Anniversaries: 27th February 1996

Anniversaries

Births: Constantine the Great, Roman emperor, 280; Edward Cave (Sylvanus Urban), printer and publisher of the Gentleman's Magazine, 1691; James Robinson Planche, playwright and herald, 1796; Richard Garnett, librarian, 1835; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet, 1807; Dame Ellen Alicia Terry, actress, 1847; Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, composer, 1848; Henry Edwards Huntington, railway promoter, 1850; Rudolf Steiner, social philosopher, 1861; Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, painter, 1863; Enrico Caruso, operatic tenor, 1873; Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer, mathematician, 1881; Charles Herbert Best, co-discoverer of insulin as a treatment for diabetes, 1899; Marino Marini, sculptor, 1901; John Ernst Steinbeck, author, 1902; James Thomas Farrell, novelist, 1904. Deaths: John Evelyn, diarist, 1706; John Arbuthnot, satirist and creator of the character "John Bull", 1735; Francis Marion, (the "Swamp Fox"), American revolutionary commander, 1795; George Manson, water-colour painter, 1876; Alexander Porfirievich Borodin, composer, 1887; Samuel Pierpont Langley, astronomer and aeronaut, 1906; Sir Samuel Luke Fildes, painter, 1927; Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, physiologist, 1936; Peter Behrens, architect, 1940; John Dickson Carr (Carter Dickson), writer of detective stories, 1976; Edward Dahlberg, author, 1977; Joan Greenwood, actress, 1987; Lillian Gish (Lillian Diana de Guiche), actress, 1993. On this day: the first trade mission from Russia reached London, 1558; the Boers defeated the British at Majuba Hill, South Africa, 1881; the British Labour Party was founded, with Ramsay MacDonald as secretary, 1900; Borley Rectory, England's most haunted house, burned down, 1939; the Gulf War ended after Iraqi troops retreated and Kuwait was liberated, 1991. Today is the Feast Day of St Alnoth, St Anne Line, St Baldomerius or Galmier, St Gabriel Possenti, St Herefrith of Louth, St John of Gorze, Saints Julian, Cronion, Besas and Eunus, St Leander of Seville and St Thalelaeus the Hermit.