Anniversaries

Births: William Archer, dramatic critic and playwright, 1856; Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, novelist and poet, 1861; Emma Magdalena Rosalia Marie Josepha Barbara, Baroness Orczy, novelist, 1865; Walter Lippman, journalist and writer, 1889; Paul Delvaux, painter, 1897.

Deaths: Nicholas-Francois Mansart, architect, 1666; Robert Dodsley, poet, publisher and bookseller, founder of the Annual Register, 1764; Richard Parkes Bonington, landscape painter, 1828; John Vanderlyn, painter, 1852; Prosper Merimee, novelist, 1870; Urbain Jean-Joseph Leverrier, astronomer, 1877; Thomas Webster, figure painter, 1886; William Wilkie Collins, novelist, 1889; Eliza Cook, poet, 1889; Ivar Andreas Aasen, philologist, 1896; Julius Adam, painter, 1913; John Morley, first Viscount Morley, statesman, 1923; Sigmund Freud, psychoanalyst, 1939; Elinor Glyn, novelist, 1943; Pablo Neruda (Neftali Ricardo Reyes), Chilean poet, 1973.

On this day: the Greeks defeated the Persians at the Battle of Salamis, 480 BC; the Lancastrians were defeated by the Yorkists at Bloreheath, 1459; the Battle of Worcester was won by Prince Rupert, 1642; Montrose was defeated by David Leslie at the Battle of Philiphaugh, 1645; the British under Wellesley defeated Scindia and the Rajah of Berar at Assaye, 1803; Johann Gottfried Galle discovered the planet Neptune, 1846; two awards for gallantry, the George Cross and the George Medal, were instituted, 1940; General Juan Pern was re-elected as president of Argentina, 1973.

Today is the Feast Day of St Adamnan or Eunan of Iona and Saints Andrew, John, Peter and Antony.