Anniversaries

TODAY

Births: Benjamin Hoadly, Bishop of Bangor, 1676; William Glen, poet, 1789; Claude-Oscar Monet, Impressionist painter, 1840; Leo Hendrik Baekeland, inventor of Bakelite, 1863; Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian statesman, 1889; Mrs Mamie Eisenhower (Mamie Doud), 1896; Harold Larwood, cricketer, 1904; Dame Elisabeth Frink, sculptor, 1930.

Deaths: Justinian I, Roman emperor, 565; Nell (Eleanor) Gwyn, actress and mistress of Charles II, 1687; Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth, mistress of Charles II, 1734; Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, philosopher, 1831; Hector Hugh Munro ("Saki"), writer, killed in action 1916; Tony Richardson, film and theatre director, 1991.

On this day: one of the greatest known earthquakes in England occurred, 1318; book tokens first went on sale, 1932; Coventry Cathedral was destroyed by enemy bombing, 1940; the aircraft carrier Ark Royal was sunk, 1941; the New Musical Express published Britain's first pop music chart, 1952; after a subterranean volcano erupted, a new island, named Surtsey, appeared off Iceland, 1963; the Apollo 12 spacecraft was launched from Cape Kennedy, 1969; Princess Anne married Captain Mark Phillips, 1973.

Today is the Feast Day of St Adeotus Aribert, St Dubricius or Dyfrig, St Laurence O'Toole, St Nicholas Tavelic, St Peter of Narbonne and St Stephen of Cuneo.

TOMORROW

Births: Catharine of Braganza, queen of Charles II, 1638; William Pitt the Elder, first Earl of Chatham, statesman, 1708; Sir William (Friedrich Wilhelm) Herschel, astronomer, 1738; Charlotte Mary Mew, poet, 1869; Georgia O'Keeffe, painter, 1887; William Averell Harriman, diplomat, 1891; Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, field marshal, 1891; Aneurin Bevan, statesman, 1897; Sir Sacheverell Sitwell Bt, poet and writer, 1897; Hamish Hamilton, publisher, 1900.

Deaths: Johannes Kepler, astronomer, 1630; Aelbert Jacobsz Cuyp, painter, 1691; George Romney, portrait painter, 1802; Emil Durkheim, sociologist, 1917; Viola Tree, actress and author, 1938; Lionel Barrymore (Blythe), actor, 1954; Tyrone Edmund Power, actor, 1958; John Le Mesurier, actor, 1983.

On this day: Isaac Pitman published his shorthand system, 1837; London was flooded when the Thames rose by over 28 feet, 1875; Brazil became a republic, 1889; floods and landslides caused over 500 deaths in northern Haiti, 1963.

Tomorrow is the Feast Day of Saints Abibus, Gurias and Samonas, St Albert the Great, St Desiderius or Didier of Cohors, St Fintan of Rheinau, St Leopold of Austria and St Malo or Machutus.