The week that was: a look back at the week ahead
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Your support makes all the difference.28 April:
1780: The London Morning Post carries the first advertisement for an abortion clinic.
1789: Captain William Bligh is cast adrift by the mutineers on HMS Bounty.
1988: Sian Edwards, 28, becomes the first woman conductor at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
29 April:
Birth of Thomas Beecham (1879), Malcolm Sargent (1895) and Duke Ellington (1889).
1913: The modern zipper is patented by Gideon Sundback of Sweden, replacing the design of Whitcomb Judson.
1935: Cats' eyes, Percy Shaw's invention, first shine on British roads.
30 April:
1650: The Halifax gibbet is used for the last time, executing two men named Wil-kinson and Mitchell, for the theft of cloth and two colts.
1820: Cato Street conspirators are hanged then beheaded, the last beheadings in Britain.
1901: "Ping-Pong" is launched, the invention of James Gibb.
1 May:
1907: Death of Neil Brodie, reputedly Canada's dirtiest man, who took a bath only when ordered by law to do so.
1927: Imperial Airways are the first to serve hot meals on a London-Paris flight.
1939: First appearance of "The Batman", drawn by Bob Kane for Detective Comics.
2 May:
Feast day of St Gennys, patron of St Gennys, Cornwall.He may be the same person as St Genesius the martyr. If not, nothing is known of him.
1965: The first live TV broadcast by satellite links 9 countries and 300m viewers.
1982: The General Belgrano is sunk in the Falklands War.
3 May:
1494: Christopher Columbus discovers Jamaica.
1808: Monsieur Le Pique is killed in Paris in the first duel fought from hot air balloons.
1810: Lord Byron swims the Hellespont in 70 minutes.
1949: British High Court judges receive their first pay increase since 1872.
4 May:
1976: "Waltzing Matilda" is adopted as Australia's national anthem. It lasts only 10 years before being replaced by "Australia Fair".
1979: Margaret Thatcher moves into 10 Downing Street.
1980: Nine worshippers are trampled to death in Kinshasa as they try to see the Pope.
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