Anniversaries

Births: Georg Philipp Telemann, organist and composer, 1681; Johann Strauss the Elder, composer, 1804; Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli, astronomer, 1835; Mrs Isabella Mary Beeton (Mayson), author of household and cookery books, 1836; John Lane, publisher, 1854; Albert Einstein, physicist, 1879.

Deaths: Admiral John Byng, executed for neglect of duty 1757; John Jervis, Earl of St Vincent, admiral of the fleet, 1823; Karl Marx, political philosopher, 1883; George Eastman, photographic inventor, 1932; Klement Gottwald, Czech leader, 1953; Busby Berkeley (William Berkeley Enos), choreographer, 1976; Sir Huw Pyrs Wheldon, broadcaster and administrator, 1986.

On this day: Asiatic cholera first appeared in Ireland at Belfast, 1832; the first production of The Mikado, by Gilbert and Sullivan, was staged at the Savoy Theatre, London, 1885; the German Army began a retreat to the Hindenburg Line, 1917; the first transatlantic radio broadcast was made, 1925; the New English Bible (New Testament), a new translation, was published in London, 1961.

Today is the Feast Day of St Eutychius or Eustathius of Carrhae, St Leobinus or Lubin and St Matilda.