Anniversaries

Births: Lucan, poet, 39; Annibale Carracci, painter, 1560; Karl Baedeker, guide-book publisher, 1801; Vincenzo Bellini, operatic composer, 1801; Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Arctic explorer, 1879; Andre-Georges Malraux, writer and politician, 1901.

Deaths: Sir John Leslie, physicist and mathematician, 1832; Annie Oakley (Phoebe Anne Oakley Mozee), entertainer and markswoman, 1926; Henri-Emile-Benoit Matisse, painter, 1954; Harry Revel, pianist and popular composer, 1958; Ralph Hodgson, poet, 1962.

On this day: the Act of Supremacy was passed, making the king head of the English Church, 1534; the British forces took Acre, Syria, 1840; Garibaldi was defeated at Mentana by French and Papal troops, 1867; the German fleet mutinied at Kiel, 1918; Franklin Delano Roosevelt was re-elected as US president, 1936; Laika, the Russian space dog, was sent into space in Sputnik II, 1957.

Today is the Feast Day of St Amicus, St Hubert, St Malachy of Armagh, St Martin de Porres, St Pirminus, St Rumwald and St Winifred.

Lectures