Anniversaries

Births: Luke Hansard, printer of Hansard, 1752; Charles Alfred Stothard, antiquarian draughtsman, 1786; George Henry Borrow, author and linguist, 1803; Robert Fitzroy, admiral and hydrographer, 1805; Phineas Taylor Barnum, showman, 1810; John Loughborough Pearson, architect, 1817; Thomas Barry Sullivan, actor, 1821; Mandell Creighton, Bishop of London and author, 1843; William Thomas Stead, journalist and social reformer, 1849; Cecil John Rhodes, colonial developer and politician, 1853; Edouard Herriot, statesman and writer, 1872; Joseph Holbrooke, composer, 1878; Dwight Filley Davis, statesman and founder of the Davis Tennis Cup, 1879; Jan Kubelik, violinist, 1880; Jean Cocteau, poet, novelist and artist, 1889; Gordon Jacob, composer, 1895; Georges Pompidou, president of France, 1911.

Deaths: Sir Robert Strange, line engraver, 1792; Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Amadeus Hoffmann, author, artist and composer, 1822; Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore, 1826; Joseph-Nicephore Niepce, pioneer in photography, 1833; James Hall, judge, editor and author, 1868; Sir Austen Henry Layard, archaeologist, 1894; Georges Bernanos, novelist and writer, 1948; Wilhelm Backhaus, pianist, 1969; Walter Adolph Gropius, architect, 1969; Thomas Joseph Mboya, Kenyan statesman, assassinated 1969; Georgette Heyer, novelist, 1974.

On this day: in London, the Star Chamber was abolished, 1641; the Parliamentarians were defeated by the Royalists at the Battle of Lansdown, 1643; the British were defeated by the American forces at the Battle of Chippewa, 1814; the gold sovereign coin was first issued, 1817; the travel agents Thomas Cook and Son were founded when the first excursion train was run from Leicester to Loughborough, 1841; the Salvation Army was founded when William Booth held the first open-air Christian Mission at Mile End, London, 1865; Oliveira Salazar became virtual dictator of Portugal at the head of a Fascist regime, 1932; after the General Election, the Labour Party received its first absolute majority, 1945; the National Health Service came into operation, 1948; the first Assembly opened of the Western European Union at Strasbourg, 1955; the Cape Verde Islands became independent, 1975.

Today is Tynwald Day, Isle of Man and the Feast Day of St Antony-Mary Zaccaria and St Athanasius the Athonite.