Anniversaries: 21st November 1995

Anniversaries

Births: Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet), writer, 1694; Arthur Goring Thomas, composer, 1850; Harpo (Adolph, or Arthur) Marx, comedian, 1888; Rene-Francois Ghislain Magritte, painter, 1898. Deaths: Sir Thomas Gresham, founder of the Royal Exchange, 1579; Henry Purcell, composer, 1695; James Hogg, writer, the "Ettrick Shepherd", 1835; Dominic Bevan Wyndham Lewis, author, 1969. On this day: the Montgolfier brothers made the first hot- air balloon flight, 1783; a Bill making women eligible as MPs received Royal Assent, 1918; construction work began on the Forth Road Bridge, 1958; parliamentary proceedings were televised for the first time, 1989. Today is the Feast Day of St Albert of Louvain and St Gelasius I, pope.