Anniversaries

Births: Dr Thomas Willis, anatomist and physician, 1621; Jean-Francois de Troy, painter, 1679; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer, 1756; Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, philosopher, 1775; August Alexander Klengel, organist and composer, 1783; Samuel Palmer, landscape painter, 1805; Juan Cristostomo Arriaga, composer, 1806; Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le- Duc, architect, 1814; Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), author, 1832; Kaiser Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albrecht), Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, 1859; Jerome David Kern, composer, 1885; Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg, poet and novelist, 1891; Buddy DeSylva (George Gard DeSylva), lyricist and director, 1895; Hyman George Rickover, admiral, 1900.

Deaths: Abraham Bloemaert, painter and engraver, 1651; Bartolommeo Cristofori, harpsichord and piano maker, 1731; Thomas Woolston, deist, died in prison 1733; Willem van Mieris, painter, 1747; William Tryon, American colonial governor, 1788; Johann Gottlieb Fichte, philosopher, 1814; Samuel, first Viscount Hood, admiral, 1816; Charles Hutton, mathematician, 1823; John James Audubon, artist and naturalist, 1851; Janos Bolyai, mathematician, 1860; Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, composer, 1901; Endry Ady, poet, 1919; Giovanni Verga, novelist and playwright, 1922; Emile Cohl (Courtet), film animator, 1938; Bert Lee, popular composer, 1947; Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer, 1972; Charles Arthur Bertram Marshall, author, broadcaster and wit, 1989; Dame Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, actress, 1992.

On this day: the independence of Greece was proclaimed, 1822; a patent for the electric lamp was taken out by Thomas A. Edison, 1879; the Communist Party 'Spartacus' was formed in Berlin, 1916; the first London production of the musical show Oh, Boy] was presented as Oh, Joy], 1919; television was first demonstrated publicly by John Logie Baird, 1926; civilian women were conscripted in Germany, 1943; the US made their first bombing raid on Germany, 1943; three US astronauts died during tests in the Apollo capsule at Cape Kennedy, 1967; in Iraq, 14 men, most of them Jewish, were publicly hanged on charges of spying for Israel, 1969; a cease-fire began in Vietnam, 1973.

Today is the Feast Day of St Angela Merici, St Julian of Le Mans, St Marius or May and St Vitalian, pope.