What happened this week in history

In 1216 , King John lost his crown jewels in The Wash, probably near Fosdyke, perhaps near Sutton Bridge.

1492 - Christopher Columbus had his first sight of land in the New World. He called it San Salvador.

Broadcaster Angela Rippon celebrates her 72nd birthday this week.placeholder image
Broadcaster Angela Rippon celebrates her 72nd birthday this week.

1609 - The children’s rhyme Three Blind Mice was published in London.

1654 - An explosion in Delft killed Dutch painter Carel Fabritius, as he was working on a portrait. He was one of Rembrant’s best-known pupils and a teacher of Vermeer.

1823 - Charles Mackintosh began selling raincoats.

1849 - Charles Rowley patented the safety pin in the UK. It had already been patented in America.

1901 - American President Theodore Roosevelt renamed the Executive Mansion The White House.

1915 - British nurse Edith Cavell was executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium.

1928 - The first iron lung was used at Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts.

1928 - The Great Zeppelin, the world’s first transatlantic airship, embarked on its maiden flight in Germany.

1933 - Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay, became an unofficial federal prison.

1934 -The cheeseburger was invented at Kaelin’s Tavern in Kentucky.

1936 - A train-ferry service was launched between Dover and Dunkirk. Trains ran between London and Paris.

1948 - The first Morris Minor was produced at Cowley in Oxfordshire.

1964 - The Soviet Union launched the Voskhod 1 into orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits.

1984 - The IRA bombed the Tory party conference at the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Five people died and 34 were injured.

1986 - Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to visit China.

1989 - The remains of Shakespeare’s original Globe Theatre were found on London’s Bankside.

2001 - The United Nations and its Secretary General, Kofi Annan, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

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