Anniversaries

Births: Sir Peter Lely (Van der Faes), painter, 1617; Johann Michael Haydn, composer, 1737; Luigi Cherubini, composer, 1760; Friedrich Heinrich Alexander, Baron von Humboldt, traveller and naturalist, 1769; Charles Dana Gibson, artist, creator of the "Gibson Girls", 1867; Jan Garrigue Masaryk, Czech statesman, 1886; Jack Hawkins (John Edward Hawkins), actor, 1910.

Deaths: St John Chrysostom ("Golden Mouth"), teacher, 407; Dante (Durante) Alighieri, poet, 1321; Robert Devereux, third Earl of Essex, soldier, 1646; Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington, soldier and statesman, 1852; Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, architect, 1852; Isadora Duncan, dancer, killed in car crash 1927; Princess Grace (Grace Kelly) of Monaco, after a car crash 1982.

On this day: Napoleon and his army entered Moscow, 1812; Francis Scott Key composed the poem "The Star-Spangled Banner", 1814; the first space machine landed on the moon: the Soviet Lunik II, 1959.

Today is the Feast Day of St Maternus of Cologne and St Notburga.