Anniversaries

Births: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, playwright and writer, 1749; Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, painter, 1833; Liam O'Flaherty, novelist, 1896. Deaths: St Augustine of Hippo, 430; Hugo Grotius, lawyer, 1645; Bohuslav Martinu, composer, 1959; Prince William of Gloucester, killed in an air crash 1972. On this day: the Scots routed the Royalist army at the Battle of Newburn, 1640; 200,000 black Americans demonstrated in Washington for civil rights, 1963.

Today is the Feast Day of St Alexander of Constantinople, St Augustine of Hippo, St Edmund Arrowsmith, St Hermes of Rome, St John of Constantinople, St Julian of Brioude, St Moses of Abyssinia and St Paul IV of Constantinople.