Anniversaries

Anniversaries

TODAY: Births: Nathan Field, actor and playwright, baptised 1587; Baroness Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), writer, 1885; Rita Hayworth (Margarita Carmen Cansino), actress, 1918; Montgomery Clift, actor, 1920. Deaths: Sir Philip Sidney, poet, soldier and courtier, 1586; Frederic-Francois Chopin (Fryderyk Franciszek), composer, 1849. On this day: Charles II escaped from Cromwell's army across the English Channel, 1651; the first nuclear power station in the world was opened at Calder Hall, 1956. Today is the Feast Day of St Anstrudis or Austrude, Saints Ethelbert and Ethelred, St Ignatius of Antioch, St John the Dwarf, St Nothelm, St Rule, St Seraphino and the Ursuline Martyrs of Valenciennes.

TOMORROW: Births: Peter II, Tsar of Russia, 1715; Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, writer and artillery officer, 1741; Melina Mercouri (Amalia-Maria Mercouri), Greek minister of culture and actress, 1917. Deaths: Margaret, Queen of Scotland, 1541; Charles Babbage, mathematician and computer inventor, 1871; Thomas Alva Edison, inventor, 1931. On this day: Alaska was officially transferred to the United States by Russia, 1866; the British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) was formed, 1922. Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Gwen of Cornwall, St Justus of Beauvais and St Luke.