Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: Sir Henry Percy (Harry Hotspur), soldier and politician, 1364; Honore de Balzac (Balssa), novelist, 1799; John Stuart Mill, political economist, 1806; Sigrid Undset, novelist, 1882; Margery Allingham, detective story writer, 1904; Moshe Dayan, military commander, 1915.

Deaths: Christopher Columbus, explorer and navigator, 1506; Mary Lamb, writer, 1847; John Clare, farmer and poet, 1864; William Chambers, author and publisher, 1883; Clara Josephine Schumann, pianist, 1896; Sir Max (Henry Maximilian) Beerbohm, caricaturist and writer, 1956; Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth, sculptor, 1975.

On this day: the Earl of Pembroke defeated the French at the Battle (or Fair) of Lincoln, 1217; Vasco da Gama, navigator, arrived at Calicut, India, 1498; Napoleon defeated the Allies at the Battle of Bautzen, 1813; York Minster was badly damaged following a fire, 1840; the foundation stone of the Royal Albert Hall was laid, 1867; Stanley Baldwin became Prime Minister, 1923; Charles A. Lindbergh began his first non-stop solo transatlantic flight, New York to Paris in 37 hours, 1927; Amelia Earhart was the first woman to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic, 1932; Pan American Airlines began regular flights between the US and Europe, 1939; Germany launched an aerial invasion of Crete, landing 7,000 parachute troops from gliders, 1941; the first US hydrogen bomb was dropped over Bikini atoll, 1956; there were widespread floods in Romania, with 200 dead and thousands homeless, 1971.

Today is the Feast Day of St Austregisilus or Outrill, St Basilla or Basilissa, St Baudelius, St Bernardino of Siena, St Ethelbert and Saints Thalelaeus, Asterius, Alexander and Others.