Anniversaries

TODAY: Births: Aurangzeb, the last Mogul emperor of India, 1618; Jacques Laffitte, banker and politician, 1767; Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike, actress, 1882; Jack Warner (Jack Waters), actor, 1894; Jackie Coogan (Jack Leslie Coogan), actor, 1914. Deaths: Lady Jane Seymour, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII, 1537; Pietro Alessandro Gaspare Scarlatti, composer, 1725; Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian wartime traitor, executed 1945; Christian Dior, fashion designer, 1957; Joseph Grimond (Lord Grimond), politician, 1993. On this day: the cathedral of Notre Dame, Chartres, France, was consecrated, 1260; murderers were no longer allowed to plead Benefit of Clergy, 1513; the United Nations Charter came into force, 1945; the United States started to blockade Cuba, 1962. Today is United Nations Day and the Feast Day of St Antony Claret, St Aretas, St Elesbaan, St Evergislus, St Felix of Thibiuca, St Maglorius or Maelor, St Martin or Mark, St Martin of Vertou, the Martyrs of Najran, St Proclus of Constantinople and St Senoch.

TOMORROW: Births: Thomas Weelkes, composer, baptised 1576; Georges (Alexandre- Cesar Leopold) Bizet, composer, 1838; Pablo Ruiz Picasso, painter, 1881; Abel Gance, film director and producer, 1889. Deaths: Stephen, King of England, 1154; Geoffrey Chaucer, poet, 1400; Sir Charles Halle (Carl Halle), conductor and pianist, 1895; Vincent Leonard Price, actor and writer, 1993. On this day: led by King Henry V, the English army defeated the French at the Battle of Agincourt, 1415; the Charge of the Light Brigade took place at Balaclava, 1854; the Fiji Islands were annexed by Great Britain, 1874; the magazine Private Eye was first published, 1961. Tomorrow is the Feast Day of Saints Chrysanthus and Daria, Saints Crispin and Crispinian, the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, Saints Fronto and George, St Gaudentius of Brescia and St Richard Gwyn.