Anniversaries

Births: Laszlo V (Ladislav) or Ladislas Posthumus, boy King of Hungary, 1440; George Washington, first US President, 1732; Gilbert Wakefield, classical scholar, 1756; Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher, 1788; Niels Vilhelm Gade, composer, 1817; James Russell Lowell, poet and diplomat, 1819; Sir Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, first Baron, founder of the Boy Scouts, 1857; Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, artist, sculptor and typographer, 1882; Olave St Clair Baden-Powell, World Chief Guide, 1889; Luis Bunuel, film director, 1900; Romulo Betancourt, statesman, 1908; Warren Stanley Tute, novelist, sailor and playwright, 1914.

Deaths: Amerigo Vespucci, navigator, 1512; James Barry, historical painter, 1806; Dr Adam Ferguson, philosopher and historian, 1816; Sydney Smith, social reformer, 1845; Jean-Baptiste- Camille Corot, painter, 1875; Hugo Philipp Jakob Wolf, composer, 1903; Francisco Idalecio Madero, politician, 1913; Sir Max Pemberton, author, 1950; Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen, novelist, 1973; Oskar Kokoschka, painter and playwright, 1980; Glenway Wescott, novelist and poet, 1987.

On this day: Robert II acceded to the throne of Scotland, 1370; Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president of the Confederate States of America, 1862; the National Council for Civil Liberties was founded, 1934; Dr Selman Abraham Waksman discovered streptomycin, 1946; an IRA bomb attack at Aldershot killed seven people, 1972; Pakistan recognised the independence of Bangladesh, 1974.

Today is the Feast Day of St Baradates, St Margaret of Cortona and Saints Thalassius and Limnaeus.