Anniversaries

Births: Robert Burton, writer and scholar, 1577; Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Il Guercino), painter, 1591; John Ruskin, writer, artist and art critic, 1819; Jules Verne, novelist, 1828; Martin Buber, philosopher, 1878; Dame Edith Mary Evans, actress, 1888; King Wallis Vidor, film director, 1894; Tunku Abdul Rahman, first prime minister of Malaya, 1903; Chester Floyd Carlson, inventor of Xerox copying, 1906; Lana Turner (Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner), actress, 1920; James Dean (James Byron), actor, 1931.

Deaths: Mary, Queen of Scots, beheaded 1587; Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, 1725; Robert Michael Ballantyne, author of books for boys, 1894; Prince Peter Alekseyevich Kropotkin, anarchist and geographer, 1921; William Bateson, biologist and geneticist, 1926; John Langstraw Austin, philosopher, 1960; Sir Victor Gollancz, publisher and writer, 1967.

On this day: Catherine I became Empress of Russia, 1725; the Great Frost of London ended, 1740; looting and riots broke out after a peaceable demonstration in Trafalgar Square by the unemployed, 1886.

Today is the Feast Day of St Cuthman, St Elfleda, St Jerome Emiliani, St John of Matha, St Meingold, St Nicetius or Nizier of Besancon and St Stephen of Muret.