Anniversaries

Births: Cornelis Janssen (van Ceulen), painter, 1593; James II, King of Great Britain and Ireland, 1633; William Penn, Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, 1644; Sir Edward Sabine, astronomer, 1788; Adolphe Monticelli, painter, 1824; Masaoka Shiki, poet, 1867; Joseph, first Baron Duveen of Millbank, art dealer, 1869; Eamon De Valera, Irish statesman, 1882; Katherine Mansfield (Beauchamp) (Kathleen Middleton Murry), writer, 1888; Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th US president, 1890; e.e. cummings (Edward Estlin Cummings), poet and painter, 1894; Lillian Gish (Lillian Diana de Guiche), actress, 1896; Hannah Arendt, political philosopher, 1906; Allan Jones, actor and singer, 1907.

Deaths: Harold, King of the English, killed in battle 1066; John Philpot Curran, statesman, 1817; Helen de Guerry Simpson, novelist, killed in a London air raid 1940; Dame Marie Tempest (Mary Susan Etherington), actress, 1942; Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, general, committed suicide 1944; Maud Diver (Katherine Helen Maud Marshall), novelist, 1945; Errol Flynn, actor, 1959; Dame Edith Mary Evans, actress, 1976; Bing Crosby, singer, 1977; Leonard Bernstein, conductor and composer, 1990; Harold Robbins (Francis Kane), novelist, 1997.

On this day: the Battle of Hastings was fought at Senlac Hill, Pevensey, Sussex, 1066; William I acceded to the throne of England, 1066; Mary, Queen of Scots was tried, 1586; the trial of Marie Antoinette took place, 1793; 439 lives were lost in an explosion at Senghenydd colliery, South Wales, 1913; Oxford degrees were first conferred on women, 1920; Germany left the League of Nations, 1933; 810 lives were lost when the battleship HMS Royal Oak was torpedoed in Scapa Flow, 1939; Charles Yeager made the first supersonic air flight (670 mph) in California, 1947; 50p coins (seven- sided) were issued to replace the 10-shilling note, 1969; the first close- up television pictures of Mars were transmitted to Earth by the US Mariner 9 spacecraft, 1971.

Today is the Feast Day of St Angadriama, St Burchard of Wurzburg, St Callixtus I, pope, St Dominic Lauricatus, St Justus of Lyons, St Manaccus and St Manechildis.