Anniversaries

Births: Albrecht Durer, painter and engraver, 1471; Philip II, King of Spain, 1527; Alexander Pope, poet, 1688; Elizabeth Fry (Gurney), prison reformer, 1780; Henri Rousseau, painter, 1844; Thomas Wright (Fats) Waller, songwriter and pianist, 1904.

Deaths: Henry VI, King of England, murdered 1471; James Graham, first Marquess of Montrose, Scottish royalist, executed 1650; Christopher Smart, poet, 1771; Franz von Suppe (Francesco Cavaliere Suppe Demelli), composer, 1895; Ronald Arthur Annesley Firbank, novelist, 1926; Jane Addams, sociologist, 1935; Hugo de Vries, geneticist, 1935; Kenneth Mackenzie, Baron Clark, art historian, 1983.

On this day: the Standard newspaper was first published, 1827; Captain William Hobson proclaimed British sovereignty over the whole of New Zealand, 1840; the Manchester Ship Canal was officially opened, 1894; Summer Time (daylight saving) was begun in Britain, 1916; Charles A. Lindbergh reached Paris at the end of his flight across the Atlantic, 1927.

Today is the Feast Day of St Andrew Bobola, St Godfric and St Theophilus of Corte.