Anniversaries

Births: John Rennie, civil engineer, 1761; George Bryan "Beau" Brummel, dandy, 1778; William Daniel Conybeare, geologist and clergyman, 1787; Sir James Young Simpson, pioneer of childbirth anaesthetics, 1811; Richard Doddridge Blackmore, novelist, 1825; Eugene Henri-Paul Gauguin, painter, 1848; Charles Rennie Mackintosh, architect, 1868; Sir Landon Ronald, conductor, pianist and composer, 1873; Knud John Victor Rasmussen, explorer, 1879; Imre Nagy, Hungarian leader, 1896; Elizabeth Bowen (Elizabeth Dorothea Cole), novelist, 1899.

Deaths: Robert I (the Bruce), King of Scotland, 1329; David Cox, landscape painter and water-colourist, 1859; Richard March Hoe, inventor of the rotary printing press, 1886; Edwin Thomas Booth, actor, 1893; Wyatt Eaton, portrait and figure painter, 1896; Theodore Walter Watts- Dunton, poet, literary critic, novelist and solicitor, 1914; Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis, publisher, 1933; Jean Harlow (Harlean Carpenter), actress, 1937; Dorothy Parker (Rothschild), poet and journalist, 1967; Edward Morgan Foster, novelist, 1970; Elizabeth Josephine Craig, cookery writer, 1980; Henry Valentine Miller, novelist, 1980; Dennis Christopher George Potter, playwright and scriptwriter, 1994.

On this day: David II became King of Scotland, 1329; the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed, defining demarcation lines allotted to Spain and Portugal in South America, 1494; King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France met near Calais at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, 1520; the foundation stone of the first Royal Exchange in London was laid by Sir Thomas Gresham, 1566; the Addled Parliament, during which no enactment was made, was dissolved, 1614; the Reform Bill received Royal Assent, 1832; the union between Norway and Sweden was dissolved, 1905; the Cunard liner Lusitania was launched, 1906; the cities of San Salvador and Santa Tecla (El Salvador) were destroyed by an earthquake, 1917; the first parliament of Northern Ireland opened, 1921; the Vatican City was set up in Rome, 1929; Stanley Baldwin became prime minister of Great Britain, 1935; King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrived in the United States for a state visit, 1939; Britten's opera Peter Grimes was first produced, London, 1945; the BBC TV service was resumed, 1946; the musical show Annie Get Your Gun opened in London, 1947; the first London production of the musical show Carousel was presented, 1950.

Today is the Feast Day of St Antony Gianelli, St Colman of Dromore, St Gottschalk, St Meriadoc or Meriasek, St Paul I of Constantinople, St Robert of Newminster, St Vulflagius or Wulphy and St Willibald.