Anniversaries

Births: Edward IV, King, 1442; Jean Audran, artist and engraver, 1667; James Monroe, fifth US president, 1758; Charles Sturt, explorer of Australia, 1795; Anthony Ashley Cooper, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, statesman and philanthropist, 1801; Nikolai Titov, song composer, 1801; Sir James Erasmus Wilson, dermatologist, who, at his own expense, brought 'Cleopatra's Needle' to London, 1809; Anastasius Dreszer, composer, 1845; Frances Mary Hodgkins, painter, 1869; Harold Bauer, pianist, 1873; Lionel Barrymore (Blythe), actor, 1878; Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, prime minister and dictator of Portugal, 1889; Reginald Cotterell Butler, metal sculptor, 1913.

Deaths: Thomas Betterton, actor, 1710; Johann Friedrich, Count von Struensee, statesman, executed 1772; John Abernethy, surgeon, 1831; Sir Charles Bell, anatomist, 1842; Johannes Peter Muller, physiologist, 1858; Gavrilo Princip, Bosnian revolutionary and assassin, 1918; Fuad I, King of Egypt, 1936; Luisa Tetrazzini, soprano, 1940; Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, executed by partisans 1945; Richard Arthur Warren Hughes, novelist, 1976; Francis Bacon, painter, 1992; Olivier Messiaen, composer and organist, 1992.

On this day: the foundation stone of Salisbury Cathedral was laid, 1220; the Spaniards defeated a French fleet and won a decisive victory at the Battle of Cerignola, 1503; Pope Clement XII issued a bull condemning freemasonry, 1738; Captain Cook landed at, and named, Botany Bay and New South Wales, 1770; the crew of HMS Bounty, led by Fletcher Christian, mutinied, 1789; the Rush-Bagot Agreement was concluded between the US and Britain, 1817; the musical show The Arcadians was first produced, London 1909; the League of Nations was founded, 1919; Leslie Irvin made the first free-fall parachute descent at McCook Field, Ohio, 1919; Farouk became King of Egypt, 1936; Thor Heyerdahl and companions set off from Peru on the Kon- Tiki expedition, 1947; Japan regained its sovereignty, 1952; General Charles de Gaulle resigned as president of France, 1969; US forces were sent to the Dominican Republic to protect US citizens and prevent a Communist revolution, 1965; Anwar Sadat was appointed acting president of Egypt, 1970.

Today is the Feast Day of St Cronan of Roscrea, St Cyril of Turov, St Louis Grignion of Montfort, St Pamphilus of Sulmona, St Peter Mary Chanel, St Pollio, Saints Theodora and Didymus, St Valeria and St Vitalis.