Anniversaries

Births: Peter De Wint, painter, 1784; Moritz von Schwind, painter, 1804; John Charles Fremont, explorer, 1813; Thomas Attwood Walmisley, organist and composer, 1814; Thomas Jonathan ('Stonewall') Jackson, Confederate general, 1824; Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake, physician and women's liberation pioneer, 1840; Joseph-Achille Le Bel, chemist, 1847; Amedee-Ernest Chausson, composer, 1855; Dr Duncan James Corrowr Grant, painter, 1885; Philip Morton Shand, architectural writer, 1888; Charles Langbridge Morgan, author, 1894; Cristobal Balenciaga, couturier, 1895; Christian Dior, couturier, 1905; Benny Hill (Alfred Hawthorn Hill), comedian, 1924.

Deaths: Pope Paschal II, 1118; Joseph-Justice Scaliger, scholar, 1609; Adriaen Vandevelde, painter, 1672; James Quin, actor, 1766; Louis XVI, King of France, executed 1793; John Moore, novelist, travel writer and surgeon, 1802; Jacques- Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, author, 1814; Achim von Arnim (Karl Joachim Friedrich Ludwig von Arnim), folklorist, playwright and poet, 1831; Henry Hallam, historian, 1859; Alexander Ivanovich Herzen, revolutionary, 1870; Franz Grillparzer, playwright, 1872; John Couch Adams, astronomer, 1892; Elisha Gray, inventor of telegraphic apparatus, 1901; Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov), Russian leader, 1924; Lytton Giles Strachey, biographer and critic, 1932; George Augustus Moore, novelist, 1933; Will (William Henry) Dyson, cartoonist and etcher, 1938; Georges Melies, cinema pioneer, 1938; Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, composer, 1948; George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), novelist, 1950; Cecil Blount de Mille, film director, 1959; Marie Lohr, actress, 1975.

On this day: the 'Letters of Junius' began being published, 1769 (they ceased on the same day and month, 1772); the Daily News, the newspaper edited by Charles Dickens, was first issued, 1846; after deposing Comonfort, General Zuloaga took control of the Mexican government, 1858; taxi-cabs were first officially recognised in Britain, 1907; a Bill aimed at raising the school- leaving age to 15 was defeated in the House of Commons, 1931; Edward VIII was proclaimed king, 1936; in Geneva, the sixth session of the 17- nation disarmament conference took place, 1964; the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, was launched, 1954; the inaugural flight to Bahrain was made by Concorde, 1976.

Today is the Feast Day of St Agnes, St Alban or Bartholomew Roe, St Epiphanius of Pavia, St Fructuosus of Tarragona, St Meinrad and St Patroclus of Troyes.