Anniversaries

Births: Pierre de Ronsard, poet, 1524; Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, Marshal-General of France, 1611; James Thomson, poet, author of 'Rule, Britannia', 1700; Arthur Young, agriculturist and travel writer, 1741; Sir George Clement Martin, organist and composer, 1844; O. Henry, short-story writer, 1862; Sir James Hopwood Jeans, mathematician and astrophysicist, 1877; David Herbert Lawrence, novelist, 1885.

Deaths: Johannes Fyt, animal painter, 1661; James Harrington, political theorist, 1677; Giovanni Domenico Cassini, astronomer, 1712; John Brand, antiquary and topographer, 1806; David Ricardo, economist, 1823; Johann Wilhelm Schirmer, landscape artist, 1863; Thomas Graham, chemist, 1869; Prince Louis Mountbatten (first Marquess of Milford Haven), admiral, 1921; Mohammed Ali Jinnah, first Governor-General of Pakistan, 1948; Field-Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, South African statesman, 1950; Robert William Service, novelist and poet, 1958; Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, Russian leader, 1971; Salvador Allende Gossens, president of Chile, allegedly committed suicide 1973.

On this day: the Duke of Marlborough defeated the French at the Battle of Malplaquet, the bloodiest war of the century, 1709; the British, commanded by General Howe, defeated the Americans under General George Washington at the Battle of Brandywine Creek, 1777; the US was victorious against the British at Lake Champlain, 1814; the Allies took Sebastopol after the city was abandoned by the Russians, 1855; a British mandate was declared in Palestine, 1922; in Chile, the government was ousted by a military coup, and government was taken over by a junta, 1973; during a riot at a gold mine near Johannesburg, 11 African miners were shot and killed, 1973.

Today is the Feast Day of St Deiniol, St Paphnutius, St Patiens of Lyons, St Peter of Chavanon, Saints Protus and Hyacinth and St Theodora of Alexandria.