Anniversaries
Births: Margaret, Queen of the Scots, wife of Alexander III, 1240; Francesco Guardi, painter, 1712; Denis Diderot, scholar and encyclopaedist, 1713; Dr William Wilkie, poet, 1721; Charles- Genevieve - Louis - Auguste - Andre - Timothee d'Eon de Beaumont (Chevalier d'Eon), spy and transvestite, 1728; William Scoresby, Arctic explorer, 1789; John Addington Symonds, poet, critic and historian, 1840; Robert Adams, sculptor and designer, 1917.
Deaths: Philip III ('the Bold'), King of France, 1285; Joachim de Patenier (Patinir), painter, 1524; Lodovico Ferrari, mathematician, 1565; Charles, first Marquess Cornwallis, statesman and soldier, 1805; William Heinemann, publisher and playwright, 1920; Jean Vigo, film director, 1934; Alfred Louis Kroeber, anthropologist and archaeologist, 1960; James Francis Courage, novelist, 1963.
On this day: Edward Bruce, having been crowned King of Ireland, was slain at the Battle of Dundalk, Louth, Ireland 1318; the Gregorian calendar was adopted in Italy and Spain, when this day became 15 October, 1582; Bulgaria declared its independence from Turkey, and Ferdinand I became Tsar, 1908; in Portugal, King Manoel, having fled the country, was deposed and a republic declared, 1910; Tripoli was occupied by Italian troops, 1911; the first air battle took place between German and French aircraft, 1914; the Allies landed at Salonika, 1915; the estate of Chequers was presented by Sir Arthur Lee as an official country residence for the Prime Minister, 1917; the Locarno Conference met and the great powers guaranteed frontiers and agreed to put disputes to arbitration, 1925; the British airship R101 crashed near Beauvais, France, with the loss of 48 lives, 1930; the march of unemployed shipyard workers from Jarrow to London started, 1936; the Cominform (Communist Information Bureau) was set up to aid European Communist parties, 1947; tea rationing ended in Britain, 1952.
Today is the Feast Day of St Apollinaris of Valence, St Flora of Beaulieu, St Galla, St Magenulf or Meinulf and St Maurus.
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