Anniversaries

TODAY: Births: Laurence Eusden, poet, baptised 1688; John Dalton, chemist and physicist, 1766; Vincent Novello, organist, composer and founder of the music publishers, 1781; Sir Henry Walford Davies, organist and composer, 1869. Deaths: Arthur Rackham, illustrator, 1939; Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, South African prime minister, assassinated 1966. On this day: the Pilgrim Fathers set sail in the Mayflower from Plymouth, 1620; the Great Fire of London came to an end, 1666; the first free lending library in Britain opened in Manchester, 1852; the first telephone exchange in Britain opened in Lombard Street, London, 1879; the first cricket test match in England was played at the Oval between England and Australia, 1880; William McKinley, 25th US President, was fatally wounded by an anarchist, 1901; T.W. Burgess swam the English Channel from South Foreland to Cape Gris Nez, 1911; German aircraft approached the east coast of England, but turned back, 1939; Juliana became Queen of the Netherlands, 1948; India invaded West Pakistan, 1965. Today is the Feast Day of St Cagnoald or Chainoaldus, Saints Donatian, Laetus and Others and St Eleutherius of Spoleto.

TOMORROW: Births: Queen Elizabeth I, 1533; Stephen Hales, botanist and inventor, 1677; William Butterfield, church architect, 1814; Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, statesman, 1836; William Friese-Greene, pioneer of the cinema, 1855; Anna Mary ("Grandma") Moses, primitive painter, 1860; Clarence Michael James Dennis, poet and journalist ("laureate of the larrikin"), 1876; Dame Edith Sitwell, writer, 1887; Bruce Frederick Cummings ("W.N.P. Barbellion"), diarist and biologist, 1889; Sir John Anthony Quayle, actor, 1913; Gp Capt Lord Cheshire OM VC, 1917; Peter Lawford, actor, 1923; Charles Hardin ("Buddy") Holly, rock singer, 1936. Deaths: Catherine Parr, sixth wife of King Henry VIII, 1548; Henri Desmarets, composer, 1741; Hannah More, author and evangelist, 1833; John Greenleaf Whittier, poet and naturalist, 1892; Rene-Francois-Armand Sully Prudhomme, poet, 1907; William Holman Hunt, painter, 1910; Gertrude Lawrence (Alexandra Dagmar Lawrence-Klasen), actress, 1952; Charles Burgess Fry, cricketer, footballer and journalist, 1956; Patrick Gordon Campbell, third Baron Glenavy, writer and broadcaster, 1981; Liam O'Flaherty, novelist, 1984. On this day: the Genoese defeated the Venetians at the naval Battle of Curzola, 1298; the French army under Napoleon defeated the Russians at the Battle of Borodino, 1812; the independence of Brazil from Portugal was declared, 1822; the Peace of Pekin ended the Boxer Rising in China, 1901; the British explorer Sir Francis Younghusband led an expedition to Tibet, where a treaty was signed with the Dalai Lama, 1904; the "Black Knight", a British ballistic missile, was fired from the Woomera range in Australia, 1958; the musical show The Fantasticks was first produced on the London stage, 1961. Tomorrow is the Feast Day of Saints Alcmund and Tilbert, St Anastasius the Fuller, St Cloud or Clodoald, St Grimonia, St John of Nicomedia, St Regina or Reine of Alise and St Sozon.