A sad anniversary today: Rosemary Sutcliff died unexpectedly and too young on this day July 23rd, in 1992. Quite when July 23rd starts and finishes depends where you are in the world reading this; for me in England tomorrow is July 23rd.

It is the Feast Day of St Anne or Susanna, St Apollinaris of Ravenna, St Bridget of Sweden, St John Cassian, St Liborius, St Romula and her Companions, and The Three Wise Men. The births, deaths and events that happened that I know of also on this day include:

Births: Francesco Sforza, soldier, 1401;  Francois-Eugene Vidocq, police detective, 1775; Franz Berwald, composer, 1796; George Catlin, artist and writer, 1796;  Sir Jonathan Hutchinson, surgeon and scientist, 1828; Edouard (Judas) Colonne, composer and violinist, 1838;  Alan Francis Brooke, first Viscount Alanbrooke, Field Marshal, 1883; Salvador de Madariaga y Rojo, writer and diplomat, 1886;  Raymond Thornton Chandler, novelist, 1888; Ras Tafari Makonnen, Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, 1892; Michael Wilding, actor, 1912.

Deaths: Sir Henry Percy (Harry Hotspur), killed in battle 1403; Richard Gibson, miniature-painter, 1690; Domenico Scarlatti, composer and harpsichordist, 1757;  Isaac Merritt Singer, sewing machine inventor, 1875; Ulysses Simpson Grant, general and 18th US President, 1885; Sir John Simon, public health pioneer, 1904; Jean- Jacques Henner, painter, 1905; David Wark Griffith, film director, 1948;  Henri-Philippe Petain, soldier and Vichy leader, 1951; Dell Floyd, novelist and playwright, 1969; Eddie Rickenbacker (Edward Vernon Rickenbacher), First World War fighter pilot, 1973.

On the 23rd July: the Battle of Shrewsbury was fought by the Percys against King Henry IV, 1403; Charles Stuart, the Young Pretender, landed at Eriskay Island in the Hebrides, 1745; the Battle of Mogilev, Russia, was fought between Napoleon’s troops and those of Tsar Alexander I, 1812; the Battle of Custoza (Italian Wars of Independence) started 1848; the Empress Eugenie was appointed as Regent of France by Emperor Napoleon III, 1870; John Boyd Dunlop applied to patent a pneumatic tyre, 1888; in London, the “blitz” began with an all-night German air raid, 1940;  the Greek military junta resigned, 1974.