Anniversaries

TODAY: Births: Edward VI, King of England, 1537; Theodore Walter Watts- Dunton, poet, critic and novelist, 1832; Ralph Vaughan Williams, composer, 1872; Aleister Edward Alexander Crowley, author and occultist, 1875. Deaths: Piero della Francesca, painter and writer, 1492; Elizabeth Fry (Gurney), Quaker prison reformer, 1845; Robert Stephenson, civil engineer, 1859; Robert Edward Lee, general, 1870; Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, novelist, 1887; Joseph-Ernest Renan, historian and philosopher, 1892; Edith Louisa Cavell, nurse, executed by the Germans 1915; Anatole France (Jacques-Anatole Thibault), author, 1924; Edwin Abbott Abbott, theologian, teacher and scholar, 1926; Dean Gooderham Acheson, statesman, 1971. On this day: an island in the West Indies was discovered by Christopher Columbus, which he named San Salvador, 1492; a powder magazine exploded at Delft, largely destroying the city, 1654; the borough councillors of Poplar, London, were released from prison, where they had been committed for refusing to levy certain rates, 1921; an iron lung was used for the first time, at Boston, Massachusetts, 1928; the first Morris Minor car designed by Alec Issigonis was produced at Cowley, Oxfordshire, 1948; Equatoria1 Guinea became independent, 1968; the XIXth Olympic Games opened in Mexico City, 1968; Gerald Ford was nominated US Vice-President by Richard Nixon, 1973; Today is the Feast Day of St Edwin, St Ethelburga of Barking, Saints Felix and Cyprian, St Maximilian of Lorch and St Wilfrid of York.

TOMORROW: Births: Allan Ramsay, portrait painter, 1713; Lillie (Emilie Charlotte) Langtry, actress, 1853; Mary Henrietta Kingsley, writer and explorer, 1862; Walter James Redfern Turner, poet, music critic and playwright, 1889. Deaths: Claudius I, Roman Emperor, poisoned by his wife Agrippina 54; Nicolas de Malebranche, philosopher, 1715; Dr John Gill, Baptist preacher, 1771; Joachim Murat, King of the Two Sicilies, executed 1815; Antonio Canova, sculptor, 1822; Sir Henry Irving (John Henry Brodribb), actor, 1905; Willie Clarkson, theatrical costumier and wigmaker, 1934; Sidney James Webb, first Baron Passfield, social reformer, 1947; Walter Houser Brattain, physicist, and an inventor of the transistor, 1987. On this day: the foundation stone of the White House, Washington, was laid by President George Washington, 1792; Greenwich was adopted as the universal meridian at the Washington Conference, 1884; Ankara became the new capital of Turkey, 1923; Italy declared war on Germany, 1943; the Allies liberated Athens, 1944; the first London production of the musical The Pajama Game was presented, 1955. Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Coloman, St Comgan, St Edward the Confessor, St Faustus of Cordova, St Gerald of Aurillac, Saints Januarius and Martial and St Maurice of Carnoet.