Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: Anthony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury, philosopher and writer, 1671; Nicola Fago ("Il Tarantino"), composer, 1677; Victor- Marie Hugo, author, 1802; Elihu Vedder, painter and illustrator, 1836; Alexis Hollander, pianist and conductor, 1840; Evelyn Baring, first Earl of Cromer, statesman and diplomat, 1841; William Frederick Cody ("Buffalo Bill"), showman, 1846; Emile Coue, psychotherapist, 1857; Leonard Borwick, pianist, 1868; Frank Bridge, conductor and composer, 1879; Margaret Leighton, actress, 1922. Deaths: Roger II, King of Sicily, 1154; Manfred, King of Naples and Sicily, died in battle, 1266; Thomas d'Urfey, satirist, 1723; John Philip Kemble, actor-manager, 1823; Aloys Senefelder, inventor of lithography, 1834; Frederick Tennyson, poet, 1898; Richard Jordan Gatling, inventor of the Gatling gun, 1903; Caran d'Ache (Emmanuel Poire), illustrator, 1909; Lady Anne Isabella Ritchie (Thackeray), author, 1919; Sir Harry Lauder (MacLennan), comedian, 1950; Karl Jaspers, philosopher, 1969. On this day: 20,000 people were killed after an earthquake in Lisbon, 1531; the Bank of England issued the first one-pound note, 1797; Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from Elba, 1815; Russia annexed Poland, 1832; the Grand National steeplechase was first run, Aintree, 1839; the Second French Republic was proclaimed, 1848; the troopship Birkenhead sank off Simon's Bay, South Africa, with the loss of 485 lives, 1852; the first colour film, called Kinemacolor, was shown before an audience at the Palace Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, 1909; a strike of coal-miners took place in Britain, 1912; the French transport ship Provence II was sunk in the Mediterranean, with the loss of 930 lives, 1916; Winston Churchill announced that Britain had produced its own atomic bomb, 1952; diplomatic relations between Israel and Egypt were established, 1980; the first London performance of the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas was staged, 1981. Today is the Feast Day of St Alexander of Alexandria, St Nestor of Magydus, St Porphyry of Gaza and St Victor or Vittre the Hermit.