Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: St Augustine of Hippo, 354; Edward III, King, 1312; Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, military leader, 1567; General Sir John Moore, 1761; Edward John Trelawny, writer and traveller, 1792; Henry Brinley Richards, pianist and composer, 1819; Charles Frederick Worth, couturier, 1825; James Clerk Maxwell, physicist, 1831; Edwin Thomas Booth, actor, 1833; Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson, writer and traveller, 1850; George Whitefield Chadwick, composer, 1854; Eugene Ionesco, author and playwright, 1912. Deaths: Pope St Nicholas the Great, 867; Malcolm III, King of the Scots, killed 1093; Prince Henry the Navigator, 1460; Lodovico Carracci, painter, 1619; Thomas Erpenius (van Erpe), Orientalist, 1624; George Sale, translator of the Koran, 1736; William Etty, painter, 1849; Sir John Forbes, physician and author, 1861; Arthur Hugh Clough, poet, 1861; Gioacchino Antonio Rossini, composer, 1868; Arnaud-Michel d'Abbadie, explorer, 1893; Camille Pissarro, painter, 1903; Francis Thompson, poet, 1907; Enrico Cecchetti, dancer, 1928; Roark Whitney Wickliffe Bradford, novelist, 1948; Jacques Fath, couturier, 1954; Elsa Schiaparelli, couturiere, 1973; Robert Cedric Sherriff, playwright and novelist, 1975; Chesney Allen, comedian, 1982. On this day: the Scots defeated by the English at Alnwick, 1093; the Jacobites were defeated at Sheriffmuir and Preston, 1715; Texas declared its independence of Mexico, 1835; a telegraphic service between London and Paris began, 1851; the fourth phase of the Battle of the Somme began, 1916; a Pacific treaty was signed between the United States, the British Empire, France and Japan, 1921; the inner coffin of Tutankhamen was opened at Luxor, 1925; Ahmed Soekarno became president of the Republic of Indonesia, 1945; a cyclone and tidal waves killed more than 500,000 people in East Pakistan, 1970; Iceland agreed a plan to end the "Cod War" with Britain, 1973; a state of emergency was proclaimed in Britain, following an overtime ban by electricity and coal workers, 1973. Today is the Feast Day of St Abbo of Fleury, St Arcadius, St Brice or Britius, St Didacus or Diego of Seville, St Eugenius of Toledo, St Frances Xavia Cabrini, St Homobonus, St Maxellendis, St Nicholas I, pope and St Stanislaus Kostka.