Births: Thomas Carlyle, author, 1795; Rainer Maria Rilke, poet, 1875. Deaths: Armand-Jean du Plessis, Cardinal and duc de Richelieu, statesman, 1642; Thomas Hobbes, political philosopher, 1679; Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, composer, 1976. On this day: Nicholas Breakspear was elected Pope Adrian IV, thus becoming the only Englishman to be pope, 1154; income tax was first introduced, by William Pitt, 1798. Today is the Feast Day of St Anno, St Bernard of Parma, St John of Damascus, St Maruthas, St Osmund and St Sola.
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