Anniversaries

Births: Dr Thomas Willis, anatomist and physician, 1621; Jean-Francois de Troy, painter, 1679; Samuel Foote, actor and playwright, baptised 1720; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer, 1756; Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, philosopher, 1775; S amuel Palmer, landscape painter, 1805; Juan Cristostomo Arriaga, composer, 1806; David Friedrich Strauss, controversial Protestant philosopher, theologian and biographer, 1808; Eugene- Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, architect, 1814; Victor-Antoine-Edouard Lalo, composer, 1823; Josef Israels, painter, 1824; Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), author, 1832; Kaiser Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albrecht), Emperor of Germany and king of Prussia, 1859; Jerome David Kern, composer, 1885; Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg, poet and novelist, 1891; Buddy DeSylva (George Gard DeSylva), lyricist and director, 1895; Hyman George Rickover, admiral, 1900.

Deaths: Abraham Bloemaert, painter and engraver, 1651; Bartolommeo Cristofori, harpsichord and piano maker, 1731; Thomas Woolston, deist, died in prison 1733; Willem van Mieris, painter, 1747; Philippe Buache, geographer and cartographer, 1773; Johann Gottlieb Fichte, philosopher, 1814; Charles Hutton, mathematician, 1823; John James Audubon, artist and naturalist, 1851; Janos Bolyai, mathematician, 1860; John Gibson, sculptor, 1866; Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy, historian, 1878; Giuseppe Fortunino France sco Verdi, composer, 1901; Giovanni Verga, novelist and playwright, 1922; Emile Cohl (Courtet), film animator, 1938; Baron Gustavus Carl Emil von Mannerheim, soldier and statesman, 1951; Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer, 1972; Charles Arthur Bertram Marsha ll, author, broadcaster and wit, 1989; Dame Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, actress, 1992.