Anniversaries

Births: Henry V, 1387; Nathan Mayer Rothschild, banker, 1777; William Marsden, physician and hospital founder, 1796; Sir Anthony Panizzi (Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi), bibliophile and scholar, 1797; Francis Parkman, historian, 1823; Sir Edward Marshall Hall, criminal law advocate, 1858; Andrew Bonar Law, statesman, 1858; Ellsworth Huntington, geographer and explorer, 1876; Alfred Noyes, poet, 1880; Nadia Juliette Boulanger, composer and teacher, 1887; Sir Alexander Korda (Sandor Laszlo Korda), film director and producer, 1893; Robert Malise Bowyer Nichols, poet, 1893.

Deaths: Tomas de Torquemada, Dominican monk and Spanish Inquisitor-General, 1498; John Colet, scholar and theologian, 1519; Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, physicist, 1736; Grace Aguilar, novelist and historian, 1847; Sir Ronald Ross, bacteriologist, 1932; (Count) John Francis McCormack, tenor, 1945; Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery, statesman and journalist, 1955; Walter Greenwood, novelist and playwright, 1974; Maria Callas (Cecilia Sophia Anna Maria Kalogeropoulos), opera singer, 1977.

On this day: Cape Town was taken by a British force under James Craig, 1795; in the US, a wagon train of 120 emigrants was massacred by Indians, 1857; David Livingstone discovered Lake Nyasa, 1859; the first Post Office Savings Banks were opened, 1861; the Soviet Union became a member of the League of Nations, 1934; Reza Khan Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, abdicated, 1941; Malaysia became independent, 1963; Resolution, Britain's first Polaris submarine, was launched, 1966; Papua New Guinea became independent, 1975; in the US, the Episcopal Church approved the ordination of women to the priesthood, 1976.

Today is the Feast Day of Saints Abundius and Abundantius St Cornelius, pope, St Cyprian, St Edith of Wilton, St Euphemia, St Ludmila and St Ninian.