Anniversaries

Births: Ugo (Niccolo) Foscolo, poet, 1778; Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, judge, poet and editor, 1795; Douglas MacArthur, general, 1880; Stephane Grappelli, violinist and jazz musician, 1908; Jacqueline du Pre, cellist, 1945.

Deaths: Edward Jenner, physician, discoverer of vaccination, 1823; Jean-Louis-Andre-Theodore Gericault, painter, 1824; Gerard de Nerval (Gerard Labrunie), poet and writer, 1855; Leon-Michel Gambetta, lawyer and statesman, 1882; William Marsden, surgeon and hospital founder, 1867; Charles George Gordon, general, killed at Khartoum 1885; Edward G. Robinson, actor, 1973.

On this day: Brazil was discovered by Vicente Yanes Pinzon, 1500; Sydney, Australia, was founded by Governor Arthur Phillip, 1788; Napoleon Bonaparte became president of the Italian Republic, formerly the Cisalpine republic, 1802; Hong Kong became a British sovereign territory, 1841; the Rugby Union was founded, 1871; the Cullinan Diamond was found by Captain Wells near Pretoria, South Africa, 1905; the first official Boy Scout troop - the First Glasgow - was formed, 1908; during the Spanish Civil War, Barcelona fell to Franco's army, 1939; India became a republic within the Commonwealth, 1950.

Today is Australia Day, Republic Day, India and the Feast Day of St Alberic, St Conan of Man, St Eystein, St Margaret of Hungary, St Paula, St Thordgith or Theorigitha of Barking, St Timothy and St Titus.