What happened this week in history

Actor Ralf Little celebrates his 37th birthday this week

1740, The ‘Great Frost’ of London ended. It had begun om December 25, 1739.

1879 - The England cricket team led by Lord Harris was attacked in a riot during a match in Sydney.

1924 - The gas chamber form of execution was used in America for the first time, in Nevada State Prison.

1939 - The Bastardy Bill made blood tests compulsory in paternity cases.

1945 - The United Kingdom and Canada commenced Operation Veritable, to occupy the west bank of the Rhine.

1946 - The first portion of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, the first serious challenge to the popularity of the Authorized King James Version, was published.

1950 - The Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, was established.

1952 - Queen Elizabeth II was proclaimed Queen, following the death of her father, George VI, on February 6.

1960 - Queen Elizabeth II issued an Order-in-Council, stating she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants would take the name Mountbatten-Windsor.

1960 - The first eight brass star plaques were installed in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1965 - Cigarette advertising was banned from commercial television in Britain.

1969 - The world’s largest commercial plane, the Boeing 747, made its first flight.

1971 - New York’s Nasdaq Stock Market began trading. It was the world’s first electronic stock market

1974 - After 86 days in space, the US Skylab station returned to earth.

1981 - Twenty-one association football spectators were trampled to death at Karaiskakis Stadium in Neo Faliro, Greece, after a football match between Olympiacos F.C. and AEK Athens F.C.

1983 - The 1981 Derby winner, Shergar, was kidnapped and a ransom of £2 million was demanded. It was never paid.

2001 - A Commons Committee recommended bright kids should be fast-tracked to go to university at the age of 13.