Anniversaries

Births: George III, King, 1738; Sir James Pennethorne, architect, 1801; Julius Janssen, conductor and composer, 1852; Nassau William Senior, economist, 1864.

Deaths: Giovanni Jacopo Casanova, adventurer and writer, 1798; William Edward Frost, painter, 1877; Eugen Adam, painter, 1880; Emily Wilding Davidson, suffragette, trampled to death by a horse at the Derby 1913; Frederick Robert Spofforth, cricketer and 'demon bowler', 1926; Wilhelm II, former Emperor of Germany, 1941; Dorothy Gish (de Guiche), actress, 1968.

On this day: Mme Thible, an opera singer, was the first woman to fly in a hot-air balloon, 1784; the French defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Magenta, 1859; an attack on the Eastern Front in Europe led by the Russian General Brusilov failed, 1916; the Order of the British Empire was instituted, 1917; the British evacuation from Dunkirk was completed, 1940; Rome was liberated by the Allies, 1944; the first post-war non- Communist Albanian government took office, 1991.

Today is the Feast Day of St Francis Caracciolo, St Metrophanes, St Optatus of Milevis, St Petroc, St Quirinus of Siscia and St Vincentia Gerosa.