Anniversaries

Births: Pope Leo IX, 1002; Increase Mather, President of Harvard University, 1639; Karl Friedrich Curschmann, singer and composer, 1805; Emile de Girardin, political journalist, 1806; William Edmonstoune Aytoun, poet and critic, 1813; Enrico Cecchetti, dancer and choreographer, 1850; Henry Ossawa Tanner, painter, 1859; Henry Major Tomlinson, novelist and essayist, 1873; Rockwell Kent, artist, 1882; Norman Bowen, geologist, 1887; Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck, soldier, 1884; Mack Gordon (Morris Gittler), lyricist, 1904; Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialist, 1905; Gower Champion, dancer and choreographer, 1921.

Deaths: Edward III, King of England, 1377; Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, diplomat and author, 1527; John Skelton, poet, 1529; John Smith, Virginian colonist, 1631; Inigo Jones, architect, 1652; John Hatchard, publisher and bookseller, 1849; Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel, educationist, 1852; Mary Anne Clarke, mistress of Frederick, Duke of York, 1852; Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Mexican revolutionary, 1876; Capt Charles Cunningham Boycott, estate manager, from whose name the word 'boycott' is taken, 1897; Sir John Logan Campbell, parliamentarian, 1902; Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, 1908; John Taliaferro Thompson, soldier and machine-gun inventor, 1940; Jean-Edouard Vuillard, painter, 1940; Rex Ingram (Reginald Ingram Montgomery Hitchcock), actor and film director, 1950. Sukarno (Kusnasosro), president of Indonesia, 1970.

On this day: Dulwich College was founded by Edward Alleyn, 1619; the foundation of stone of the new St Paul's Cathedral, London, was laid, 1675; the Constitution of the United States came into force, 1788; New Hampshire became the ninth of the United States, 1788; the Battle of Vinegar Hill (Irish Rebellion) was fought, 1798; the French were defeated by the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Vitoria, in Spain, 1813; 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; Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger was first performed, Munich, 1868; Zululand was annexed by the British, 1887; the German Fleet was scuttled at Scapa Flow, 1919;in the US, Jack Sharkey defeated Max Schmeling, heavyweight boxing champion, 1932; after a surprise manoeuvre, the German Afrika Korps seized Tobruk, capturing 25,000 prisoners, 1942; in the US, Dr Peter Goldmark demonstrated the first successful LP, 1948; the musical show Evita was first produced, London, 1978; in Iran, over 40,000 people were killed and 60,000 injured in an earthquake in the region of the Caspian Sea, 1990.

Today is the Summer Solstice 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.