Anniversaries

Births: Philip IV, King of Spain, 1605; Cornelis de Heem, still- life painter, 1631; Giuseppe Tartini, composer, 1692; Sir Frederick William Burton, painter, 1816; William Henry Welch, pathologist, 1850; Albert I, King of the Belgians, 1875; Sir Adrian Boult, conductor, 1889; Mary Pickford (Gladys Smith), actress, 1893; E.Y. "Yip" Harburg (Isidore Hochberg), lyricist and librettist, 1898; Sonja Henie, skater and actress, 1912.

Deaths: John II, Byzantine emperor, killed by accident 1143; Marie-Jean Antoine-Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet, mathematician and revolutionary, 1794; Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti, composer, 1848; Elisha Graves Otis, inventor of the safety lift, 1861; Eric Axel Karlfeldt, poet, 1931; Edwin Cannan, economist, 1935; Adolph Simon Ochs, newspaper proprietor, 1935; Sir William Henry Hadow, writer and musicologist, 1937; Eugene-Marcel Prevost, novelist, 1941; Vaslav Fomich Nijinsky, dancer and choreographer, 1950; Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, painter and sculptor, 1973.

On this day: Florida was discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon, 1513; the Prince of Wales (later George IV) was married to Caroline of Brunswick at the Chapel Royal, St James's, 1795; Ponchielli's opera La Gioconda was first performed, Milan, 1876; the Anglo-French agreement called the Entente Cordiale was signed, 1904; Herbert Henry Asquith became prime minister, 1908; over 200 people were drowned after the collision of a Nile excusion steamer near Cairo, 1912; a treaty was signed between Colombia and the United States agreeing control of the Panama Canal Zone, 1914; King Zog of Albania left his country, following the Fascist invasion, 1939; the final assembly of the League of Nations was held, 1946; in Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta and five others were convicted of being involved with Mau Mau, 1953.

Today is the Feast Day of St Dionysius of Corinth, St Julia Billiart, St Perpetuus of Tours and St Walter of Pontoise.