Anniversaries

Births: Cornelius Agrippa, scholar and astrologer, 1486; Sir Peter Lely (Van der Faes), painter, 1617; Johann Michael Haydn, composer, 1737; Luigi Cherubini, composer, 1760; Friedrich Heinrich Alexander, Baron von Humboldt, traveller and naturalist, 1769; Edgar Algernon Robert Cecil, first Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, leading exponent of the League of Nations, 1864; Charles Dana Gibson, artist, creator of the 'Gibson Girls', 1867; Jack Hawkins (John Edward Hawkins), actor, 1910.

Deaths: St Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage and historian, beheaded 258; St John Chrysostom ('Golden Mouth'), teacher, 407; Dante (Durante) Alighieri, poet, 1321; Robert Devereux, third Earl of Essex, soldier, 1646; Nicolas Lancret, painter, 1743; James Fenimore Cooper, novelist, 1851; Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington, soldier and statesman, 1852; Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, architect, 1852; Friedrich Theodor Vischer, writer on art, 1887; William McKinley, 25th US president, after being shot 1901; Isadora Duncan, dancer, killed in a car crash 1927; Dame Madge Kendall, actress, 1935; Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, first president of Czechoslovakia, 1937; Algernon Talmage, painter, 1939; Princess Grace of Monaco (Grace Kelly), after a car crash 1982; Janet Gaynor (Laura Gainor), actress, 1984.

On this day: the English defeated the Scots at the Battle of Homildon-hill, 1402; Francis I of France reconquered Milan in a victory over the Swiss at the Battle of Marignano, 1515; the Gregorian calendar was adopted in Britain, when 3 September became 14 September, 1752; Napoleon and his army entered Moscow, 1812; Francis Scott Key composed the poem 'The Star-Spangled Banner', 1814; the Treaty of Adrianople, ending the Russo-Turkish war, was signed, 1829; the Senate of Hawaii ratified the Treaty of Annexation with the United States, 1897; Miguel Primo de Rivera became dictator of Spain, 1923; the Graf Zeppelin II, airship, made her maiden flight, 1938; the first space machine landed on the moon, the Soviet Lunik II, 1959; Pope Paul VI canonised Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, the first native-born US saint, 1975.

Today is the Feast Day of St Maternus of Cologne and St Notburga.