Anniversaries

TODAY: Births: Izaak Walton, author of The Compleat Angler, 1593; John Dryden, poet, 1631; Thomas Telford, civil engineer, 1757; Leonide Fedorovich Massine, dancer and choreographer, 1896; Jean Piaget, child psychologist, 1896; Robert Aldrich, film director, 1918; Philip Arthur Larkin, poet, 1922. Deaths: Captain Frederick Marryat, novelist, 1848; Professor Graham Wallas, economist, 1932; Herman Hesse, poet and novelist, 1962; Joe Orton (John Kingsley Orton), playwright, 1967; Dmitri Dmitryevich Shostakovich, composer, 1975. On this day: an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, 1945; Singapore became independent, 1965; the London production of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar was first presented, 1972; Gerald Ford succeeded Richard Nixon as 38th US President, 1974. Today is the Feast Day of St Emygius, Saints Nathy and Felim, St Oswald of Northumbria and St Romanus.

TOMORROW: Births: Laurence Robert Binyon, poet and playwright, 1869; Herbert Clark Hoover, 31st US President, 1874. Deaths: Allan Ramsay, portrait painter, 1784; Johann Michael Haydn, composer, 1806; Edward William Lane, translator of The Thousand and One Nights, 1876. On this day: the Scots defeated the English at the Battle of Otterburn, 1388; the Mines Act prohibited women and young children from working under ground, 1842; the first Promenade Concert was given by (later Sir) Henry Wood at the Queen's Hall, London, 1895; the (later "Royal") Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland was founded, 1897; the Parliament Act was passed, reducing the power of the House of Lords, 1911; British Members of Parliament voted to receive salaries for the first time (pounds 400 p.a.), 1911. Today is the Feast Day of St Laurence of Rome.