Anniversaries

Births: Sir John Holt, Lord Chief Justice, 1642; John Philips, poet, 1676; Heinrich Karl Ebell, jurist, musician and composer, 1775; Theodor Fontane, novelist, 1819; Heinrich Germer, pianoforte teacher and theorist, 1837; Andre- Charles-Prosper Messager, composer, 1853; Joseph Rudyard Kipling, author and poet, 1865; Simon Guggenheim, senator and philanthropist, 1867; Stephen Butler Leacock, humorist and economist, 1869; Hideki Tojo, prime minister of Japan, 1884; Leslie Poles Hartley, novelist, 1895; Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky, composer, 1904; Sir Carol Reed, film director, 1906.

Deaths: Richard, Duke of York, killed 1460; Roger Ascham, scholar and writer, 1568; Pope Innocent IX, 1591; Jean-Baptiste van Helmont, scientist, 1644; Robert Boyle, chemist, 1691; John Turberville Needham, priest and scientist, 1781; William Hilton, painter, 1839; Marshal Juan Prim y Prats, soldier and statesman, 1870; Sir Samuel White Baker, explorer, 1893; Amelia Jenks Bloomer, social reformer, 1894; Sir James Paget, surgeon, 1899; Angela Georgina, first Baroness Burdett- Coutts, philanthropist, 1906; Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, peasant and mystic, murdered 1916; Rufus Daniel Isaacs, first Marquess of Reading, Lord Chief Justice, 1935; Romain Rolland, author, 1944; Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician, 1947; Maurice Denton Welch, novelist and artist, 1948; Ruth Draper, monologuist, 1956; Charles Vincent Massey, statesman, 1967; Trygve Halvdan Lie, first Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1968.

On this day: the Yorkists suffered a defeat at the Battle of Wakefield, 1460; Scindhiah, Maharajah of Gwalior, submitted to the British, 1803; the United States took possession of Louisiana, 1803; Zululand was annexed to Natal, 1897; the P & O liner Persia was torpedoed off Crete with the loss of 200 lives, 1915; Russian forces captured Kaluga, 1941; the conflict over Kashmir was referred to the UN, 1947; King Michael of Romania abdicated, 1947; the first London production Show No Strings was presented, 1963; Karol Wojtyla (later to be Pope John Paul II ), became Archbishop of Krakow, Poland, 1963.

Today is the Feast Day of St Anysia, St Anysius, St Egwin and St Sabinus of Spoleto.