Anniversaries

Births: Antonio Gaudi y Cornet, architect, 1852; Robert Erskine Childers, author and Irish nationalist, 1870; William De Mille, film and theatre producer and writer, 1878; Louis, first Earl Mountbatten of Burma, 1900; George Orwell (Eric Blair), author and essayist, 1903.

Deaths: John Marston, playwright and satirist, 1634; Ernest Theodor Amadeus Hoffman, writer, composer and caricaturist, 1822; Baron Antoine Jean Gros, painter, 1835; Johnny (John Herndon) Mercer, composer, lyricist and singer, 1976.

On this day: the Seven Days' Battles (American Civil War) began, 1862; the Battle of the Little Big Horn River was fought - Custer's Last Stand, 1876; the Strand Magazine published the first 'Sherlock Holmes'story by Arthur Conan Doyle, 1891; the Battle of Caen began, 1944; Erskine Childers became president of the Irish Republic, succeeding Eamon de Valera, 1973.

Today is the Feast Day of St Adalbert of Egmond, St Eurosia, St Febronia, St Gallicanus, St Gothard, St Maximus of Turin, St Moloc or Luan, St Prosper of Aquitaine, St Prosper of Reggio, St Thea and St William of Vercelli or Monte Vergine.