Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: Ivan III (the Great), Grand Duke of Muscovy, 1440; Sir Francis Bacon, Viscount St Albans, statesman and lawyer, 1561; George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron, poet, 1788; August Strindberg, playwright, 1849; Beatrice Potter Webb, social reformer, 1858; David Wark Griffith, film producer and director, 1875; U Thant, Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1909. Deaths: William Paterson, financier and founder of the Bank of England, 1719; Charles Kean, actor-manager, 1868; David Edward Hughes, inventor of the teleprinter and microphone, 1900; Queen Victoria, 1901; Walter Richard Sickert, painter, 1942; Lyndon Baines Johnson, statesman, 1973; Herbert Sutcliffe, cricketer, 1978; Walter McLennan Citrine, first Baron Citrine, trade union leader and statesman, 1983; Jean-Louis Barrault, actor, director and theatre manager, 1994. On this day: the South Sea Bubble speculation fever started, 1720; the Falkland Islands were ceded to Britain by Spain, 1771; this was Bloody Sunday in St Petersburg, when 120,000 citizens marched on the Winter Palace, and were fired upon, 1905; Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour prime minister, took office, 1924; the first broadcast of a football match took place (Arsenal v Sheffield United) at Highbury, London, 1927; the Empire Theatre, Leicester Square, London, was demolished, 1927; the United Kingdom, Irish Republic and Denmark joined the Common Market, 1972. Today is the Feast Day of St Anastasius the Persian, St Berhtwald of Ramsbury, St Blesilla, St Dominic of Sora, St Vincent Pallotti and St Vincent of Saragossa, and is also the first day of Ramadan.