Anniversaries

Births: John Flaxman, sculptor, 1755; Catherine Maria Fanshawe, painter and poet, 1765; Alexander Wilson, ornithologist, 1766; Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore, at sea 1781; Nicholas I, Tsar of Russia, 1796; Karl Engel, musicologist, 1818; Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, 1832; Elisabeth Lutyens, composer, 1906.

Deaths: Henry II, King, 1189; Jan Huss, religious reformer, burnt at the stake 1415; St Thomas More, executed 1535; Edward VI, King, 1553; Baron Pierre- Narcisse Guerin, painter, 1833; Odilon Redon, painter and engraver, 1916; Kenneth Grahame, children's author, 1932; Aneurin Bevan, statesman, 1960; William Harrison Faulkner, novelist, 1962; Sarah Gertrude Millin (Liebson), author, 1968; Daniel Louis Armstrong, jazz musician, 1971.

On this day: the Treaty of Edinburgh was signed between England, France and Scotland, 1560; at the Battle of Sedgemoor, the last to be fought on English soil, the troops of James II defeated the Duke of Monmouth, 1685; Napoleon defeated the Archduke Charles of Austria at the Battle of Wagram, 1809; Pope Pius VII was taken prisoner by the French after he had excommunicated Napoleon, 1809; Louis Pasteur successfully treated a subject with his anti-rabies vaccine, 1885; the Duke of York (later King George V) married Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, 1893; the first airship to cross the Atlantic, the British R34, reached New York, having crossed in 108 hours, 12 minutes, 1919; the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formally constituted, 1923; President Roosevelt enunciated the Four Freedoms in a speech, 1940; London's last tram ran, 1952.

Today is the Feast Day of St Dominica, St Goar, St Godeleva, St Mary Goretti, St Modwenna, St Romulus of Fiesole, St Sexburga and St Sisoes.