Anniversaries

Births: Inigo Jones, architect, 1573; Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, painter, 1606; August Gottlieb Spangenberg, founder, US Moravian Church, 1704; Eduard Franz Genast, singer, actor and composer, 1797; Sir Henry Cole, promoter of the Great Exhibition of 1851 and founder of the South Kensington Museum, 1808; Benno Adam, animal painter, 1812; Arnaud-Michel d'Abbadie, explorer, 1815; Reinhold Begas, sculptor, 1831; Vilfredo Pareto, economist and sociologist, 1848; Dame Marie Tempest (Marie Susan Etherington), actress, 1864; Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, first Viscount Northcliffe, newspaper proprietor, 1865; Jose Enrique Rodo, essayist, 1872; Noel Gay (Richard Moxon Armitage), composer, 1898; Dorothy Fields, lyricist, 1905.

Deaths: Vladimir I, Prince of Kiev, 1015; Annibale Carracci, Italian painter, 1609; James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of Charles II, executed 1685; John Wilson, botanist, 1751; William Thomas Morton, dentist, introducer of ether as a general anaesthetic, 1868; Gustav Friedrich Waagen, art historian, 1868; William H. Bonney (alias Henry McCarty, or 'Billy the Kid'), outlaw, shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett 1881; 'General Tom Thumb' (Charles Sherwood Stratton), a 40-inch-tall dwarf in Barnum's circus, 1883; Anton Pavlovich Tchekhov, playwright and author, 1904; Emil Hermann Fischer, chemist, 1919; Hugo von Hofmannsthal, playwright and poet, 1929; Walter Gay, artist, 1937; Dr John Mellanby, physiologist, 1939;Sir Percy Scott Worthington, architect, 1939; John Joseph Pershing, soldier, 1948; Nuri-es-Said, soldier and statesman, assassinated 1958; Paul William Gallico, writer, 1976; Margaret Mary Lockwood, actress, 1990.

On this day: Jerusalem was captured by the Crusaders, 1099; the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa was fought, 1212; the Royal Society was granted a royal charter, 1662; the 'Marseillaise' was adopted as the French national anthem, 1795; the Treaty of London was signed between Russia, Britain, Prussia and Austria, 1840; margarine was patented by Hippolyte Mege-Mouries of Paris, 1869; social insurance came into effect in Britain, 1912; Mrs Clara Adams of New York was the first woman to complete a round-the- world flight (19 hours, 4 minutes), 1939; Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Britain, 1948; close-up pictures of Mars were transmitted by television from US Mariner IV satellite, 1965; Archbishop Makarios was deposed as president of Cyprus in a coup by Greek officers of the Cyprus National Guard, 1974.

Today is the Feast Day of St Athanasius of Naples, St Barhadbesaba, St Bonaventure, St David of Munktorp, St Donald, St Edith of Polesworth, St Pompilio Pirrotti, St Swithin and St Vladimir of Kiev.