Anniversaries

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Anniversaries

Births: Maximilian I, Holy Roman emperor, 1459; Sir Anthony van Dyck, painter, 1599; Giacomo Insanguine, composer, 1728; Adam Sedgwick, geologist, 1785; Wilhelm I, King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany, 1797; Randolph Caldecott, artist and illustrator, 1846; Robert Andrews Millikan, physicist, 1868.

Deaths: Thomas Carew, poet, 1639; Jean-Baptiste Lully, composer, 1687; John Canton, physicist, 1772; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, author, 1832; Frederic William Farrar, author and cleric, 1903; Michael Todd (Avram Goldenbogen), film producer, killed 1958; Ben Lyon, actor, entertainer and producer, 1979; Sir Richard Sykes, ambassador to the Netherlands, shot dead 1979.

On this day: the Order of the Templars was abolished by the Pope, 1312; the English were defeated by the Scots at Anjou, 1421; the National Gallery in London was founded by the purchase of 38 pictures from J.J. Angerstein, 1824; the English Football League was founded, 1888; Auguste and Louis Lumire made the first demonstration of motion pictures using celluloid film, Paris, 1895; the Tsar of Russia was interned at Tsarskoe Selo (Dyetskoe Selo), 1917; the first international airline service began, flying weekly between Paris and Brussels, 1919; a land speed record of 272mph was set up by Sir Malcolm Campbell in his car Blue Bird, at Daytona Beach, Florida, 1933; the world's first high- definition television service was inaugurated in Berlin, 1935; Antonin Novotny, president of Czechoslovakia, was forced to resign and was succeeded by General Ludvik Svoboda, 1968; an attempt was made to abduct Princess Anne in the Mall, London, 1973.

Today is the Feast Day of St Basil of Ancyra, St Benvenuto of Osimo, St Deogratias, St Nicholas Owen, Nicholas von Flue and St Paul of Narbonn