Anniversaries

Births: Inigo Jones, architect, 1573; Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, painter, 1606; Sir Henry Cole, promoter of the Great Exhibition of 1851 and founder of the South Kensington Museum, 1808; Henry Edward Manning, Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, 1808; Benno Adam, animal painter, 1812; Vilfredo Pareto, economist and sociologist, 1848; Dame Marie Tempest (Marie Susan Etherington), actress, 1864; Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, first Viscount Northcliffe, newspaper proprietor, 1865; Jose Enrique Rodo, essayist, 1872; Noel Gay (Richard Moxon Armitage), composer, 1898; Dorothy Fields, lyricist, 1905.

Deaths: Rudolf I, King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor, 1291; Annibale Carracci, painter, 1609; James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of Charles II, executed 1685; John Wilson, botanist, 1751; Charles Andrew Vanloo, painter, 1765; Winthrop MacMackworth Praed, politician and poet, 1839; William Thomas Morton, dentist, introducer of ether as a general anaesthetic, 1868; William H. Bonney (alias Henry McCarty, or 'Billy the Kid'), outlaw, shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett 1881; 'General Tom Thumb' (Charles Sherwood Stratton), a 40in-tall dwarf in Barnum's circus, 1883; Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, playwright and author, 1904; Hugo von Hofmannsthal, playwright and poet, 1929; Walter Gay, artist, 1937; Dr John Mellanby, physiologist, 1939; Sir Percy Scott Worthington, architect, 1939; John Joseph Pershing, soldier, 1948; Nuri- es-Said, Iraqi soldier and statesman, assassinated 1958; Lawrence Mervil Tibbett, baritone, 1960; Paul William Gallico, writer, 1976; Margaret Mary Lockwood, actress, 1990.

On this day: Jerusalem was captured by the Crusaders, 1099; the Battle of Tannenburg was fought between the Teutonic Knights and King Ladislas II of Poland, 1410; the Royal Society was granted a royal charter, 1662; the 'Marseillaise' was adopted as the French national anthem, 1795; margarine was patented by Hippolyte Mege-Mouries, of Paris, 1869; social insurance came into effect in Britain, 1912; Mrs Clara Adams of New York was the first woman to complete a round- the-world flight (19 hours, 4 minutes), 1939; Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Britain, 1948; close- up pictures of Mars were transmitted by television from the US satellite Mariner IV, 1965; in Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios was deposed as president in a coup by Greek officers of the Cyprus National Guard, 1974.

Today is the Feast Day of St Athanasius of Naples, St Barhadbesaba, St Bonaventure, St David of Munktorp, St Donald, St Edith of Polesworth, St Pompilio Pirrotti, St Swithin, St Vladimir of Kiev.