Anniversaries

Births: John Dee, scholar, mathematician and astrologer, 1527; John Clare, peasant poet and farm labourer, 1793; Sir George Gilbert Scott, architect, 1811; Dr Charles William Corfe, organist, 1814; Carl Armbruster, conductor and pianist, 1846; Sidney James Webb, First Baron Passfield, social reformer, 1859; Clifford Bax, playwright, 1886; Gavrilo Princip, Bosnian revolutionary and assassin of Archduke Ferdinand, 1894; Sidney Blackmer, actor, 1895; Kenneth MacKenzie, Baron Clark, art historian, 1903.

Deaths: Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, 1712; Edward Braddock, British general commanding forces in America, 1755; James Bradley, astronomer, 1762; Jean-Paul Marat, French revolutionary leader, murdered 1793; James Northcote, painter, 1831; John Charles Fremont, explorer, 1890; Alfred Marshall, economist, 1924; Warwick Windridge Armstrong, cricketer, 1947; Arnold Schonberg, composer, 1951; Oliver Hilary Sambourne Messel, designer, 1978; Sir Seretse Khama, president of Botswana, 1980.

On this day: Christ Church, Oxford, was founded as Cardinal College by Cardinal Wolsey, 1525; the Parliamentarians were defeated at the Battle of Devizes, 1643; Charlotte Corday murdered Jean-Paul Marat in his bath 1793; Wordsworth wrote his 'Lines' composed 'Above Tintern Abbey', 1798; Queen Victoria went to live in Buckingham Palace, 1837; the Scottish Reform Act was passed, 1868; the Treaty of Berlin was signed, granting Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria, 1878; the independence of Romania from Turkey was proclaimed, 1878; the British Bombardment of Alexandria ended, 1882; the airship R34 landed in Norfolk after returning from the US, 1919; the France II (5,806 tons), the world's largest sailing vessel, was wrecked off the coast of New Caledonia, 1922; in Germany all political parties but the Nazis were banned, 1933; in Britain, the steel industry was privatised, 1953; a 'Live Aid' rock concert, organised by Bob Geldof and linked by television to the US, raised over pounds 42m for African famine relief, 1985.

Today is the Feast Day of Saints Bridget and Maura, St Eugenius of Carthage, St Francis Solano, St Henry the Emperor, St Mildred, St Silas or Silvanus.