Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: The Rev Gilbert White, naturalist and author, 1720; William Makepeace Thackeray, novelist and poet, 1811; Dr William Gilbert Grace, cricketer, 1848. Deaths: Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), poet and scholar, 1374; Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, painter, 1610; Jane Austen, novelist, 1817. On this day: the Dogma of Papal Infallibility in matters of faith and morals was proclaimed by the Vatican Council, 1870; the Matrimonial Causes Bill, which gave women equal divorce rights with men, received Royal Assent, 1923; the Spanish Civil War began after a revolt under Emilio Mola and Francisco Franco, 1936. Today is the Feast Day of St Arnoul or Arnulf of Metz, St Bruno of Segni, St Frederick of Utrecht and St Pambo.