Anniversaries

Births: William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1573; Maj-Gen Sir Ralph Abercromby, soldier, 1734; Wilhelm Bernhard Molique, violinist and composer, 1802; Friedrich Kiel, composer and teacher, 1821; Felix August Bernhard Draseke, composer, 1835; Sir Philip Magnus Bt, MP, educationist and mathematician, 1842; James Whitcomb Riley, poet, 1849; Niels Henrik David Bohr, physicist, 1885; Heinrich Himmler, Nazi head of the SS, 1900.

Deaths: Margaret, 'The Maid of Norway', Queen of Scotland, at sea 1290; Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, soldier and tyrant of Rimini, 1468; George Gascoigne, poet and playwright, 1577; Giovanni Battista Guarini, poet, 1612; Paul Bril, painter, 1626; Patrick Ferguson, soldier and inventor of the breech-loading gun, 1780; Edgar Allan Poe, novelist, 1849; William Barnes, Dorset dialect poet, 1886; Thomas Woolner, sculptor and poet, 1892; Oliver Wendell Holmes, physician and writer, 1894; Sir Charles Hubert Hubert Hastings Parry, composer, 1918; Marie Lloyd (Matilda Alice Victoria Wood), music hall comedienne, 1922; Charles de Souzy Ricketts, artist, 1931; Marguerite Radclyffe Hall, author, 1943; Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, painter, 1946; Clarence Birdseye, inventor of quick-freezing, 1956; Mario Lanza (Alfredo Arnold Cocozza), singer, 1959; Sir Norman Angell (Ralph Norman Angell Lane), author and journalist, 1967.

On this day: the Battle of Lepanto was fought, when Don John defeated the Turks in a naval engagement, 1571; the British, under General Burgoyne, were defeated at Bemis Heights, New York, 1777; the British were defeated at the Battle of King's Mountain, South Carolina, 1780; Leon Gambetta escaped from Paris in a balloon during the Franco-German War, 1870; the Great Chicago Fire began, when over 250 people were killed and 95,000 made homeless, 1871; Crete revolted against Turkey and proclaimed its union with Greece, 1908; the Dutch airline KLM (Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij) was founded, 1919; the Westminster Theatre, London, opened, 1931; the London Philharmonic Orchestra gave its first performance, 1932; the Dumbarton Oaks Conference ended, 1944; the German Democratic Republic was set up in Eastern Germany, 1949; the first pictures of the far side of the moon were taken by the Soviet spacecraft Lunik III, 1959; the Independent was first published, 1986.

Today is the Feast Day of St Artaldus or Arthaud, St Helanus, St Justina of Padua, St Mark, pope and St Osyth.