Anniversaries

Births: Mariotto Albertinelli, painter, 1474; Allan Ramsay, portrait painter, 1713; Johann Dominicus Fiorillo, painter and art historian, 1748; William Brockedon, painter, author and inventor, 1787; Moritz Hauptmann, musical theorist and composer, 1792; Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow, pathologist, 1821; Immanuel Gottlob Friedrich Faisst, organist and composer, 1823; Sir James Thomas Knowles, editor and architect, 1831; Lillie (Emilie Charlotte) Langtry, actress, 1853; Mary Henrietta Kingsley, writer and explorer, 1862; Walter James Redfern Turner, poet, music critic and playwright, 1889; Gosta Nystroem, composer and painter, 1890; Conrad Michael Richter, novelist, 1890.

Deaths: Claudius I, Roman Emperor, poisoned by his wife Agrippina, 54; Pope Gregory XII, 1417; Nicolas de Malebranche, philosopher, 1715; Dr John Gill, Baptist preacher, 1771; Robert Nugent, first Earl Nugent, politician and poet, 1788; Joachim Murat, King of the Two Sicilies, executed 1815; Antonio Canova, sculptor, 1822; Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria, 1825; Sir Henry Irving (John Henry Brodribb), actor, 1905; Willie Clarkson, theatrical costumier and wigmaker, 1934; David Devant, illusionist, 1941; Saul Gutmanovich Tchernichowsky, poet, 1943; Sidney James Webb, first Baron Passfield, social reformer, 1947; Walter Houser Brattain, physicist, and an inventor of the transistor, 1987.

On this day: the arrest of the Templars for heresy took place in Paris, by order of Philip IV, 1307; the foundation stone of the White House, Washington, was laid by President George Washington, 1792; Greenwich was adopted as the universal meridian at the Washington Conference, 1884; Ankara became the new capital of Turkey, 1923; Italy declared war on Germany, 1943; Athens was liberated by the Allies, 1944; the first London production of the musical The Pajama Game was presented, 1955.

Today is the Feast Day of St Coloman, St Comgan, St Edward the Confessor, St Faustus of Cordova, St Gerald of Aurillac, Saints Januarius and Martial and St Maurice of Carnoet.