Anniversaries

Births: Increase Mather, President of Harvard, 1639; Henry Ossawa Tanner, painter, 1859; Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck, Second World War commander, 1884; Mack Gordon (Morris Gittler), lyricist, 1904; Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialist writer, 1905; Gower Champion, dancer and choreographer, 1921.

Deaths: Edward III, King of England, 1377; Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, diplomat and author, 1527; Inigo Jones, architect, 1652; John Hatchard, publisher and bookseller, 1849; Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel, educationist, 1852; Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, composer, 1908.

On this day: Dulwich College was founded by Edward Alleyn, 1619; the foundation stone of the new St Paul's Cathedral, London, was laid, 1675; the Constitution of the United States came into force, 1788; the Royal College of Surgeons was founded, 1843; Charles Lucas, mate aboard HMS Hecla was the first man to be awarded the Victoria Cross (which he received in 1857), 1854; the German Fleet was scuttled at Scapa Flow, 1919; the musical show Evita was first produced, London, 1978.

Today is the Summer Solstice (longest day) and the Feast Day of St Agofredus, St Alban of Mainz, St Aloysius Gonzaga, St Engelmund, St Eusebius of Samosata, St John Rigby, St Leutfrid or Leufroi and St Maine or Meen.