Anniversaries

Births: Cornelius Agrippa, scholar and astrologer, 1486; Sir Peter Lely (Van der Faes), painter, 1617; Johann Michael Haydn, composer, 1737; Friedrich Heinrich Alexander, Baron von Humboldt, traveller and naturalist, 1769; Charles Dana Gibson, artist, creator of the 'Gibson Girls', 1867; Jan Garrigue Masaryk, Czech statesman, 1886; Jack Hawkins, actor, 1910.

Deaths: St Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage and historian, beheaded, 258; St John Chrysostom ('Golden Mouth'), teacher, 407; Dante (Durante) Alighieri, poet, 1321; Robert Devereux, third Earl of Essex, soldier, 1646; James Fenimore Cooper, novelist, 1851; Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington, soldier and statesman, 1852; Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, architect, 1852; Sir James Stephen, colonial administrator and historian, 1859; Georges Leclanche, inventor and engineer, 1882; William McKinley, 25th US president, after being shot, 1901; Josiah Royce, philosopher, 1916; Isadora Duncan, dancer, killed in car crash, 1927; Dame Madge Kendall, actress, 1935; Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, first president of Czechoslovakia, 1937; Algernon Talmage, painter, 1939; Richard Thomas Le Gallienne, poet and essayist, 1947; Princess Grace of Monaco (Grace Kelly), after a car crash, 1982; Janet Gaynor (Laura Gainor), actress, 1984.

On this day: the English defeated the Scots at the Battle of Homildon- Hill, 1402; Francis I of France reconquered Milan in a victory over the Swiss at the Battle of Marignano, 1515; the Gregorian calendar was adopted in Britain, when 3 September became 14 September, 1752; Napoleon and his army entered Moscow, 1812; Francis Scott Key composed the poem The Star-Spangled Banner, 1814; the Treaty of Adrianople, ending the Russo-Turkish war, was signed, 1829; US forces captured Mexico City, 1847; the Senate of Hawaii ratified the Treaty of Annexation with the USA, United States, 1897; Miguel Primo de Rivera became dictator of Spain, 1923; the airship Graf Zeppelin II made her maiden flight, 1938; Pope Paul VI canonised Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, the first native-born US saint, 1975.

Today is the Feast Day of St Maternus of Cologne and St Notburga.