Anniversaries

TODAY

Births: Jean-Antoine Watteau, painter, 1684; Giuseppe Fortunio Francesco Verdi, composer, 1813; Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, farmer and Boer statesman, 1825; Isabella II, Queen of Spain, 1830; Helen Hayes (Helen Hayes Brown), actress, 1900; Alberto Giacometti, sculptor, 1901; Thelonious Sphere Monk, pianist and pioneer of "bop", 1918.

Deaths: Fra Filippo Lippi, painter, 1469; Ugo (Niccolo) Foscolo, poet, 1827; Katherine Mayo, social reformer and writer, 1940; Edith Piaf (Edith Giovanna Gassion), singer, 1963; Eddie (Edward Israel Iskowitz) Cantor, entertainer and actor, 1964; Sir Ralph David Richardson, actor, 1983; Yul Brynner (Youl Bryner), actor, 1985; George Orson Welles, actor and producer, 1985.

On this day: the Saracens were defeated by the Franks under Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours, 732; Henry Morton Stanley met Dr Livingstone at Ujiji, 1871; the first public street collection for charity (later "flag days") was held as "Lifeboat Saturday", in Manchester, 1891; the republican revolution began in Central China, 1911; the population of Tristan da Cunha was evacuated from the island, following a volcanic eruption, 1961; Fiji became independent, 1970; Sir John Betjeman became Poet Laureate, 1972; after being fined $10,000 for income tax evasion, Spiro Agnew resigned as US Vice- President, 1973; in the general election, Labour was returned with an overall majority of three, 1974.

Today is the Feast Day of St Cerbonius, St Daniel, Saints Eulampius and Eulampia, St Francis Borgia, St Gereon, St Maharsapor and St Paulinus of York.

TOMORROW

Births: Sir George Williams, merchant and founder of the YMCA, 1821; Henry John Heinz, food-products magnate, 1844; Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, writer and lecturer, 1884; Francois Mauriac, writer, 1885; Richard Burton (Jenkins), actor, 1925.

Deaths: Sir Thomas Wyatt, poet and diplomat, 1542; Meriwether Lewis, explorer, 1809; Samuel Wesley, composer and organist, 1837; James Prescott Joule, physicist, 1889; Josef Anton Bruckner, composer, 1896; Maurice de Vlaminck, painter, 1958; Leonard "Chico" Marx, comedian, 1961; Jean Cocteau, poet, novelist and playwright, 1963.

On this day: the Order of the Bath was constituted, 1399; the title "Defender of the Faith" was conferred on Henry VIII by Pope Leo X, 1521; Peter the Great became Tsar of Russia, 1669; the Anglo-Boer War started, 1899; the Lusitania, on her maiden voyage, crossed the Atlantic in record time, 1907; enormous inflation overtook German currency, with the mark dropping to an exchange rate of 10,000 million to the pound, 1923; the Apollo 7 spacecraft, with a crew of three, was launched from Cape Kennedy, 1968.

Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Agilbert, St Alexander Sauli, Saints Andronicus, Tarachus, and Probus, St Bruno the Great of Cologne, St Canice or Kenneth, St Gummarus or Gomaire, St Mary Soledad and St Nectarius of Constantinople.