Anniversaries

TODAY: Births: Nicholas I, Tsar of Russia, 1796; Karl Engel, musicologist, 1818. Deaths: St Thomas More, executed 1535; Henry-Rene Albert-Guy de Maupassant, writer, 1893; Kenneth Grahame, author, 1932; Daniel Louis Armstrong, jazz musician, 1971. On this day: Louis Pasteur successfully treated a subject with his anti-rabies vaccine, 1885; Brooklands motor racing circuit was opened, 1907. Today is the Feast Day of St Dominica, St Goar, St Godeleva, St Mary Goretti, St Modwenna, St Romulus of Fiesole, St Sexburga and St Sisoes.

TOMORROW: Births: Gustav Mahler, composer, 1860; Marc Chagall, painter and designer, 1887. Deaths: Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan, playwright, 1816; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author, 1930; Dame Flora Robson, actress, 1984. On this day: Hawaii was annexed by the United States, 1898; Kelvin Hall exhibition centre in Glasgow was destroyed by fire, 1925; the Vatican City became a sovereign state, 1929. Tomorrow is the Feast Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Saints Ethelburga, Ercongota and Sethrida, St Felix of Nantes, St Hedda of Winchester, St Palladius and St Pantaenus.