Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: Mariotto Albertinelli, painter, 1474; Sir James Thomas Knowles, editor and architect, 1831; Lillie (Emilie Charlotte) Langtry, actress, 1853; Mary Henrietta Kingsley, writer and explorer, 1862; Walter James Redfern Turner, poet, music critic and playwright, 1889. Deaths: Claudius I, Roman Emperor, poisoned by his wife Agrippina 54; Nicolas de Malebranche, philosopher, 1715; Sir Henry Irving (John Henry Brodribb), actor, 1905; Walter Houser Brattain, physicist, and an inventor of the transistor, 1987. On this day: the foundation stone of the White House, Washington, was laid by President George Washington, 1792; Greenwich was adopted as the universal meridian at the Washington Conference, 1884; Italy declared war on Germany, 1943. Today is the Feast Day of St Coloman, St Comgan, St Edward the Confessor, St Faustus of Cordova, St Gerald of Aurillac, Saints Januarius and Martial and St Maurice of Carnoet.