Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: Benedict Arnold, soldier and traitor, 1741; The Rev Wilson Carlile, founder of the Church Army, 1847; Pierre Loti (Louis-Marie-Julien-Viaud), novelist, 1850; Dr Albert Schweitzer, missionary surgeon, 1875; Hal Roach, film producer and director, 1892; Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, photographer and stage designer, 1904. Deaths: Edmond Halley, astronomer, 1742; John Pindar ("Peter Pindar"), physician and poet, 1819; Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, painter, 1867; Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), author, 1898; Humphrey DeForest Bogart, actor, 1957; Anais Nin, writer and poetess, 1977. On this day: the Great Frost Fair began on the Thames, 1205; Norway was ceded to the King of Sweden by the King of Denmark, 1814; an attempt was made on the life of Napoleon III by Felice Orsini, an Italian revolutionary, 1858; an earthquake in Jamaica destroyed Kingston and killed over 1,000, 1907; the musical show The Boy Friend was first produced, London, 1954; the law requiring motorists to wear seatbelts was made permanent, 1986. Today is the Feast Day of St Antony Pucci, St Barbasymas or Barbascemin, St Datius, St Felix of Nola, St Kentigern or Mungo, St Macrina the Elder, The Martyrs of Mount Sinai and St Sava.