Births: Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, painter, 1802; Luther Burbank, horticulturalist, 1849; Piet Mondriaan, abstract painter, 1872; Joseph-Maurice Ravel, composer, 1875. Deaths: St Thomas Aquinas, Christian philosopher, 1274; Herman J. Mankiewicz, screenwriter, 1953; Percy Wyndham Lewis, writer and artist, 1957; Florence Margaret (Stevie) Smith, poet, 1971. On this day: the first telephone was patented by Alexander Graham Bell, 1876; the first jazz record, The Dixie Jazz Band One-step, went on sale in the United States, 1917; in London, the Victoria underground line was opened by the Queen, 1969. Today is the Feast Day of St Ardo, St Drausius or Drausin, St Esterwine, St Paul the Simple and St Theophylact
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