Anniversaries

Births: Rupert, King of Germany, 1352; Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, 1747; Louis-Christophe-Francois Hachette, bookseller and publisher, 1800; Soren Aabye Kierkegaard, philosopher, 1813; Eugene-Martin Labiche, playwright and farceur, 1815; Heinrich Karl Marx, author and socialist, 1818; Stanislaw Moniuszko, composer, 1819; Jean-Louis Hamon, painter, 1821; The Empress Eugenie of France (Eugenie Marie de Montijo de Guzman), 1826; Karl Attenhofer, conductor and composer, 1837; Henryk Sienkiewicz, novelist, author of Quo Vadis?, 1846; Sir Douglas Mawson, Antarctic explorer, 1882; Archibald Percival Wavell, first Earl, soldier, 1883; Christopher Darlington Morley, novelist and playwright, 1890; Sir Gordon Richards, jockey, 1904.

Deaths: Samuel Cooper, miniature painter, 1672; Napoleon I (Napoleone Buonaparte), Emperor of France, 1821; Niccolo Antonio Zingarelli, composer, 1837; Charles Robert Leslie, painter, 1859; Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre, painter, 1874; James Grant, novelist and historian, 1887; Joseph-Nicolas Robert- Fleury, painter, 1890; August Wilhelm von Hofmann, chemist, 1892; Francis Bret Harte, author, 1902; William Friese- Greene (William Green), cinematograph pioneer, 1921; Beatrice Harraden, novelist, 1936; James Branch Cabell, novelist, 1958; Professor Ludwig Erhard, former West German chancellor, 1977; Sir Donald Coleman Bailey, wartime bridge designer, 1985.

On this day: Capt John Dutton of the East India Company occuped St Helena, 1659; the States-General assembled at Versailles, 1789; the British defeated the French at Battle of Fuentes de Onoro, 1811; the Confederates were victorious at the Battle of Williamsburg, 1862; the Battle of the Wilderness began during American Civil War, 1864; the first train robbery in the US took place near North Bend, Ohio 1865; excavation of the Corinth Canal in Greece began, 1882; Amy Johnson began a solo flight to Australia, 1930; Italian forces captured Addis Ababa, 1936; British forces invaded Madagascar, 1942; the Council of Europe was set up in London, 1949; the Federal Republic of Germany became a sovereign state, 1955; US Commander Alan B. Shepard went into space in a Mercury capsule, 1961; Major Yuri Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut, orbited the earth, 1961.

Today is the Feast Day of St Angelo, St Avertinus, St Hilary of Arles, St Hilary of Galeata, St Jutta and St Mauruntius.