Anniversaries

TODAY: Births: Admiral Samuel Hood, first Viscount Hood, naval commander, 1724; Gustave Flaubert, novelist, 1821; Edvard Munch, painter, 1863; Edward G. Robinson (Emanuel Goldenburg), actor, 1893; Frank (Francis Albert) Sinatra, singer and actor, 1915; John James Osborne, playwright and actor, 1929. Deaths: Selim II, Sultan of Turkey, 1574; Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke, statesman, 1751; Robert Browning, poet, 1889; Douglas Fairbanks Snr (Douglas Elton Ulman), actor, 1939; Tallulah Brockman Bankhead, actress, 1968. On this day: fleeing from the mob, Judge Jeffreys took refuge in the Tower of London, 1688; the first transatlantic radio signal was transmitted by Marconi, 1901; King George V held a great Coronation Durbar in Delhi, India, 1911; in Britain, conscription was introduced for men aged between 18 and 26, 1948; Christopher Cockerell patented the first hovercraft, 1955; the first London production of the musical show West Side Story was staged, 1958; near Clapham Junction, London, an express train from Bournemouth crashed into a stationary train, killing 36 people and injuring 111, 1988. Today is the Feast Day of St Corentin or Cury, St Edburga of Minster, Saints Epimachus and Alexander, St Finnian of Clonard, St Jane Frances de Chantel and St Vicelin.

TOMORROW: Births: Maximilien de Bethune, Duc de Sully, statesman, 1560; Sir William Hamilton, husband of Emma Hamilton, 1730; Ernst Werner von Siemens, inventor, 1816. Deaths: Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon), Jewish philosopher, 1204; Dr Samuel Johnson, lexicographer, 1784; Wassily Kandinsky, abstract painter, 1944. On this day: Sir Francis Drake left Plymouth on his voyage around the world, 1577; New Zealand was discovered by Abel Janszoon Tasman, 1642; Port Arthur was occupied by Russian forces, 1897; in the United States, Italo Marcioni patented the first ice-cream cone, 1903; Lee De Forest demonstrated the first sound-on-film movie, in the United States, 1923. Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Aubert of Cambrai, St Eustratius of Sebastea, St Judocus or Josse, St Lucy and St Othilia or Odilia.