Anniversaries

Births: Peter De Wint, painter, 1784; Moritz von Schwind, painter, 1804; Thomas Attwood Walmisley, organist and composer, 1814; Adolf Goria, composer, 1823; Thomas Jonathan ('Stonewall') Jackson, Confederate general, 1824; Oscar II, King of Sweden and Norway, 1829; Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake, physician and women's liberation pioneer, 1840; Joseph-Achille Le Bel, chemist, 1847; Marie-Eugene-Henri Fouques Duparc, composer, 1848; Amedee-Ernest Chausson, composer, 1855; Dr Duncan James Corrowr Grant, painter, 1885; Philip Morton Shand, architectural writer, 1888; Charles Langbridge Morgan, author, 1894; Christian Dior, couturier, 1905; Benny Hill (Alfred Hawthorn Hill), comedian, 1924.

Deaths: Pope Paschal II, 1118; Joseph-Justice Scaliger, scholar, 1609; Adriaen Vandevelde, painter, 1672; Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury, statesman, 1683; James Quin, actor, 1766; Louis XVI, King of France, executed 1793; John Moore, novelist, travel writer and surgeon, 1802; Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, author, 1814; Achim von Arnim (Karl Joachim Friedrich Ludwig von Arnim), folklorist, playwright and poet, 1831; Henry Hallam, historian, 1859; Alexander Ivanovich Herzen, revolutionary, 1870; Franz Grillparzer, playwright, 1872; Elisha Gray, inventor, 1901; Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov), Soviet leader, 1924; Lytton Giles Strachey, biographer and critic, 1932; George Augustus Moore, novelist, 1933; Will Dyson, cartoonist and etcher, 1938; Georges Melies, cinema pioneer, 1938; Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, composer, 1948; George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), novelist, 1950; Cecil Blount de Mille, film director, 1959; Marie Lohr, actress, 1975.

On this day: the 'Letters of Junius' began being published, 1769; they ceased on the same day and month, 1772; the Daily News, edited by Charles Dickens, was first issued, 1846; after deposing Comonfort, General Zuloaga took control of the Mexican government, 1858; taxi- cabs were first officially recognised in Britain, 1907; Edward VIII was proclaimed king, 1936; the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear- powered submarine, was launched, 1954; Concorde made its inaugural flight to Bahrain, 1976.

Today is the Feast Day of St Agnes, St Alban or Bartholomew Roe, St Epiphanius of Pavia, St Fructuosus of Tarragona, St Meinrad and St Patroclus of Troyes.