Anniversaries

Births: Matthew Boulton, engineer, 1728; Joseph Wright, painter, 1734; John Francis, sculptor, 1780; James Joseph Sylvester, mathematician, 1814; Ernst Pasque, baritone, composer and novelist, 1821; James Hannington, bishop in Africa, 1847; Louis Henry Sullivan, architect, 1856; Jean-Joseph-Marie-Auguste Jaures, writer and speaker, 1859; Marcel Grandjany, composer, 1891; Cecil Parker (Cecil Schwabe), actor, 1897; Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, immunologist, 1899; Urho Kaleva Kekkonen, Finnish prime minister and President, 1900; James Hanley, novelist and playwright, 1901; Alan Ladd, actor, 1913.

Deaths: Robert Greene, playwright, 1592; Sir Edward Coke, lawyer, 1634; Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, 1658; George Lillo, playwright, 1739; Marie- Therese de Savoie-Carignano, Princesse de Lamballe, murdered 1792; Louis-Adolphe Thiers, former President of France, 1877; Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, playwright, 1883; Sir Arthur Streeton, painter, 1943; Edvard Benes, president of Czechoslovakia, 1948; ee cummings (Edward Estlin Cummings), poet, 1962; Frederick Louis MacNiece, poet and playwright, 1963; Ho Chi Minh, president of North Vietnam, 1969; Frederic Dannay, novelist (one half of 'Ellery Queen'), 1982; Arthur Schwartz, popular composer, 1984; Frank Capra, writer and film director, 1991.

On this day: Cromwell defeated the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar, 1650; Oliver Cromwell defeated the Royalist troops at the Battle of Worcester, 1651; Richard Cromwell became Lord Protector of England, 1658; the Gregorian calendar was introduced, replacing the Julian, and 3 September became 14 September, 1752; the American War of Independence came to an end after Britain and the US signed Treaty of Paris, 1783; the Royal British Bank closed, with debts of over pounds 500,000, 1856; the Afghans massacred the members of the British legation in Kabul, 1879; over 650 people died when the Princess Alice, a pleasure boat, collided with the Bywell Castle and sank in the Thames, 1878; the French government was removed to Bordeaux, 1914; Cardinal Giacomo Della Chiesa was elected Pope as Benedict XV, 1914; Flt-Lt W. Leefe Robinson became the first pilot to shoot a Zeppelin down in an air raid over England, 1916; 132 people were killed during a German air raid over the Chatham-Sheerness area, 1917; the US dirigible Shenandoah broke apart in a storm at Caldwell, Ohio 1925; a hurricane destroyed the city of Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, killing 5,000, 1930; Sir Malcolm Campbell set up a land speed record of 301.13mph, 1935; Great Britain and France declared war on Germany, 1939; the Germans torpedoed the liner Athenia off the Irish coast, 1939; under the Lend-Lease agreement, the US sent destroyers to Britain, 1940; the Allies landed at Salerno, on the mainland of Italy, and the Italian government surrendered, 1943; the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was established, 1953; Sweden changed its rule of the road from left to right, 1967; the spacecraft Viking 2 landed on Mars and sent back photographs to the Earth, 1976.

Today is the Feast Day of St Aigulf or Ayoul of Lerins, St Cuthburga, St Gregory the Great, St Hildelitha, St Macanisius, St Phoebe, St Remaclus and St Simeon Stylites the Younger.