Anniversaries

TODAY: Births: Antoninus Pius, Roman emperor, 86; George Cadbury, chocolate manufacturer and social reformer, 1839; William Hesketh Lever, first Viscount Leverhulme, soap manufacturer and philanthropist, 1851; Sir William Gerald Golding, novelist, 1911. Deaths: Meyer Amschel Rothschild, banker, 1812; James Abram Garfield, 20th US President, after being shot 1881; Thomas John Barnardo, physician and philanthropist, 1905; Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (Brent of Bin Bin), novelist, 1954; Chester Floyd Carlson, inventor of xerographic copying system, 1968; Roy Kinnear, actor and comedian, 1988. On this day: led by Edward, the Black Prince, the English defeated the French at the Battle of Poitiers, 1356; Auckland, New Zealand, was founded, 1840; Melville Reuben Bissell, inventor, patented the first carpet-sweeper, 1876; William Joyce, known as "Lord Haw-Haw", was sentenced to be hanged, after a trial at the Old Bailey 1945.

Today is the Feast Day of St Emily de Rodat, St Goericus or Abbo, St Januarius of Benevento, St Mary of Cerevellon, St Peleus and his Companions, St Sequanus or Seine, St Susanna of Eleutheropolis and St Theodore of Canterbury.

TOMORROW: Births: Alexander the Great, 356 BC; Sir Titus Salt MP, manufacturer and philanthropist, 1803; Sir James Dewar, chemist and physicist, inventor of the vacuum flask, 1842; Sir George Robey (George Edward Wade), comedian, 1869; Kenneth More, actor, 1914. Deaths: Robert Emmet, Irish nationalist, executed 1803; Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm, philologist and folklorist, 1863; Sir Titus Salt MP, manufacturer and philanthropist, 1876; Fiorello Henry La Guardia, mayor of New York, 1947; Jean Julius Christian Sibelius, composer, 1957; George Seferis (Giorgos Stylianou Seferiades), poet and diplomat, 1971; Jule Styne (Julius Kerwin Stein), songwriter and composer, 1994. On this day: Aetius, Roman general, defeated the Huns under Attila at Chalons-sur-Marne, 451; Salisbury Cathedral was consecrated, 1258; Ferdinand Magellan and a fleet of five ships set off from Seville on a circumnavigation of the world, 1519; the Amateur Dramatic Company, consisting of Dickens, Forster, Jerrold, Leech and Lemon, appeared in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour at Miss Kelly's Theatre, Dean Street, London, 1845; the liner Mauretania was launched, 1906; the Methodist Church of Great Britain and Ireland was established, 1932; the liner Queen Elizabeth II was launched at Clydebank, 1966.

Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Candida of Carthage, Saints Fausta and Evilasius, Saints Theodore, Philippa and their Companions, St Vincent Madelgarus and the Martyrs of Korea.