What happened this week in history

Doctor Who actor Louise Jameson celebrates her 65th birthday this week EMN-161204-141447001

In 1303, the Sapienza University of Rome was instituted by Pope Boniface VIII.

1534 - Jacques Cartier began his first voyage to what is today the east coast of Canada, the island of Newfoundland and Labrador.

1653 - Oliver Cromwell dissolved the Rump Parliament.

1887 - The first ever motor race was held in Paris. It was won by the only entrant.

1906 - An Australian wombat, who was the oldest known marsupial, died at London Zoo.

1913 - Actress Isadora Duncan’s two children drowned when their car plunged into the River Seine. The car had stalled on a hill and, when the driver got out to crank the engine, the car rolled back into the river.

1931 - A bill was passed allowing cinemas to open on Sundays.

1937 - Britain’s first aircraft carrier, The Ark Royal, was launched. It cost £3 million to build.

1939 - Billie Holiday recorded the first civil rights song, Strange Fruit.

1946 - The League of Nations officially dissolved, giving most of its power to the United Nations.

1949 - The Badminton Horse Trials were held for the first time at Badminton, Gloucestershire.

1951 - Romanian surgeon Dan Gavriliu performed the first successful replacement of a human organ.

1959 - A 13-year-old Dolly Parton released her first dingle, Puppy Love.

1964 - BBC Two launched with a power cut because of the fire at Battersea Power Station.

1968 - English politician Enoch Powell made his controversial Rivers of Blood speech, criticising Commonwealth immigration and anti-discrimination legislation that had been proposed.

1981 - Steve Davis won the World Snooker Championship for the first time, at the age of 23.

1987 - A Japanese expedition reached the North Pole by motorcycle.

2002 - Carl Howard and Stephen Brayshaw, from Manchester, became Britain’s first same sex couple to go through a marriage-style ceremony in a register office.