Anniversaries

TODAY

Births: Confucius, philosopher, 551 BC; Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, general and diplomat, 1545; Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, philosopher, 1770; Hermann Kipper, music teacher, critic and composer, 1826; Heinrich Urban, composer, 1837; Umberto Giordano, composer, 1867; Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser, novelist, 1871; Karl Bosch, industrial chemist, 1874; Lloyd Cassel Douglas, novelist, 1877; The Hon Charles Stewart Rolls, motor manufacturer, 1877; Samuel Goldwyn (Samuel Gelbfisch), film magnate, 1882; Eric Coates, viola player and composer, 1886; Cecil Scott Forester, novelist, 1899; Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th US president, 1908.

Deaths: Josquin Desprez, composer, 1521; Titian (Tiziano Vecelli), painter, a victim of the plague, 1576; Pope Sixtus V, 1590; Tomas Luis de Victoria, composer, 1611; Lope Felix de Vega Carpio, playwright and poet, 1635; Eugene-Samuel Auguste Fromentin, novelist and painter, 1876; Sir Rowland Hill, founder of penny postage, 1879; Louis Botha, soldier and statesman, 1919; 'Le Corbusier' (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret), architect, 1965; Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, 1968; Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett, novelist, 1969; Haile Selassie, deposed Emperor of Ethiopia, 1975; Earl Mountbatten of Burma, murdered by the IRA, 1979.

On this day: Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar lost the Duchy of Franconia at the Battle of Nordlingen, 1634; the Battle of Long Island was fought, the British driving back the American army, 1776; the first balloon ascent was made in Britain by James Tytler at Edinburgh, 1784; the Declaration of the Rights of Man was adopted by the French National Assembly, 1789; Napoleon defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Dresden, 1813; Algiers, then a refuge for Barbary pirates, was bombarded by Lord Exmouth, 1816; Edwin Laurentine Drake was the first in the United States to strike oil - at Titusville, Pennsylvania, 1859; the interior of the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, was destroyed by fire, 1892; the Kellogg-Briand Pact, an anti-war document, was signed by 15 nations, 1928; the Heinkel 178, first jet-propelled aircraft, made its first flight, 1939; the first transmission of a television programme from the Continent was made by the BBC, 1950; the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 3, carrying two dogs, 1958.

Today is the Feast Day of St Caesarius of Arles, St David Lewis, Little St Hugh, St Marcellus of Tomi, St Margaret the Barefooted, St Monica and St Poemen.

TOMORROW

Births: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, playwright and author, 1749; Antoine-Augustin Cournot, mathematician and economist, 1801; Constant Troyon, painter, 1810; Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, novelist, 1814; Thomas Seddon, landscape painter, 1821; Walter Cecil Macfarren, composer, 1826; Sir Edward Coley Burne- Jones, painter, 1833; Ira David Sankey, hymn-writer and revivalist, 1840; Bernhard Friedrich Wilhelm Listemann, violinist and conductor, 1841; Edward Vance Palmer, novelist, 1885; Ivor (Bertie) Gurney, poet and composer, 1890; Liam O'Flaherty, novelist, 1896; Charles Boyer, actor, 1897.

Deaths: St Augustine of Hippo, 430; Louis II the German, King of the East Franks, 876; Hugo Grotius, jurist and lawyer, 1645; John Leyden, physician and poet, 1811; Karl Theodor Korner, poet, playwright and patriot, 1813; James Henry Leigh Hunt, critic and poet, 1859; Albrecht Adam, painter, 1862; Anatol Konstantinovich Liadov, composer, 1914; Prince William of Gloucester, killed in an air crash 1972.

On this day: the Scots routed the Royalist army at the Battle of Newburn, 1640; the Indian War in New England ended with the surrender of the Indians, 1676; Wagner's opera Lohengrin was first performed in Weimar, 1850; Cetewayo, the Zulu chief, was captured by the British, 1879; Montenegro was proclaimed an independent kingdom under Nicholas I, 1910; the Battle of the Heligoland Bight was fought, 1914; US forces under General George Marshall landed in Japan, 1945; 200,000 black Americans demonstrated in Washington for civil rights, 1963.

Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Alexander of Constantinople, St Augustine of Hippo, St Edmund Arrowsmith, St Hermes of Rome, St John of Constantinople, St Julian of Brioude, St Moses of Abyssinia and St Paul IV of

Constantinople.