Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: Johann Sebastian Bach, composer, 1685; Dorothea Beale, educationalist, 1831; Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, composer, 1839; Albert Chevalier, actor, entertainer and singer, 1861; Herbert Albert Laurens Fisher, historian, 1865; Florenz Ziegfeld, stage producer, 1869; Bernard Cyril, first Baron Freyberg, Governor-General of New Zealand, 1889. Deaths: Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, burnt at the stake 1556; Robert Southey, poet, 1843; Philip Wilson Steer, painter, 1942; Harry H. Corbett, actor, 1982; Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, actor, 1985. On this day: the coronation of King Henry V of England took place, 1413; a duel was fought by the Duke of Wellington and the Earl of Winchelsea, 1829; the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh was opened, 1859; the last offensive by the Germans began on the Western front - the second Battle of the Somme, 1918; Waterloo Station, London, was opened, 1922; Dr Kwame Nkrumah became the first African prime minister south of the Sahara, 1952; the Sudan became independent, 1953; the London Planetarium opened, 1958; African demonstrators were shot at Sharpeville, South Africa, 1960; the musical Half a Sixpence was first produced, London 1963; Martin Luther King led a civil rights march, starting at Selma, Alabama, 1965; John Stonehouse, a former government minister, was arrested in Australia on an extradition warrant after allegations of fraud and theft, 1975; Namibia, formerly known as South West Africa, became independent, 1990; the Government decided to scrap the Poll Tax by 1993 to return to some kind of property tax, 1991. Today is the Feast Day of St Enda, St Fanchea and St Serapion of Thmuis.