Anniversaries

TODAY

Births: Francisco de Zurbarn, painter, 1598; Marie Curie (Manya Sklodowska), physicist, 1867; Leon Trotsky (Leiba Davidov Bronstein), Russian Communist leader, 1879; Herman J. Mankiewicz, screenwriter, 1897; Albert Camus, novelist and playwright, 1913. Deaths: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, writer and lecturer, 1962; Terrence Steven (Steve) McQueen, actor, 1980; Alexander Dubcek, statesman, 1992. On this day: the last public hanging in England took place at Tyburn, 1783; the brigantine Mary Celeste left New York, to be found abandoned later, 1872; Mary Robinson became the first woman prime minister of the Irish Republic, 1990. Today is the Feast Day of St Engelbert, St Florentius of Strasbourg, St Herculanus of Perugia and St Willibrord.

TOMORROW

Births: Edmond Halley, astronomer and mathematician, 1656; (Abraham) Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, 1847; Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, Master of the King's Musick, 1883; Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind, 1900. Deaths: John Milton, poet, 1674; Cesar-Auguste Franck, composer, 1890; Norman Rockwell, artist and illustrator, 1978. On this day: Hernando Cortes entered Tenochtitlan, Aztec capital, now Mexico City, 1519; the Louvre, Paris, was opened to the public for the first time, 1793; Abraham Lincoln was re-elected as US President, 1864; John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected as 37th US President, the first Roman Catholic and the youngest president to date, 1960; the first local radio station in Britain, Radio Leicester, opened, 1967; Covent Garden market in London closed, 1974. Tomorrow is Remembrance Sunday and the Feast Day of St Cuby or Cybi, St Deusdedit, The Four Crowned Martyrs, St Godfrey of Amiens, St Tysilio or Suliau and St Willehad.