Anniversaries

Births: Frans Snyders, animal painter, 1579; Prince Ottavio Piccolomini, military commander, 1599; Andre-Charles Boulle, cabinetmaker, 1642; Johann Albert Fabricius, classical scholar, 1688; Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, navigator, 1729; Johann Kaspar Lavater, writer, pastor and founder of physiognomics, 1741; Bernhard Romberg, cellist and composer, 1767; Johann Heinrich Scheibler, musical tuning inventor, 1777; Benjamin John Armstrong, Church of England priest, 1817; Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, author, 1821; John George Brown, painter, 1831; Paul Signac, painter, 1863; Antoine Meillet, linguist, 1866; Jean-Edouard Vuillard, painter, 1868; Gustav VI Adolf, King of Sweden, 1882; George Smith Patton, general, 1885; Rene Clair (Chomette), film director, 1898; Ivy Benson, bandleader, 1913.

Deaths: Johann Zoffany (Zauffely), theatrical painter, 1810; Soren Aabye Kierkegaard, philosopher, 1855; Ned Kelly, outlaw, hanged 1880; Thomas Adolphus Trollope, author, 1892; Valentine Cameron Prinsep, artist, 1904; Felix-Francois-Georges Philibert, painter, 1911; Sir William Augustus Tilden, chemist, 1926; Sir Edward German (Edward German Jones), composer, 1936; Jerome David Kern, composer, 1945; Fred Niblo (Federico Nobile), film director, 1948; Victor Young, composer and conductor, 1956; Walter Van Tilburg Clark, author, 1971; Sir Alan Patrick Herbert CH, author, 1971; Cyril Vernon Connolly, author, journalist and critic, 1974; Alexander Milne Calder, sculptor, 1976; Dimitri Tiomkin, composer, 1979; James Hanley, novelist and playwright, 1985; Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (Skriabin), Russian leader, 1986; Eamonn Andrews, television personality, 1987.

On this day: William Butler led a group of Indians who massacred the inhabitants of Cherry Valley, New York, 1778; work began on the Manchester Ship Canal, 1887; Washington became the 42nd of the United States, 1889; the musical show Floradora was first performed, London 1899; an armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany in the First World War, 1918; the two-minute silence for the dead of the First World War was first observed, 1919; the Cenotaph in Whitehall was unveiled, 1920; following the failure of his coup d'etat in Munich, Adolf Hitler was arrested, 1923; the first video recorder was demonstrated in Beverly Hills, California, 1952; Ian Smith made a unilateral declaration of independence for Rhodesia, 1965; in London, the new Covent Garden fruit and vegetable market opened at Nine Elms in South London, 1974; Angola proclaimed her independence, 1975; in Australia, the Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissed the Labour prime minister, Gough Whitlam, 1975.

Today is the Feast Day of St Bartholomew of Grottaferrata, St Mannas of Egypt, St Martin of Tours and St Theodore the Studite.