Anniversaries

Births: Ivan IV ('The Terrible'), Tsar of Russia, 1530; Johann Gottfried von Herder, writer and critic, 1744; Louis-Antoine-Leon de Richebourg de St Just, revolutionary leader, 1767; Ludwig I, King of Bavaria, 1786; Narcisse Virgilio Diaz, painter, 1808; Karl August Haupt, musical professor and organist, 1810; August Gottfried Ritter, organist and composer, 1811; Allan Pinkerton, founder of the US detective agency, 1819; Henry Fawcett, Liberal politician, 1833; Francis Brett Harte, novelist, 1836; Jacob Maris, painter, 1837; Ludwig II, King of Bavaria, 1845; Daniel J. Wood, organist, 1849; Waldo David Frank, novelist, 1889; Clara Bow, actress, 1905; Leonard Bernstein, conductor and composer, 1918; Richard Greene, actor, 1918.

Deaths: St Louis IX, King of France, a victim of the plague, 1270; Sir Henry Morgan, buccaneer, 1688; Jan van der Meer (Jan Vermeer van Haarlem), painter, buried 1691; David Hume, philosopher and historian, 1776; Jean- Etienne-Marie Portalis, jurist and politician, 1807; James Watt, engineer and inventor, 1819; Sir William (Friedrich Wilhelm) Herschel, astronomer, 1822; Karl Leberecht Immermann, poet, playwright and novelist, 1840; Michael Faraday, chemist and physicist, 1867; Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philosopher, 1900; Ignace- Henri-Joseph-Theodore Fantin- Latour, painter, 1904; Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, novelist and poet, 1907; Antoine-Henri Becquerel, physicist, 1908; Henri-Joseph Harpignies, landscape painter, 1916; Gregori Yevseyevich Zinoviev (Ovsel Gershon Aronov Radomyslsky), revolutionary, executed 1936; Aylmer Maude, author and authority on Tolstoy, 1938; Alphonse James Albert Symons, biographer, 1941; The Duke of Kent, killed in an air crash on active service 1942; Paul Muni (Muni Weisenfreund), actor, 1967; George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the US Nazi party, shot dead 1967; Truman Capote, author, 1984.

On this day: the independence of Uruguay (the Banda Oriental) was declared, 1825; a revolution against the Netherlands union erupted in Brussels, 1830; Louvain was sacked by the Germans, 1914; the first daily scheduled airline flights started between London and Paris, 1919; the Treaty of Berlin was signed, making peace between Germany and the US, 1921; Ramsay MacDonald formed a National Government, 1931; the RAF made the first air raid on Berlin, 1940; Paris was liberated by the Allies, 1944; the 17th Olympic Games opened in Rome, 1960.

Today is the Feast Day of St Ebba, St Genesius of Arles, St Genesius the Comedian, St Gregory of Utrecht, St Joan Antide-Thouret, St Joseph Calasanctius, St Louis IX, King of France, St Mennas of Constantinople and St Patricia.