Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: Francis Xavier Quadrio, Jesuit scholar, 1695; Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, 1825; Sir Francis Carruthers Gould, caricaturist and politician, 1844; Georges-Pierre Seurat, painter, 1859; Manuel Ponce, Mexican composer, 1882; Peter Carl Goldmark, inventor of the long-playing record, 1906; Maria Anna Cecilia Sofia Callas, operatic soprano, 1923. Deaths: Margaret of Angouleme, Queen of Henry II of Navarre, 1549; Donatien-Alphonse Francois, Marquis de Sade, writer and philosopher, 1814; John Brown, abolitionist, executed 1859; Edmond- Eugene Alexis Rostand, playwright, 1918; E.M. Delafield (Edmee Elizabeth Monica de la Pasture), novelist, 1943; Philip Arthur Larkin, poet, 1985. On this day: the new St Paul's Cathedral was opened, 1697; Napoleon was crowned Emperor in Paris by Pope Pius VII, 1804; Birkbeck College, London, was founded, 1823; King Camp Gillette patented the first safety razor, 1901; the first atomic pile started operating, Chicago, 1942; the Persian Gulf sheikhdoms combined to form the United Arab Emirates, 1971. Today is the Feast Day of St Bibiana or Viviana, St Chromatius of Aquilea, St Nonnus and St Silvanus of Constantinople.