Anniversaries

Births: Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, historian and poet, 1581; Giuseppe Maria Crespi, painter and etcher, 1665; Caroline Lucretia Herschel, astronomer, 1750; James Madison, fourth US president, 1751; Matthew Flinders, circumnavigator of Tasmania, 1774; Georg Simon Ohm, physicist, 1787; Marie- Rosalie (Rosa) Bonheur, painter, 1822; John B. Calkin, pianist, organist and composer, 1827; Rene-Francois- Armand Sully Prudhomme, poet, 1839; Friedrich Karl Brugmann, philologist, 1849; Sir John Lavery, painter, 1856; Emile Cammaerts, poet and writer, 1878; Robert Rossen (Rosen), film director, 1908.

Deaths: Tiberius Claudius Nero, Roman emperor, 37; Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, composer, 1736; John Hoadly, poet and playwright, 1776; Robert Smith Surtees, novelist, 1864; Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, artist and illustrator, 1898; Sir George Alexander (Samson), actor-manager, 1918; Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, Marques de Estella, general and dictator, 1930; John James Rickard Macleod, physiologist, 1935; Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain, statesman, 1937; Selma Ottiliana Lovisa Lagerlof, novelist, 1940; Constantin Brancusi, sculptor, 1957; William Henry Beveridge, first Baron Beveridge of Tuggal, social security pioneer, 1963; Arthur Adamov, playwright, 1970; Thomas Edmund Dewey, politician, 1971; Leonide Massine, choreographer, 1979; Jean-Omer- Marie-Gabriel Monnet, political economist, 1979; The Rev John Marcus Harston Morris, founder of Eagle magazine, 1989.

On this day: the Barons were defeated by Edward II at Boroughbridge, 1322; the Long Parliament of England, which sat for 20 years, was dissolved, 1660; the United States Military Academy was established at West Point, 1802; William of Orange was proclaimed King of the Netherlands, 1815; the first Football Association Cup Final was played at Kennington Oval, when the Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers one-nil, 1872; the first meeting of the Port of London Authority was held, 1909; Barney Eli Oldfield, auto racer, driving a Benz, set up a speed record of 133mph, 1910; Henriette Caillaux, wife of the French Finance Minister, shot dead Gaston Calmette, columnist of Le Figaro, 1914; the last issue of the Standard newspaper appeared, 1916; Britain recognised the Kingdom of Egypt under Fuad I, 1922; in the United States, Dr Robert H. Goddard demonstrated the practicality of rockets, 1926; Hitler renounced the Treaty of Versailles, and reintroduced compulsory military service, 1935; Slovakia was placed under German 'protection', while Hungary annexed Ruthenia, both part of Czechoslovakia, 1939; in the United States, the 114-year- old Brooklyn Eagle newspaper ceased publication, 1955; the New English Bible (Old Testament), a new translation, was published in London, 1961; the new London Bridge was opened, 1973; Soviet cosmonauts completed an orbit of 35 million miles, 1978.

Today is the Feast Day of St Abraham Kidunaia, St Eusebia of Hamage, St Finian Lobhair (The Leper), St Gregory Makar, St Heribert of Cologne and St Julian of Antioch.