Anniversaries

Births: Andrew Jackson, seventh US President, 1767; William Lamb, second Viscount Melbourne, statesman, 1779; Nicola Vaccai, composer, 1790; Toby Edward Rosenthal, painter, 1848; Dame Madge Kendall, actress, 1849; Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory (Persse), playwright and a founder of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin 1852; Emil von Behring, bacteriologist, 1854; Leslie Stuart (Thomas Augustine Barrett), popular composer ('Lily of Laguna'), 1864; George Brent, actor, 1904.

Deaths: Gaius Julius Caesar, assassinated 44 BC; Salvator Rosa (Salvatoriello), painter, 1673; Maria Luigi Carlo Cherubini, composer, 1842; Henri Scheffer, painter, 1862; Sir Joseph William Bazalgette, engineer, 1891; James Joseph Sylvester, mathematician, 1897; Sir Henry Bessemer, engineer, 1898; Howard Phillips Lovecraft, author, 1937; Nevil Vincent Sidgwick, chemist, 1952; Arthur Holly Compton, physicist, 1962; Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, composer, 1968; Aristotle Onassis, ship-owner, 1975; Dame Rebecca West (Cicely Isobel Fairfield), author, 1983.

On this day: Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage to America, 1493; Cornwallis defeated the American colonists at the Battle of Guilford Court House, North Carolina 1781; Maine became the 23rd of the United States, 1820; an attempt was made by Irish-Americans to blow up the offices of the Times, 1883; the first 11-a-side cricket Test Match was played, Australia v England, Sydney 1876; the British conquest of Northern Nigeria was completed, 1903; the London department store, Selfridges, opened, 1909; Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia, abdicated, 1917; the American Legion for servicemen and women was founded, 1919; the German army invaded Bohemia and Moravia (Czechoslovakia), 1939.

Today is the Feast Day of St Clement Mary Hofbauer, St Longinus, St Louise de Marillac, St Lucretia or Leocritia, St Matrona and St Zachary, pope.