Anniversaries

TODAY

Births: George III, King, 1738; Sir James Pennethorne, architect, 1801; Garnet Joseph, first Viscount Wolseley, soldier, 1833; Josef Sittard, writer on music, 1846; Nassau William Senior, economist, 1864; Gustavus Karl Mannerheim, soldier and statesman, 1867.

Deaths: Giovanni Jacopo Casanova, adventurer and writer, 1798; Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard, painter, 1809; William Edward Frost, painter, 1877; Eugen Adam, painter, 1880; Emily Wilding Davidson, suffragette, trampled to death by a horse at the Derby 1913; Frederick Robert Spofforth, cricketer and 'demon bowler', 1926; Wilhelm II, former Emperor of Germany, 1941; Serge Koussevitsky, conductor, 1951; Dorothy Gish (de Guiche), actress, 1968;Gyorgy Lukacs, philosopher, 1971.

On this day: Frederick the Great defeated the Austrians and Saxons in the Battle of Hohenfriedberg, Silesia, 1745; Mme Thible, a French opera singer, was the first woman to fly in a hot-air balloon, 1784; Leopold, Duke of Kendal (Georges Chretien Frederic), was proclaimed first King of the Belgians, 1831; war broke out between Mexico and the United States, 1845; the Order of the British Empire was instituted, 1917; the British evacuation from Dunkirk was completed, 1940; Rome was liberated by the Allies, 1944; Tonga became independent, 1970; the first post- war non-Communist Albanian government took office, 1991.

Today is the Feast Day of St Francis Caracciolo, St Metrophanes, St Optatus of Milevis, St Petroc, St Quirinus of Siscia and St Vincentia Gerosa.

TOMORROW

Births: Adam Smith, political economist, 1723; Ivar Hallstrom, pianist and composer, 1826; Francisco Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary leader, 1878; Sir Robert Mayer, musical philanthropist, 1879; Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky, composer, 1882; John Maynard Keynes, first Baron Keynes, economist, 1883; Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett, novelist, 1884; Federico Garcia Lorca, poet and playwright, 1898; William (Bill) Boyd, actor, 1898; Barbara Goolden, novelist, 1900; Gilbert Charles Harding, television personality, 1907.

Deaths: St Boniface, apostle of Germany, murdered 755; Louis X, King of France, 1316; Orlando Gibbons, composer and organist, 1625; Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst, Baron von Weber, composer, 1826; John McDonall Stuart, explorer of Australia, 1866; Frederick Walker, painter, 1875; Sir Julius Benedict, pianist, composer and conductor, 1885; O. Henry (William Sydney Porter), short-story writer, 1910; Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, sculptor, 1915; Horatio Herbert, first Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, field marshal, lost at sea in HMS Hampshire 1916; Georges-Leon Jules-Marie Feydeau, playwright, 1921; Elijah Beardsworth, world quick-shaving champion, 1939; Harry James, bandleader, 1983.

On this day: the hot-air balloon was first demonstrated by the Montgolfier brothers, 1783; a republican insurrection took place in Paris, 1832; Pretoria, capital of the South African Republic, fell to the British under General Buller, 1900; the Ambassadors Theatre, London, opened, 1913; Ramsay MacDonald formed a minority Labour government in Britain, 1929; the Allied Control Commission assumed authority over Germany, 1945; the Six Day War between the Arab states and Israel broke out, 1967; Robert Francis Kennedy, a US senator, was shot by an assassin, dying 25 hours later, 1968; after being closed from the time of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, the Suez Canal was opened to all but Israeli shipping, 1975; Britain's first referendum was held - it resulted in a two-to-one majority in favour of staying in the Common Market, 1975; in the United States, the Teton Dam collapsed, flooding a wide area, and killing over 100 people, 1976; Mikhail Gorbachev received the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, 1991.

Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Boniface of Mainz or Crediton, St Dorotheus of Tyre, St Sanctius or Sancho and St Tudno.