February 20th - 29th

20^th February

Events

1816 – The Barber of Saville, Rossini’s opera is premiered at the Teatro Argentina, Rome.

Births

Judith Montefiore

1784 – Judith Montefiore – British linguist, travel writer and philanthropist.  She authored the first Jewish cook book

Eliza Courtney

1792 – Eliza Courtney – French illegitimate daughter of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and Prime Minister Charles Grey, 2^nd Earl of Grey.

Benjamin Waugh c. 1900

1839 – Benjamin Waugh – English activist and founder of the NSPCC

Deaths

William Wallace Lincoln c. 1855

1862 – William Wallace Lincoln (11) – third son of Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd.  He was named after Mary’s brother-in-law, Dr. William Wallace.  William died from the cause of Typhoid Fever.

William Wallace Lincoln's grave
Lincoln Tomb
Oak Ridge Cemetery

William was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, Georgetown.  After the assassination of his farther, Abraham in 1865, William was reinterred at Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois in a temporary tomb, then 1871, he was moved into a state tomb along side his father, in the crypt of the Lincoln Tomb.

21^st February

Events

1797 – A force of 1,400 French soldiers invaded Britain at Fishguard,  with the support of the Society of United Irishmen.  They were defeated by 500 British reservists.

1848 – The Communist Manifesto is published by Karl Marx and Frederich Engles

1918 – The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at Cincinnati Zoo

1952 – Identity Cards are abolished by the British Government, under Winston Churchill to “set the people free”

Births

William Goscombe John
by George Roilos

1860 – Goscombe John – Welsh-English sculptor and composer.  John designed the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal, 1935.

Clemence Dane

1888 – Clemence Dane – pseudonym of Winifred Ashton an English novelist and playwright. Her notable works included “Regiment of Women”, 1917.

Douglas Bader in 1955

1910 – Douglas Bader – English captain and RAF pilot a flying ace during the Second World War.  Credited with 22 aerial victories, 4 shared victories and 11 enemy aircraft damaged. 

Deaths

Pope Benedict XIII

1730 – Pope Benedict XIII (81)

Born 1649, Gravina, Puglia, was the son of Ferdinando III Orsini, duke of Gravina and Giovanna Frangipani della Tolfa.  He was born Pietro Francesco Orsini, was the third member of his family to become Pope.

Orsini became a Dominican friar focusing on his religious responsibilities as a bishop rather on his papal administration. With the lack of political experience, Orsini had to rely on unscrupulous secretaries whose financial abuses ruined the papal treasury.

Pope Benedict XIII's tomb
Santa Maria sopra Minerva

Orsini was the head of the Catholic church and Pope from May 1724 following the death of Pope Innocent XIII until his death in May 1730.  Orsini was buried at Santa Maria sopra Minerva

22^nd February

Events

1797 – The last invasion of Britain begins near Fishguard

1983 – Moose Murders a play written by Arthur Bicknell was the notorious Broadway flop, opens and closes on the same at night at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre

Births

A copy of the lost sketch of Sarah,
by Margaret Gillies, 1834

1805 – Sarah Fuller Flower Adams – English poet and hymnwriter, best remembered for writing the words to the hymn “Nearer, Mr God, To Thee”

Robert Baden-Powell in 1896

1857 – Robert Baden-Powell – English general, co-founded the The Scout Association

Lady Baden-Powell, Chief Guide 

1889 – Olave Soames – English Scout leader, founded the Girl Guides.  Wife of the above Robert Baden-Powell

Deaths

John Jacob Astor III

1890 – John Jacob Astor III (67) – American businessman and philanthropist. 

Astor also fought during the American Civil War.  He become of the prominent members of the Astor family, thus becoming one of the wealthiest Americans of his generation.  His wealth was created by the vast Astor Estate real estate holdings in New York City.

Astor was the fonder of the English branch of his family after his son, William Waldorf Astor, moved to London with his family in 1891 and became a British citizen in 1899.

Astor was buried at Trinity Church Cemetery, Manhattan.

23^rd February

Events

Turpin imagined in
William Harrison Ainsworth's
 novel Rookwood

1739 – Dick Turpin at York Castle is identified by his former schoolteacher.  Turpin had been using the name Richard Palmer

The arrest of Cato Street conspirators 

1820 – The plot to murder all the British cabinet minister, the Cato Street Conspiracy is exposed

Births

Portrait of Samuel Pepys, 1666
by John Hayls

1633 – Samuel Pepys – English diarist and politician.  Pepys was the Member of Parliament, for Harwich elected in 1679.  Pepys kept a private diary from 1660 until 1669, provides combination of personal revelations and eyewitness accounts of events such as Great Plaque of London, the Second Dutch War and the Great Fire of London.

Portrait of Handel
by Balthasar Denner

1685 – George Frideric Handel – German-English organist and composer.  His notable works include “Messiah”, 1742,  “Water Music”, 1717 and “Music for the Royal Fireworks”, 1749

Deaths

Posthumous portrait of John Keats by 
William Hilton. 
National Portrait Gallery, London

1821 – John Keats (25) – English poet.

Born 1795, Moorgate, London.  Son of Thomas Keats and his wife Frances Jennings.  Keats was educated at the local Dame School.  Keats’s parents were unable to afford Eton or Harrow, although he went to board at John Clarke’s school, in Enfield.  It was here that the headmaster’s son, Charles Cowden Clarke introduced Keats to Renaissance literature.

Keats’s father died when he was aged 8. After school Keats was an apprentice with Thomas Hammond a surgeon and apothecary.  After his apprenticed ended, Keats registered as medical student at Guy’s Hospital, commencing his studies October 1815.

Keats wrote his first poem aged 19, “An Imitation of Spenser”. May 1816, Keats poem the sonnet “O Solitude” was published in Leigh Hunt magazine “The Examiner”

John  Keats's grave
Protestant Cemetery 
Rome

Although the winter of 1818-19, were hard for Keats, after he had moved into the newly built Wentworth Place, it had marked the beginning of his annus mirabillis, where Keats wrote most of his mature works.  May 1817, Keats befriended Isabella Jones, whilst on holiday to Bo Peep, near Hastings.

The last few months of Keats life were spent in Rome, after his doctor suggested that he ought to move, after showing signs symptoms of tuberculosis.

Whilst in Rome, Keats died, and he was buried at the city’s Protestant Cemetery.  His headstone does not bear his name or any dates, only the words. The epitaph reads

This Grave

Contains all that the mortal

Of a

Young English Poet

Who

On his Death Bed, in the Bittness of his Heart

At the Malicious Power of his Enemies

Desired

These Words to be

Engraved on his Tomb Stone

Here lies One

Whose Name was writ in Water: 24^th February 1821

24^th February

Events

1711 – The first Italian opera written by George Frideric Handel  for London, Rinaldo was first premiered

Louis-Phillippe

1848 – The French king, Louis-Phillippe abdicates the throne after 17 years.

Nancy Astor in 1923

1920 – Nancy Astor becomes the first woman to speak in the House of Commons, following here elections 3 months earlier.

1920 – The Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers’ Party) is founded by Adolf Hitler in the Hofbräuhaus beer hall in Munich, Germany

Births

Sir Joseph Banks as painted by
Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1773

1743 – Joseph Banks – English botanist and explorer.  Best remembered for when he took part in Captain Cook’s first voyage of HMS Endeavour and the exploration of Botany Bay

Portrait, 1879

1852 – George Moore – Irish author, poet and playwright.  His works included “Confessions of a Young Man” 1886 – French and 1888 – English and “Esther Waters”, 1894.

Deaths

Henry Cavendish

1810 – Henry Cavendish (78) – French-English physicist and chemist.  Cavendish is noted for his discovery of hydrogen

Cavendish died at Clapham and was buried at the church which is now Derby Cathedral

Derby Cathedral 

 

25^th February

Events

Samuel Colt in 1855

1836 – Samuel Colt is granted a United States patent for his revolver firearm.

Births

1728 – John Wood, the Younger – English architect, who designed the Royal Crescent, Bath.

Portrait as Visceral consort of Canada, 1941

1883 – Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone – The last surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria

Princess Alice in 1906

1885 – Princess Alice of Battenberg – Mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Deaths

Christopher Wren portrait
by Godfrey Kneller, 1711

1723 – Christopher Wren (90) – English architect, designed St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Born 1632, East Knoyle, Wiltshire.  The only surviving son of Christopher Wren the Elder and his wife Mary Cox.  As a child, Wren was a sickly child.  1650 Wrex studied Latin and the works of Aristotle at Wadham College, Oxford, where he received his M.A. in 1653.

During the same year, Wren was elected a fellow of All Souls’ College.  After that Wren was appointed Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College.

1661 Wren was appointed Sevillian Professor of Astronomy and 1669 appointed Surveyor of Works to Charles II

After the Great Fire of London, 1666, Wren was responsible for the rebuilding of 52 churches which included St. Paul’s Cathedral.

February 1723, Wren had been given a lease on the property by Queen Anne in lieu of salary for the work carried out at St. Paul’s.  Wren was thought have taken unofficial visits to St. Paul’s to see work carried out, and on one night, aged 90, Wren caught a chill, which worsened over the next few days.  It is from this chill that Wren died from.

Wren was buried in the crypt of St. Paul’s. The stone plaque was written by his son, Christopher Wren, Jr. the inscription in a circle of black marble on the main floor beneath the centre of the dome read:

SUBTUS CONDITUR HUIUS ECCLESIÆ ET VRBIS CONDITOR CHRISTOPHORUS WREN, QUI VIXIT ANNOS ULTRA NONAGINTA, NON SIBI SED BONO PUBLICO. LECTOR SI MONUMENTUM REQUIRIS CIRCUMSPICE Obijt XXV Feb: An°: MDCCXXIII Æt: XCI.

26^th February

Events

The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries,
by Jacques-Louis David, 1812

1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba

1914 –  HMHS Britannic sister of RMS Titanic is launched at Harland and Wolff shipyard, Belfast

Births

Hugo by Étienne Carjat, 1876

1802 – Victor Hugo – French author, poet and playwright.  His notable works include “Les Miserable”, 1862, “Ruy Blas”, 1838 and “The Hatchback of Notre-Dame”, 1831

Buffalo Bill

1846 – Buffalo Bill – American solder and hunter

John Harvey Kellogg, 1915

1852 – John Harvey Kellogg – American surgeon, co-created Corn flakes

Deaths

A portrait photo of Dr. Anandibai Joshi

1887 – Anandi Gopal Joshi (21) – First Indian woman physician

27^th February

Events

Portrait of Byron by Thomas Phillips, c. 1813

1812 – Poet Lord Bryon gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defence of Luddite violence against industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire

1870 – The current flag of Japan is adopted as the national flag for Japanese merchant ships

 1900 – The British Labour Party is formed

 

Births

Ellen Terry at age 16
Photo by Julia Margaret Cameron

1847 – Ellen Terry – English actress

 

Hubert Parry, 1916

1848 – Hulbert Parry – English composer and historian.  Best remembered for his choral song “Jerusalem”, 1916

 

Deaths

 

Portrait of John Evelyn
by Sir Godfrey Kneller

1706 – John Evelyn (85)  – English gardener and diarist.

 Born 1620, Wotton, Surrey into a wealth family, but Evelyn lived with his grandparents at Lewes, Sussex.  It was here that he was educated at Lewes Old Grammar School.  Refusing to be sent to Eton College, Evelyn was educated at Balliol College, Oxford and finally Middle Temple.  Evelyn witnessed the trials and executions of William Howard, 1^st Viscount Stafford and Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford.

July 1641, Evelyn crossed to Holland, whilst there he enlisted as a volunteer, and was encamped before the Genep, on the Wall river.  His military experience lasted only 6 days.  Returning back to England, Evelyn briefly joined the Royalist and arrived late for the Royalist victory at the Battle of Brentford. 

1644, Evelyn travelled to Italy and before arriving to Italy, he visited the Roman ruins in Frejus.  Whilst at Florence, Evelyn was commissioned the John Evelyn cabinet, whilst is now in the Victoria and Albert museum.

After the Restoration, that Evelyn’s career took off.  Holding many important political offices.  1650, Evelyn was a member of the group that founded the Royal Society.   Evelyn was known for his knowledge for trees.  Evelyn wrote the treatise “Sylvia, or A Discourse of Forest Trees”

After the Great Fire of London, Evelyn presented the first of several plans of the rebuilding of London. But it was Evelyn’s interest in gardens that lead to the pleasure gardens of Euston Hall, that were designed by Evelyn.

Evelyn kept a diary, lasting from 1640 to 1706, although he did not write every day, but he covered arts, culture and politics. 

28^th February

Events

1638 – Edinburgh the National Covenant is signed.  This was the agreement signed by the Scottish people in the opposition to the proposed reforms of the Church of Scotland by King Charles I.

Births

Publicity photo of Harry H. Corbett in the 1970s

1925 – Harry H. Corbett – Burmese-English actor and comedian.  Best remembered for playing alongside Wilfred Brambell in Steptoe and Son.

Baker in A Lizard in a
Woman's Skin, 1971

1928 – Stanley Baker – Welsh actor and producer. One of Britain’s male stores of the late 1950s and early 1960s and then later a prolific producer.  Baker was one of the lead actors in the 164 film Zulu, portraying John Chard.

Deaths

John Gwyn

 1786 – John Gwynn (73) – English architect and engineer.  Gwynn was one of the founding members of the Royal Academy, 1768.

Gwynn’s buildings included Magdalen Bridge and the Covered Market in Oxford and several bridges over the River Seven.

Henry James, 1913

1916 – Henry James (72)– American novelist, short writer and critic.

James works include “The Portrait of a Lady”, 1881, “The Ambassadors”, 1903 and “The Wings of the Dove”, 1902.

James became a British citizen during 1915, the following year he died, and he was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium.  James request was that his ashes were buried at Cambridge Cemetery, Massachusetts.

29^th February

Events

1712 – February 30^th follows February 29^th, in Sweden in a move to abolish the Swedish calendar for a return to the Julian calendar.

Births

1908 – Louie Myfanwy Thomas – Welsh writer

Deaths

Edward Frederic Benson

1940 – Edward Frederic Benson (72) – English archaeologist and author.