Anniversaries

Births: Ben Jonson, playwright, 1572; George Withers, poet and pamphleteer, 1588; John Constable, painter, 1776; Carl von Linde, chemist and engineer, 1842; Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett, women's rights campaigner, 1847; Richard Strauss, composer, 1864; 1880; Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin, Russian leader, 1895; Kawabata Yasunari, novelist, 1899.

Deaths: James III, King of Scotland, assassinated 1488; Sir Kenelm Digby, diplomat and writer, 1665; Sir John Franklin, explorer, 1847; Clemens Weazel Lothar, Prince Metternich- Winneburg, statesman, 1859; Sir James Brooke, raja of Sarawak, 1868; King Alexander and Queen Draga of Serbia, assassinated at Belgrade 1903; Stephen Lucius Gwynn, novelist, poet and MP, 1950; John Wayne (Marion Michael Morrison), actor, 1979.

On this day: James IV became King of Scotland, 1488; King Henry VIII was married to Catherine of Aragon, 1509; James, Duke of Monmouth, landed at Lyme Regis, Dorset, to seize the British throne, 1685; George II was proclaimed King of Great Britain, 1727; all members perished in the expedition under Sir John Franklin to find the North West Passage, 1847; the Evening Standard newspaper was first published, 1860; the Norwegian parliament granted universal suffrage to women, 1913; the Disarmament Conference at Geneva ended in failure, 1934; the first oil from the British North Sea oilfields was pumped ashore, 1975.

Today is the Feast Day of St Barnabas the Apostle, Saints Felix and Fortunatus, St Parisius and St Paula Frasinetti.