What happened this week in history

1456 - The printing of the Gutenberg Bible was completed.

1608 - The first official English representative to India landed in Surat.

1814 - British forces captured Washington DC and set the White House on fire.

1853 - George Crumm made the world’s first deep fried chips.

1875 - Captain Matthew Webb became the first person to swim the English Channel.

1891 - Thomas Edison patented the motion picture camera.

1907 - The Singer Building in New York became the world’s tallest building for a short time.

1931 - The Labour government collapsed. It had been weakened by the severe economic crisis hitting Britain at the time.

1931 - Gangster Al Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion in Chicago, Illinois.

1932 - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop, from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey.

1946 - Maisie Dunn wore a bikini on a beach in Newquay. She was the first to wear one on a British beach.

1947 - Edinburgh launched its first International Festival of Music and Drama.

1954 - Eisenhower outlawed the Communist Party in America.

1964 - The Catholic mass was said in English rather than Latin for the first time.

1971 - The Indian cricket team beat England to record their first victory on English soil.

1981 - Mark David Chapman was jailed for murdering John Lennon.

1990 - Irish hostage Brian Keenan was released in Beirut after spending 1,597 days in captivity.

1998 - Melton Mowbray turned to the EU for protection against inferior pork pie manufacturers using the town’s name.

1999 - Nicklaas Amsterdam celebrated his 112th birthday near Johannesburg in South Africa. He claimed his secret for a long life was celibacy.