Anniversaries

Births: Karl Stamitz, composer, baptised 1745; Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Mexican revolutionary, 1753; Johann Baptist Gnsbacher, composer, 1778; Thomas Hancock, pioneer of rubber manufacture, 1786; Saint Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney, priest and teacher, 1786; Franois-Auguste Marie Mignet, historian, 1796; Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin, anarchist, 1814; Jean-Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, 1828; Louis Moreau Gottschalk, composer, 1829; Alphonse Legros, painter and etcher, 1837; Moreton Frewen MP, writer and entrepreneur, 1853; John Meade Falkner, novelist, 1858; Nevil Vincent Sidgwick, chemist, 1873; Harry S. Truman, 33rd US President, 1884; Edmund Wilson, novelist, playwright and poet, 1895; Friedrich August von Hayek, economist, 1899; Joseph Edmond Molloy, librarian and bibliophile, 1905.

Deaths: Pietro Longhi, painter, 1785; Francis Hopkinson, composer, 1791; Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, chemist, guillotined 1794; Mauro Giuliani, composer, 1829; Jos de Madrazo y Kuntz, painter, 1859; John Stuart Mill, political economist, 1873; Gustave Flaubert, novelist, 1880; Midhat Pasha, statesman, 1884; Eugne-Henri Paul Gauguin, Post- Impressionist painter, 1903; Eadweard Muybridge (Edward James Muggeridge), photographer and inventor, 1904; John Seymour Lucas, painter, 1923; Oswald Spengler, philosopher, 1936; Dame Ethel Mary Smyth, composer and suffragist, 1944; Harry Gordon Selfridge, founder of Selfridge's department store, 1947; Emanuel, Baron Shinwell, statesman, 1986.

On this day: the Act of Uniformity was signed by Queen Elizabeth I, 1559; the British monarchy was restored, 1660; ''The People's Charter'' was issued by the Working Men's Association, 1838; US forces defeated the Mexicans at the Battle of Palo Alto, 1846; Mount Pele on Martinique erupted, destroying the city of St Pierre and killing 38,000 people, 1902; the first London performance of the operetta The Land of Smiles was presented, 1931; the Battle of the Coral Sea ended, 1942; the Battle of Cassino, Italy, ended, 1944; Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) was celebrated, 1945; John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger was first performed, Royal Court Theatre, London, 1956.

Today is the Feast Day of St Acacius or Agathus, St Benedict II, pope, St Boniface IV, pope, St Desideratus or Desire of Bourges, St Gibrian, St Otger, St Peter of Tarentaise, St Plechelm, St Victor Maurus and St Wiro.