Anniversaries
Births: Alice Mary Smith, composer, 1839; Dame Nellie Melba, singer, 1861; William Waldorf Astor, second Viscount Astor, 1879; Viscountess Astor (Nancy Witcher), 1879; Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese leader, 1890; Bruce Bennett (Herman Brix), actor, 1909.
Deaths: Alcuin, Anglo-Latin poet and scholar, 804; Ann Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, executed 1536; James Boswell, biographer of Dr Johnson, 1795; Nathaniel Hawthorne, novelist, 1864; William Ewart Gladstone, statesman, 1898; Ronald Colman, actor, 1958; Frederic Ogden Nash, writer and humorist, 1971; Sir John Betjeman, Poet Laureate, 1984.
On this day: the Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon, 1588; the Legion d'Honneur was instituted by Napoleon, 1802; an international crisis developed after Adolf Hitler made territorial demands on Czechoslovakia, 1938; after friction between British trawlers and Icelandic gunboats, Britain sent Royal Navy frigates inside the Icelandic 50-mile limit, 1973.
Today is the Feast Day of Saints Calocerus and Parthenius, St Crispin of Viterbo, St Dunstan, St Ivo of Kermartin, St Peter Morrone and St Pudens.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies