Anniversaries

Births: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh and second Marquess of Londonderry, statesman, 1769; Edward Wyllis Scripps, publisher and journalist, 1854; Miklos Vitez Horthy de Nagybanya, statesman, 1868; Sammy Cahn (Samuel Cohen), lyricist, 1914.

Deaths: William Cobbett, writer and politician, 1835; George Grote, historian, 1871; John A. Sutter, pioneer in California, 1880; Samuel Butler, author, 1902; Roald Amundsen, explorer, lost in the Arctic, 1928; Ethel Barrymore (Blythe), actress, 1959.

On this day: the English were defeated by the French under Joan of Arc at the Battle of Patay, 1429; the politician John Wilkes returned from France after four years, and was imprisoned for a year, 1768; the Duke of Wellington, allied with von Blucher, defeated the French under Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, 1815; Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf was published, 1925; Egypt was proclaimed a republic, and General Neguib became president, 1953; a Trident-1 of British European Airways crashed after take- off at London, killing all 118 people aboard, 1972.

Today is the Feast Day of St Amandus of Bordeaux, St Elizabeth of Schonau, Saints Gregory, Demetrius and Calogerus.