Anniversaries

TODAY

Births: William Burkitt, theologian, 1650; Thomas Eakins, sculptor, portrait and figure painter, 1844; Elizabeth, Queen of the Belgians, 1876; Walter Brennan, actor, 1894.

Deaths: Flavius Valerius Constantius, Roman emperor, 306; Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, 1834; Charles Macintosh, waterproof-clothing inventor, 1843; Dr James Barry, retired army surgeon, found on death to be a woman, 1865; Henry Mayhew, a founder of Punch and social investigator, 1887; Syrie Gwendoline Maud Barnardo Maugham, interior decorator and former wife of W. Somerset Maugham, 1955.

On this day: Mary I of England was married to Philip of Spain at Winchester, 1554; the US invaded Puerto Rico, 1898; Louis Bleriot made the first Channel crossing by aircraft, 1909; Mussolini was forced to resign in Italy, 1943; Hovercraft SR-N1 made its first Channel crossing in less than two hours, 1959; the first test-tube baby was born, Oldham, Lancashire, 1978.

Today is the Feast Day of St Christopher, St James the Greater, St Magnericus and Saints Thea, Valentina and Paul.

TOMORROW

Births: Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, 1678; Sir Richard Wallace, founder of the Wallace Collection, 1818; George Bernard Shaw, playwright, 1856; Sergei Alexandrovich Kussevitsky, conductor, 1874; Carl Gustav Jung, psychologist, 1875; Andre Maurois (Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog), author, 1885; Georg Grosz, expressionist artist, 1893; Aldous Leonard Huxley, novelist, 1894; Robert Ranke Graves, poet, 1895; Paul William Gallico, writer, 1897; Salvador Allende Gossens, Chilean statesman, 1908.

Deaths: Pope Paul II, 1471; John Wilmot, 2nd second Earl of Rochester, poet, 1680; Otto I, King of Greece, 1867; George Borrow, writer, 1881; Sir Edward John Poynter, painter, 1919.

On this day: New York became the 11th of the United States, 1788; 6,000 people died in a violent earthquake in Naples, 1805; Lionel Rothschild (elected 1847) was the first Jewish MP to take his seat in Parliament, 1858; the London Evening News newspaper was first published, 1881; a rising by the Irish in Dublin took place, 1914; Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal, 1956; Prince Charles was created Prince of Wales by the Queen, 1958; over 1,100 people died in earthquakes at Skopje, Yugoslavia 1963; the Maldive Islands became independent, 1965.

Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Anne, St Bartholomea Capitanio, St Joachim and St Simeon the Armenian.