Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: Conte Giacomo Leopardi, poet and classicist, 1798; Abbate Pietro Alfieri, professor of singing and writer, 1801; Wilhelm Dettmer, opera singer, 1808; George Washington Goethals, builder of the Panama Canal, 1858; William James Mayo, surgeon and co-founder of the Mayo Clinic, 1861; James Harvey Robinson, historian, 1863; George Ellery Hale, astronomer, 1868; Robert Schuman, statesman, 1886; Antoine-Marie Roger de Saint-Exupery, aviator and writer, 1900; Nelson Eddy, actor and singer, 1901; Frank Loesser, composer and lyricist, 1910. Deaths: Anton Raphael Mengs, painter, 1779; Valentine Green, mezzotint engraver, 1813; Thomas Addison, physician and discoverer of "Addison's Disease", 1860; Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet, 1861; Joseph Aloysius Hansom, architect and inventor of the hansom cab, 1882; Adolphe Joseph-Thomas Monticelli, painter, 1886; Thomas Henry Huxley, biologist, 1895; Karl Brugmann, philologist, 1919; Lady Randolph Churchill (Jennie Jerome), mother of Sir Winston Churchill, 1921; Sir Henry Stuart Jones, scholar and lexicographer, 1939; Paul Klee, modernist painter, 1940; Ignaz Jan Paderewski, pianist and statesman, 1941; Jayne Mansfield (Vera Jayne Palmer), actress, killed in a car crash 1967; Primo Carnera, heavyweight boxer, 1967; Moise Tshombe, Katangan politician, 1969; Maj- Gen Sir Francis Wilfred de Guingand, soldier, 1979; Pierre-Alexandre Balmain, fashion designer, 1982; General Sir Richard Nelson Gale, soldier, 1982; Lana Turner (Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner), actress, 1995. On this day: Shakespeare's Globe Theatre was burned down, 1613; the Austrians and French fought an indecisive battle at Parma, Italy, 1734; an Act of Parliament established the first passenger railway, the Swansea to Oystermouth, 1804; the Daily Telegraph was first published, 1855; the Great Comet was seen over France and England, 1861; the Press Association news agency was founded, London, 1868; the Act legalising trades unions was passed, 1871; Tahiti was annexed by France, 1880; steam- powered elevated trains began running in Chicago, 1892; the foundation stone of Westminster Cathedral was laid by Cardinal Vaughan, 1895; Sir Roger Casement, Irish revolutionary, was condemned to death for treason, 1916; US forces landed in New Guinea, and raided the Solomon Islands, 1943; US troops were withdrawn from Korea, 1949; US planes bombed Hanoi, North Vietnam, 1966. Today is the Feast Day of St Cassius of Narni, St Paul the Apostle, St Peter the Apostle and Saints Salome and Judith.