Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: John Penry, Puritan author and martyr, 1593; Charles II, King, 1630; Sarah Jennings, Duchess of Marlborough, 1660; Patrick Henry, orator and statesman, 1736; Philippe Lebon, chemist and inventor, 1767; Dr John Walker, inventor of the friction match, 1781; Emil Breslauer, pianist, 1836; Hans Makart, painter, 1840; Heinrich von Kaan, pianist and composer, 1852; Isaac Manuel Francisco Albeniz, composer, 1860; Gilbert Keith Chesterton, author, 1874; Oswald Spengler, philosopher, 1880; Joseph von Sternberg, film director, 1894; Erich Wolfgang Korngold, composer, 1897; Gregg Toland, cinematographer, 1904; Terence Hanbury White, novelist, 1906; John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th US President, 1917.

Deaths: Henry Dundas, first Viscount Melville, statesman, 1811; Sir Humphry Davy, scientist and inventor of the miners' safety lamp, 1829; John Lothrop Motley, diplomat and historian, 1877; Julius von Sachs, botanist and naturalist, 1897; Mily Alekseyevich Balakirev, composer, 1910; Sir William Schwenck Gilbert, librettist and playwright, died after saving a young woman from drowning 1911; Abbott Handerson Thayer, painter and naturalist, 1921; Adam Adolf Oberlander, painter and caricaturist, 1923; Josef Suk, violinist and composer, 1935; John Barrymore (Blythe), actor, 1942; Fanny Brice (Fannie Borach), comedienne, 1951; Juan Ramn Jimenez, poet, 1956; Mary Pickford, actress, 1979; Jacqueline Onassis (Jacqueline Lee Bouvier), widow of President John Kennedy and of Aristotle Onassis, 1994.

On this day: Constantinople fell to the Turks, 1453; Charles II entered London after the restoration of the monarchy, 1660; the first steam cable tram in Europe began operating in Highgate, London 1884; the French liner Normandie left Le Havre on her maiden voyage to New York, via Southampton, 1935; the evacuation from Dunkirk began, 1940; Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing reached the summit of Mount Everest, 1953; Charles de Gaulle formed a government of national safety in France, 1959; the first London production of the musical Gypsy was presented, 1973.

Today is the Feast Day of St Bernard of Montjoux or Menthon, St Cyril of Caesarea, St Maximinus of Trier, Saints Sisinnius, Martyrius and Alexander, St Theodosia of Constantinople and Saints William, Stephen, Raymund and their Companions.