Anniversaries

Births: Heinrich Schutz, composer, 1585; John Hoadly, poet and playwright, 1711; Alicia (Alison) Cockburn, poet, 1713; Franz Seydelmann, composer, 1748; William Swainson, naturalist, 1789; Karl Ludwig Amand Mangold, conductor and composer, 1813; Montagu William Lowry-Corry, first Baron Rowton, founder of Rowton Houses for working men, 1838; Henri-Louis Le Chatelier, chemist, 1850; Emil Georg Konrad Sauer, pianist and composer, 1862; John Cowper Powys, novelist, essayist and poet, 1872; Ejnar Hertzprung, astronomer, 1873; Sir Alfred John Munnings, artist, 1878; Ernst Kretschmer, psychologist, 1888; Eddie (Edward Vernon) Rickenbacker (Rickenbacher), First World War fighter pilot, 1890; Juan Peron, soldier, president of Argentina, 1895; Rouben Mamoulian, film director, 1898.

Deaths: Cola di Rienzi, reformer, murdered, 1354; Jan Massys, painter, 1575; Henry Fielding, novelist, 1754; Pierre Fournier, typographer and engraver, 1768; Count Vittorio Alfieri, poet, 1803; Richard Earlom, mezzotint engraver, 1822; Franklin Pierce, 14th US president, 1869; Sir John Monash, commander of the Australian Army Corps in France in the First World War, 1931; George W. Lederer, theatrical producer, 1938; Gus Kahn, lyricist, 1941; Wendell Lewis Willkie, US Republican presidential candidate, 1944; Edith Anna Oenone Somerville, author, 1949; Kathleen Mary Ferrier, contralto, 1953; Clement Richard Attlee, first Earl Attlee, statesman, 1967.

On this day: the final consecration of St Mark's, Venice, took place, 1085; the Duke of Wellington crossed the Bidassoa river in Spain and entered France, 1813; King's College, London, was opened, 1831; 300,000 people died in China during a great typhoon, 1881; Bechuanaland was proclaimed British territory, 1885; Charles Nessler first used a permanent waving machine on a woman's hair, 1905; Greece, Serbia and Montenegro united against Turkey in the First Balkan War, 1912; the Battle of Loos ended, 1915; the British took Beirut, 1918; the Saville Theatre, London, opened, 1931; Western Poland was made part of the German Reich, 1939; 112 people were killed and 340 injured in collision between a local and an express train at Harrow and Wealdstone, London 1952; the first London production of the musical show The King and I was presented, 1953; the US aircraft-carrier Saratoga was launched, then the world's most powerful warship, 1955; Britain's tallest building, the Post Office Tower, opened, London 1965; Britain's first legal commercial radio station, LBC (London Broadcasting Company) started transmitting, 1973.

Today is the Feast Day of St Demetrius, St Simeon Senex, St Keyne, St Marcellus, St Pelagia (or Margaret) the Penitent, St Reparata of Caesarea, and St Thais.