Anniversaries

Births: Sir Christopher Wren, mathematician and architect, 1632; Henry John Temple, third Viscount Palmerston, statesman, 1784; Colin Campbell, Baron Clyde, commander-in-chief during the Indian Mutiny, 1792; Henry Inman, painter, 1801; Henry Gamble Blagrove, violinist, 1811; Thomas Hughes, author of Tom Brown's Schooldays, 1822; Jean-Nicolas-Arthur Rimbaud, poet, 1854; John Dewey, philosopher, 1859; Charles Edward Ives, composer, 1874; Sir James Chadwick, physicist, 1891; Anna Neagle (Marjorie Robertson), actress, 1904; Frederic Dannay, novelist (one half of the 'Ellery Queen' partnership), 1905.

Deaths: Jacopo della Quercia, sculptor, 1438; Thomas Linacre, scholar and physician, 1524; Grace Darling, heroine at the wreck of the Forfarshire, 1842; Sarah Ann Glover, inventor of the Tonic Sol-fa system, 1867; Sir Richard Francis Burton, explorer and Arabic scholar, 1890; James Anthony Froude, historian, 1894; Herbert Clark Hoover, 31st US President, 1964; Shigeru Yoshida, statesman, 1967; Bud Flanagan (Robert Winthrop), 'Crazy Gang' comedian, 1968; Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, physicist, 1984; Sir John Anthony Quayle, actor, 1989.

On this day: the coronation of George I took place, 1714; the 49th parallel was defined as the border between Canada and the United States, 1818; the Sunday Times was first published, 1822; the British, French and Russian fleets annihilated the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Navarino, 1827; Woodrow Wilson, President of Princeton University, resigned to enter United States politics, 1910; Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy, 1922; Aachen was captured by the Allies, 1944; United States troops landed at Leyte, in the Philippine Islands, 1944; owing to disturbances caused by the Mau Mau terrorist organisation, a state of emergency was declared in Kenya, 1952; Aristotle Onassis married Jacqueline Kennedy, 1968; the Sydney Opera House was opened to the public, 1973.

Today is the Feast Day of St Acca, St Andrew the Calybite of Crete, St Artemius, St Bertilla Boscardin and St Caprasius of Agen.