Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: William Burkitt, theologian, 1650; Thomas Eakins, sculptor, portrait and figure painter, 1844; Arthur James Balfour, first Earl Balfour, statesman, 1848; Walter Brennan, actor, 1894. Deaths: Flavius Valerius Constantius, Roman emperor, 306; Andre-Marie de Chenier, poet, executed 1794; Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, 1834; Charles Macintosh, inventor of waterproof clothing, 1843; Dr James Barry, retired army surgeon, found on death to be a woman, 1865; Syrie Gwendoline Maud Barnardo Maugham, interior decorator and former wife of W. Somerset Maugham, 1955. On this day: the seven northern provinces of the Netherlands proclaimed their independence from Spain, 1581; Louis Bleriot made the first Channel crossing by aircraft, 1909; the first test-tube baby was born in Oldham, Lancashire, 1978. Today is the Feast Day of St Christopher, St James the Greater, St Magnericus and Saints Thea, Valentina and Pau