maurice Cohen), composer, 1968; Walter Greenwood, novelist and playwright, 1974; Marc Bolan (Mark Field), singer, songwriter and bandleader, 1977; Maria Callas (Cecilia Sophia Anna Maria Kalogeropoulos), opera singer, 1977.

On this day: Cape Town was taken by a British force under James Craig, 1795; in the US, a wagon train of 120 emigrants was massacred by Indians, 1857; David Livingstone discovered Lake Nyasa, 1859; the first Post Office Savings Banks were opened, 1861; the Soviet Union became a member of the League of Nations, 1934; Reza Khan Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, abdicated, 1941; Malaysia became independent, 1963; Resolution, Britain's first Polaris submarine, was launched, 1966; Papua New Guinea became independent, 1975; in the United States, the Episcopal Church approved the ordination of women to the priesthood, 1976; in Tower Hamlets, East London, riots took place after a British National Party candidate was elected to a council seat, 1993.

Today is the Feast Day of Saints Abundius and Abundantius St Cornelius, pope, St Cyprian, St Edith of Wilton, St Euphemia, St Ludmila and St Ninian.