Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: William Smith, geologist, 1769; Franklin Henry Giddings, sociologist, 1855; Roger Martin du Gard, novelist and playwright, 1881; Juan Gris, Cubist painter, 1887; Dane Rudhyar, composer, occultist and astrologer, 1895; Erich Fromm, psychoanalyst, 1900; Joan Crawford, actress, 1904; Lale Andersen, singer of ``Lili Marlene'', 1910; Donald Malcolm Campbell, land and water speedster, 1921. Deaths: Pedro the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon, killed 1369; Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle), novelist, 1842; John D. Lee, bishop of the Mormon church, executed for his part in the Mountain Meadows massacre of settlers, Utah 1877; Raoul Dufy, painter and designer, 1953; Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie, town planner and architect, 1957; Peter Lorre, actor, 1964; Friedrich August von Hayek, economist, 1992. On this day: the marriage of Catherine of Aragon to King Henry VIII was declared valid by the Pope, although in 1533 he had ``married'' Anne Boleyn, 1534; the first trams in London began operating in Bayswater, 1861; the Woolwich steam ferry was inaugurated in London, 1889; the German gun ``Big Bertha'' shelled Paris from a distance of 75 miles, 1918; the governor of Tennessee signed an Act, forbidding the teaching of evolution in state schools, 1925; Adolf Hitler became dictator of Germany, 1933; the world's first nuclear-powered merchant ship, the Savannah, was launched in New Jersey, 1962; the Archbishop of Canterbury visited Rome and met the Pope - the first official meeting between the two churches for 400 years, 1966; Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, proclaimed her independence, 1971. Today is the Feast Day of St Benedict the Hermit, St Ethelwald the Hermit, St Joseph Oriol, St Turibius of Lima and St Victorian.