Anniversaries

Births: Heinrich Schutz, composer, 1585; William Swainson, naturalist, 1789; Karl Ludwig Amand Mangold, conductor and composer, 1813; Henri- Louis Le Chatelier, chemist, 1850; John Cowper Powys, novelist, 1872; Sir Alfred John Munnings, artist, 1878; Eddie (Edward Vernon) Rickenbacker (Rickenbacher), First World War US fighter pilot, 1890; Juan Peron, president of Argentina, 1895; Rouben Mamoulian, film director, 1898.

Deaths: Jan Massys, painter, 1575; Henry Fielding, novelist, 1754; Franklin Pierce, 14th US President, 1869; George W. Lederer, theatrical producer, 1938; Gus Kahn, lyricist, 1941; Edith Anna Oenone Somerville, author, 1949; Kathleen Mary Ferrier, contralto, 1953; Clement Richard Attlee, first Earl Attlee, statesman, 1967; Willy Brandt (Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm), former West German Chancellor, 1992.

On this day: the final consecration of St Mark's, Venice, took place, 1085; King's College London was opened, 1831; 300,000 people died in China during a great typhoon, 1881; Charles Nessler first used a permanent waving machine on a woman's hair, 1905; the First Balkan War broke out, when Greece, Serbia and Montenegro united against Turkey, 1912; Beirut was taken by the British, 1918; the Saville Theatre, London, opened, 1931; the US aircraft-carrier Saratoga was launched, then the world's most powerful warship, 1955; Britain's tallest building, the Post Office Tower, London, opened, 1965; Britain's first legal commercial radio station, LBC (London Broadcasting Company) started transmitting, 1973.

Today is the Feast Day of St Demetrius, St Simeon Senex, St Keyne, St Marcellus, St Pelagia (or Margaret) the Penitent, St Reparata of Caesarea, and St Thais.