Anniversaries

Births: Hans Sachs, cobbler, mastersinger, poet and playwright, 1494; Alexander Sergeyevich Famintsin, music critic and composer, 1841; Leon-Philippe Teisserenc de Bort, meteorologist and discoverer of the stratosphere, 1855; James Elroy Flecker, poet and playwright, 1884; John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, physiologist and geneticist, 1892; Paul Edward Dehn, playwright, writer and poet, 1912; Roy Rogers (Leonard Franklin Slye), actor, 1912; Vivien Leigh (Vivien Hartley), actress, 1913.

Deaths: Casimir III, King of Poland, 1370; Jesse Ramsden, astronomical instrument-maker, 1800; Pierre-Ambroise Francois Choderlos de Laclos, soldier and writer, 1803; Maria Anna Angelica Kauffmann, painter, 1807; Christiaan Eijkman, physician, 1930; Maurice Utrillo, painter, 1955; Mack Sennett (Michael Sinnott), film producer and director, 1960; Lionel Trilling, writer, 1975; Al Capp (Alfred Gerald Caplin), cartoonist, 1979; Jacques Tati (Tatischeff), actor and director, 1982; Eamonn Andrews, television presenter, 1987; Ian Robert Maxwell (Jan Ludvik Hoch), newspaper chairman, found dead at sea 1991; Sir Isaiah Berlin, philosopher, 1997.

On this day: the Gunpowder Plot was discovered, 1605; William of Orange landed at Brixham, Devon, 1688; the first issue of the New York Weekly Journal appeared, 1733; the British sovereign abandoned the title "King of France", 1800; in Liverpool, the first British Woolworth's store opened, 1909; on the outbreak of war with Turkey, Cyprus was annexed by Britain, 1914; US troops under General Pershing went into action for the first time on the Western Front, 1917; the first automatic traffic lights in Britain were installed in Wolverhampton, 1927; President Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected for a third term, 1940; the National Bank (now the Royal Bank of Scotland) inaugurated the world's first mobile bank, at Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, 1946; the new Vienna Opera House was opened, 1955; after a train from Hastings to Charing Cross was derailed near Hither Green, London, 49 people were killed and 78 injured, 1967; Richard Nixon was elected as 37th US President, 1968.

Today is the Feast Day of St Bertilla of Chelles, Saints Elisabeth and Zachary, St Episteme and St Galation.