Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: Louis XVI, King of France, 1754; Sir Astley Paston Cooper, surgeon, 1768; William Dent Priestman, oil engine inventor, 1847; Moritz Moszkowski, composer, 1854; Edgar Lee Masters, poet and novelist, 1869; Sir Henry Thomas Tizard, scientist, 1885; Ernst Krenek, Viennese-born composer, 1900; Leonard Constant Lambert, composer and critic, 1905; Arthur Adamov, playwright, 1908; Gene Kelly (Eugene Curran Kelly), dancer and singer, 1912. Deaths: Flavius Stilicho, Roman general, beheaded 408; Sir William Wallace, Scottish patriot, executed 1305; Sir Thomas Littleton (Lyttelton), legal author and jurist, 1481; George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham, assassinated by John Felton 1628; Alexander Wilson, ornithologist, 1813; Philip Henry Gosse, naturalist, 1888; Rudolph Valentino (Rodolfo Alfonzo Raffaele Pierre Philibert Guglielmi), actor, 1926; Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, political radicals, executed for murder 1927; Adolph Loos, architect, 1933; Albert Roussel, composer, 1937; Sidney Coe Howard, playwright, in an accident, 1939; Oscar Hammerstein II, lyricist, 1960; Irving Fine, composer, 1962; Francis Xavier Bushman, film actor, 1966; Lancelot Thomas Hogben, scientific writer, 1975. On this day: Charles I of Anjou routed the German army of the Holy Roman Empire when it invaded Italy, at the Battle of Tagliacozzo, 1268; the French defeated the Flemings at the Battle of Cassel, 1328; Mexico was declared to be independent, 1821; Hong Kong was taken by the British, 1839; the Treaty of Prague was signed, making peace between Austria and Prussia, 1866; the Albert Bridge across the Thames at Chelsea was opened, 1873; Japan declared war on Germany, 1914; Namur, Belgium, was captured by German troops, 1914; the Battle of Mons began, 1914; Feisal I was crowned as King of Iraq, 1921; the USSR-German Non-Aggression Pact was signed, 1939; John Cobb, the British motorist, drove at 368.85 mph at Bonneville Salt Flats, US, 1939; the Battle of Stalingrad began, 1942; the World Council of Churches was founded, 1948. Today is the Feast Day of Saints Asterius and Claudius, St Eugene or Eoghan of Ardstraw, St Philip Benizi, St Rose of Lima and St Tydfil.