David Prashker's Book Of Days: The Merely Mentioneds: L

Charles Paul Dangeau Labelye: the reason why London Bridge fell down, on March 15 [E,M&C2]

Jean Charles Dominique de Lacretelle: eye-witnessing the guillotining of Marie-Antoinette on Oct 16; click here [purple cloaks]

Countess Marie Walewska (née Laczynska): Napoléon’s next on Dec 16 - click here [purple cloaks]

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden: choosing September 11 for a reason on May 21

Georges Laguerre: the rejected husband of Marguerite Durand on Dec 9

Joseph Jérôme Lefrançais de Lalande: eclipsed by Nicole de la Brière on April 1

Richard James Lane: painting Anna Brownell Jameson on May 17

Simon Langham (born 1310; died July 22 1376), the only Abbot of Westminster to become a Cardinal – probably a reward for supporting the Pope against John Wycliffe on May 4 - bio here – some archives record him as Simon de Langham, which ties his birthplace with his cardinalship in Avignon, where his Pope was living in exile, and where he himself died

Stephen Langton (born circa 1150; died July 9 1228): Archbishop of Canterbury, and a key figure in the imposition of Magna Carta on June 15 - try here, though I suspect it will be blue-corner propaganda; otherwise here [political ideologues]

John Lant, or possibly Lante, birthdate unknown, deathdate 1615, the organist at Winchester Cathedral, recorded a version of “Ding Dong Bell” on March 15 – nothing like the one you think you know: click here

Elie Lascaux (born July 5 1888; died October 28 1968): in the Picasso-Max Jacob meet-up group on Aug 19 [illustrious illustrators]

Hugh Latimer: one of the three blind mice on March 15 and 21; the others were Thomas Cranmer and Nicholas Ridley [Aenglisch page]

Juan Latino, Afro-Spanish scholar: appointed as Head of Grammar at the Cathedral School of Granada in 1565; 1570: Afro-Spanish scholar Juan Latino publishes the first of his three books of poetry in 1570 [Africa]; Spanish view here, Cambridge view here [Educators and Poets]

David Lean: filming “Lawrence of Arabia” on June 24; mentioned on July 6 and Aug 15 [the world as stage]

Leander: no known surname, the boyfriend of Hero, which you would think would have been Heroine as she was a girl. Mentioned on May 3 because it was he who Byron was imitating when he swam the Hellespont, somewhat unheroically it must be said. Kit Marlowe’s play version at world as stage; Leigh Hunt’s poem version on the page of The Poets

Frank Raymond (F.R) Leavis: among the giants of Lit Crit on July 11; obit here [serious scribes]

Several Lebruns, some of them related to Elizabeth Vigée on April 16, some just happening to share the name: Louis-Sébastien Lebrun (born December 10 1764; died June 27 1829 – bio here): no relation; see “A Journey In Time”; ditto for Albert François Lebrun (1871-1950, President of France from 1932 to 1940 – bio here), and Charles Lebrun (1619-1690, Louis XIV’s favourite artist of all time – bio here); whereas Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun (1748-1813) was her husband, and can be found with her among the illustrious illustrators and here

Heath Andrew Ledger amongst the “Method” actors on Nov 17 [the world as stage]

Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt: the other model, alongside Johann Voss, who is below, for Patrick White’s novel; born October 23rd 1813; died - no one knows for certain where or when, but somewhen around April 3 1848, in the wilds of northern Australia, somewhere. He is on Feb 8 but not as one of the pseudonyms

Gaspar de Lemos, captain of the supply ship in Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet that “discovered” Brazil; he was sent back to Portugal with the news of their discovery, and was credited by the Viscount of Santarém as having discovered the Fernando de Noronha archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean. See Jan 1 and here [pre-Columban Americas]

Jean-André Lepaute, husband of Nicole-Reine Étable de la Brière and inventor of a new type of pendulum on April 1

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781): influenced by Spinoza on Feb 21; try here, but look at the Mahler Foundation page as well (if only for the pictures) [philosophers]

Meyer Levin (born October 7 1905; died July 9 1981): authored the first Broadway version of the Anne Frank diaries on June 12; but there is a very sad tale about this, of rejected scripts, law-suits, all sorts, for which click here; and the reason why Levin got involved in the first place, and quite so emotionally involved forever after, here [the world as stage]

Benjamin Levy (birthdate unknown, died 1705), established the first post-Expulsion cemetery in Britain on Sept 30 - archive material here and here; and see the Jewish London section of P’s London.

Mordechai Levy: pre-empting Arnold Wesker by three centuries on Jan 8

George Henry Lewes (born April 18 1817; died November 30 1878): unable to divorce his wife, so living openly with Mary Anne Evans on July 1; and still living with her today, or at least alongside her: click here, but also here [philosophers]

John Lewis of Richmond can be found, acting utterly heroically, on May 16; he is on the Index, while Princess Amelia has been beaten out of bounds to the GER page; the other minor players in the drama who are mentioned are Lords Brooke and Palmerston, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, a man named Symonds and a Deputy Ranger named Shaw, plus Martha Gray and Thomas Shepheard; Gilbert Wakefield is quoted and T. Stewart, a pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds, did the portrait (which can be seen here and here; but they have no more bio that I can find, which is none at all)

“not to be confused with G. Gordon Liddy” - who can be found bungling Watergate on Sept 8 - the full bio and story here

Bernard Lichtenberg: (born December 3 1875; died in Dachau on November 5 1943): the Provost of Berlin's St. Hedwig Cathedral, he was foolish enough to declare publicly that he would include Jews in his daily prayers. In 1941! In Berlin! Predict the outcome and then go to July 14 (and then be surprised, first, by the lateness of his deathdate, and second, given the available materials and locations, the failure to Guy Faux him on that date: click here). Listed among the Righteous Gentiles by Yad Va Shem on 7 July 2004, having already been blessed by his fellow Pole Pope John Paul II on June 23 1996 (here) [reponses to bullying]

Seymour B. Liebman (1907-1986): translating Luis de Carvajal on Dec 8; the text is available at Jstor, here

Peter Lik: Among the Photographers on Feb 20 [illustrious illustrators]

Johannes Lippershey (sometimes Hans Lippershey, or Lipperhey, sometimes Johannes Lippersein: (born circa 1570; died Setember 29 1619): invented the telescope on March 29 [scientific achievements and E,M&C2]

Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle: (born May 10 1760; died June 26 1836): wrote the French national anthem on his birthday; though the tale told here is surprising about him, and revealing about the words of the song. [musical maestros]

George Lisle: playing Humpty to Charles Lucas’s Dumpty on March 15

Francesca Gaetana Cosima Liszt, by birth, Cosima Wagner by marriage, mothered by Marie d'Agoult on Dec 24

Isabelle Allende Llona: better known without that last-name on Sept 11 and Pseudonyms; her website here [serious scribes]

Henry Brougham Loch (born May 23 1827; died June 20 1900): building empire in China on Jan 11 – bio here [China page and responses to bullying]

Thomas Lord (born November 23 1755; died January 13 1832): he of the cricket ground on May 16: click here, but also see P’s London for the original cricket ground in Dorset Square, and an abandoned railway station and the HQ of Alliance Francaise in the same location. Also look up White Conduit Fields in Islington, where they played before Marylebone: try here for the cricket, here for the spa, here for a map - it was right where the railway line now cuts through Penton Street, so Angel station, Donegal St opposite, then right into Penton Street

Jean Loret: blogging, 17^th century style, and in verse at that, on March 15;"La Muse Historique" in 1650 contains the first known reference to Mother Goose (not to be confused with Jean-Marie Loret, who anyway was born Jean-Marie Lobjoie, and whose DNA confirms that he was not what he claimed, the illegitimate son of Adolf Hitler - click here for that bizarre tale [serious scribes]

Élisabeth-Sophie de Lorraine, duchesse de Richelieu: engaged Françoise de Graffigny as a "dame de compagnie" on Feb 11 (thereby giving a woman in flight from an abusive marriage financial security, and a writer in pursuit of a salon the access to one)

Guillaume de Lorris (born circa 1200; died circa 1238): left “Le Romance de la Rose” unfinished on Jan 13; text and bio here and here; see Jean de Meung, below; patronised by Eleanor of Aquitaine on April 1 [The Poets]

Antoinette de Louppes, cousin of Roderigo Lopes and the mother of Shakespeare’s beloved Michel de Montaigne, gets a mention on Feb 28

Ferdinand Löwe (born February 19 1865; died January 6 1925): conducting Bruckner’s 9th on Feb 11 [musical maestros]

The Lowell ancestors are less mentioned than wondered about on Feb 9: cousin Amy is the reason they are on the page, and Robert can be found on the Index and among The Poets; to fill out the list rather more precisely:

poet James Russell Lowell (born February 22 1819; died August 12 1891 – click here) [The Poets]

Civil War colonel Charles Russell Lowell (born January 2 1835; died October 20 1864 – click here);

astronomer Percival Lowell (born March 13 1855; died November 12 1916), the man who calculated the existence of Pluto and predicted canals on Mars (click here) [[E,M&C2]

and somewhat reluctantly given the link, Harvard president Abbott Lawrence Lowell (born 13 December 1856; died January 6 1943 – click here; Abbot was Amy and Percival Lowell’s brother, and frankly belongs on the GER page

Richard Lower (born circa 1631; died January 17 1691): performed the first (recorded) successful blood transfusion in England on Nov 14, but this doesn't really count among the scientific achievements, as his patients were dogs, not people. The first on a human being took place in France the following year, the surgeon then was one Jean Baptiste Denis (if I live at least another four lifetimes I promise to create an "Index of those merely mentioned on the merely mentioneds page"; in the meanwhile click here for both their stories) [E,M&C2)

Edward Edgar (Eddie) Lowery (born October 14 1902; died May 4 1984): winning the 1913 US Open Golf Championship on May 7 (yes, “winning”; do you honestly think the player can do it without the input of the caddy?); as to what happened to him afterwards – click here; and he is mentioned on the Tenzing page, July 24

Laurence Stephen Lowry (born November 1 1887; died February 23 1976): nowhere near the volcano on July 28; compared with Grandma Moses on Dec 13; his website here [illustrious illustrators]

Charles Lucas: playing Dumpty to George Lisle’s Humpty on March 15

Antoinette de Loynes: poet and saloniste, mother of Camille de Morel on Sept 18

George Walton Lucas: used adult ideas to make movies for children on March 26 [the world as stage]

Lucy: the world's oldest known woman, born circa 4.2 million BCE [Africa]

Edward Ludnam: or Ludlam, Ludlum and even Nuddlam, but really Ned Ludd on Dec 20

Hannah Lumb: surrogate-parenting Lily Gaskell on Sept 29

Tacankpe Luta ("Red Tomahawk"): assassinated Chief Sitting Bull on Dec 15 - his website here [pre-Columban Americas]

Albert John Lutuli: President of the African National Congress, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960 [Africa and political ideologues]

George Lyttelton (born January 17 1709; died August 22 1773): another of the illustrious who graced the Montagu salon on Oct 2 (he was also the brother-in-law of William Pitt – click here for his bio)