Anniversaries

Births: Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca), scholar, lyric poet and humanist, 1304; Hyacinthe Rigaud (Hyacinthe-Francois-Honorat-Mathias-Pierre-Martyr-Andre-Jean Rigau y Ros), portrait painter, 1659; James Harris, grammarian, 1709; Thomas Lovell Beddoes, playwright and poet, 1803; Sir Richard Owen, palaeontologist and biologist, 1804; John Sterling, author, 1806; Francesco Chiaromonte, composer and teacher, 1809; John Augustin Daly, playwright and theatrical manager, 1838; Max Liebermann, painter and etcher, 1847; Margaret McMillan, politician and educationist, 1860; Erik Axel Karlfeldt, poet and lyricist, 1864; Joseph-Marie Deodat de Severac, composer, 1873; Alberto Santos-Dumont, aviator, 1873; Sir John Charles Walsham Reith, first Baron Leith, first director-general of the BBC, 1889; Theda Bara (Theodosia Goodman), actress, 1890; Morris (Maurice) Leyland, cricketer, 1900; James (Jimmy) Kennedy, popular music composer, 1902.

Deaths: Robert II, King of France, 1031; Professor John Playfair, mathematician and geologist, 1819; Caroline Anne Southey (Bowles), poet and wife of Robert Southey, 1854; Carl Ludwig Emil Aarestrup, poet, 1856; Sir Richard Wallace, founder of the Wallace Collection, 1890; Jean Ingelow, poet, 1897; Pope Leo XIII, 1903; Andrew Lang, scholar, author and fairy tale editor, 1912; Guglielmo Marconi, inventor, 1937; Sir Dan Godfrey, conductor, 1939; Colonel Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, soldier, executed, 1944; King Abdullah of Jordan, assassinated 1951; Iain Norman Macleod, statesman, 1970.

On this day: Euston Station, London, opened, 1837; Charles Sturt, explorer, entered Simpson's Desert, 1845; Marshal Osman Nuri Pasha, Turkish commander, beat back the Russian attack on Plevna, Bulgaria, 1877; Oscar Slater's conviction and imprisonment on 25 May 1909, (due to mistaken identity) was quashed, 1928; Franz von Papen by a show of force removed the Socialist premier of Prussia, 1932; the 11th Olympic Games opened in Berlin, 1936; at a meeting in Rastenburg, Germany, Colonel von Stauffenburg attempted to assassinate Hitler by planting a bomb, 1944; the Peace Conference began in Paris, 1946; in Indo-China, an armistice was signed under which Vietnam was divided into North and South, 1954; the musical show Stop the World - I Want to Get Off was first produced, London 1961; Turkish forces invaded northern Cyprus, 1974; the space probe Viking 1 separated its lander which made a soft landing on Mars, 1975; 10 soldiers were killed after IRA bombs exploded in Hyde Park and Regent's Park, London, 1982.

Today is the Feast Day of St Ansegisus, St Aurelius of Carthage, St Elias of Jerusalem, St Flavian of Antioch, St Gregory Lopez, St Joseph Barsabas the Just, St Margaret of Antioch, St Wilgefortis or Liberata, St Wulmar.