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Anniversaries

Tuesday 11 October 1994 23:02 BST
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Births: Edward VI, King of England, 1537; Pedro I, (Antonio Pedro de Alcantara Bourbon) Emperor of Brazil, 1798; John Liptrott Hatton, composer, 1809; Max Friedlander, baritone and writer, 1852; Elmer Ambrose Sperry, inventor, 1860; James Ramsay MacDonald, statesman, 1866; Ralph Vaughan Williams, composer, 1872; Aleister Edward Alexander Crowley, author and occultist, 1875; Sir Godfrey Seymour Tearle, actor, 1884; Luis de Freitas Branco, composer, 1890; James Phillip McAuley, poet, 1917.

Deaths: Piero della Francesca, painter and writer, 1492; Carel Fabritius (Pieterz), painter, killed 1654; Elizabeth Fry (Gurney), Quaker prison reformer, 1845; Robert Stephenson, civil engineer, 1859; Robert Edward Lee, Confederate general, 1870; Francois- Pierre Guizot, statesman and historian, 1874; Edith Louisa Cavell, nurse, executed by the Germans 1915; Anatole France (Jacques-Anatole Thibault), author, 1924; Edwin Abbott Abbott, theologian, teacher and scholar, 1926; Tom Mix (Thomas Edwin Mix), actor, 1940; Sonja Henie, skater and actress, 1969; Dean Gooderham Acheson, statesman, 1971.

On this day: an island in the West Indies was discovered by Christopher Columbus, which he named San Salvador, 1492; a powder magazine exploded at Delft, largely destroying the city, 1654; the French fleet was defeated off Vigo by Admiral Sir George Rooke, 1702; Gustav Hamel flew the English Channel from Hardelot, France to Maidstone, Kent, 1911; nearly 1,000 people died in a disastrous fire at North Minnesota, United States, 1918; the borough councillors of Poplar, London, were released from prison, where they had been committed for refusing to levy certain rates, 1921; an iron lung was used for the first time, at Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 1928; the first Morris Minor car designed by Alec Issigonis was produced at Cowley, Oxon, 1948; the College of Europe opened at Bruges, Belgium, 1950; the XIXth Olympic Games opened in Mexico City, 1968; in the United States, Gerald Ford was nominated Vice-President by Richard Nixon, 1973; the first London production of the musical show Little Shop of Horrors was presented, 1983.

Today is the Feast Day of St Edwin, St Ethelburga of Barking, Saints Felix and Cyprian, St Maximilian of Lorch and St Wilfrid of York.

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