What happened this week in history

1508 - Pope Julius II excommunicated the entire population of Venice.

1667 - The blind and impoverished John Milton sold the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.

1749 The first performance of George Frideric Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks took place in London’s Green Park. It finished early due to the outbreak of fire.

1828 - London Zoo opened.

1840 - The foundation stone for the new Palace of Westminster was laid by the wife of Sir Charles Barry.

1937 - King George VI opened the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

1939 - Conscription of men aged 20 to 21 was announced in Britain.

1944 - The government banned all foreign travel.

1961 - Sierra Leone was granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.

1968 - Abortion was legalised in Britain.

1972 - Five colleges at Oxford University agreed to admit female students.

1981 - Xerox PARC introduced the computer mouse.

1986 - The city of Pripyat as well as the surrounding areas were evacuated due to Chernobyl disaster.

1992 -The House of Commons elected a woman, Betty Boothroyd, to the post of Speaker for the first time in its 700-year history.

1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, was proclaimed.

1993 - All members of the Zambia national football team lost their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon en route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.

1997 - The last rugby union match was played at Cardiff Arms Park, before it was torn down to make way for the Millennium Stadium.

2014 - Popes John XXIII and John Paul II were declared saints in the first papal canonization since 1954.