Anniversaries
Births: Franz Liszt, composer, 1811; Stephen Moulton Babcock, agricultural chemist, 1843; Sarah Bernhardt (Henriette-Rosine Bernard), actress, 1844; James Kay, painter, 1858; Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin, poet and novelist, 1870; Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas, poet, 1870; Newell Convers Wyeth, artist, 1882; Constance Bennett, actress, 1904.
Deaths: Charles Martel, leader of the Franks, 741; Thomas Sheraton, cabinetmaker, 1806; Henry Richard Vassall Fox, third Baron Holland, author and statesman, 1840; Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, geologist, 1871; Thomas Mayne Reid, novelist, 1883; William Edward Hartpole Lecky, historian, 1903; Paul Cezanne, painter, 1906; Sir Edward Henry, Baron Carson, lawyer and politician, 1935; Pablo Casals, cellist, 1973; Arnold Joseph Toynbee, historian, 1975.
On this day: Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first parachute jump from a balloon over Paris, 1797; the magazine Tit-Bits was first published, 1881; the Boston Symphony Orchestra gave its first concert, 1881; Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen was found guilty of the murder of his wife, 1910; the Trans-Australian railway (Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta) was opened for traffic, 1917; over 2,000 people died after a hurricane hit Haiti, 1935; President Kennedy announced that the Soviet Union had installed missiles in Cuba, 1962; Don Juan Carlos of Bourbon was proclaimed King of Spain, 1975.
Today is the Feast Day of St Abercius, St Donatus of Fiesole, St Mellon or Mallonus, Saints Nunilo and Alodia and St Philip of Heraclea and his Companions.
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