Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: Prince Ottavio Piccolomini, military commander, 1599; Louis- Antoine de Bougainville, navigator, 1729; Johann Kaspar Lavater, founder of physiognomics, 1741; Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, author, 1821; Paul Signac, painter, 1863; Jean-Edouard Vuillard, painter, 1868; Rene Clair (Chomette), film director, 1898. Deaths: Johann Zoffany (Zauffely), painter, 1810; Soren Aabye Kierkegaard, philosopher, 1855; Sir Edward German (Edward German Jones), composer, 1936; Jerome David Kern, composer, 1945; Sir Alan Patrick Herbert, author, 1971; Cyril Vernon Connolly, author and critic, 1974; James Hanley, novelist and playwright, 1985; Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (Skriabin), Russian leader, 1986; Eamonn Andrews, television presenter, 1987. On this day: an armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany, 1918; the two-minute silence for the dead of the First World War was first observed, 1919; the Cenotaph in Whitehall was unveiled, 1920; the first video recorder was demonstrated, Beverly Hills, California 1952; Ian Smith made a unilateral declaration of independence for Rhodesia, 1965. Today is the Feast Day of St Bartholomew of Grottaferrata, St Mannas of Egypt, St Martin of Tours and St Theodore the Studite.