What happened this week in history

1854 - Anthony Foss patented the accordion.

1863 - Thomas Crapper pioneered the one-piece pedestal flushing toilet.

1893 - The Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom held its first meeting.

1910 - The first public radio broadcast took place when a live performance of the opera Cavalleria Rusticana was sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

1926 - Author, and creator of Paddington Bear, Michael Bond was born in Newbury.

1938 - The Church of England accepted the theory of evolution.

1942 - Henry Ford patented a plastic automobile, 30 percent lighter than a regular car.

1942 - The first use of an aircraft ejection seat, by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.

1957 - The Wham-O Company developed the first ever frisbee.

1960 - The Gulag system of forced labour camps in the Soviet Union was officially abolished.

1964 - Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, was appointed Archbishop of Kraków, Poland.

1966 - Robert C Weaver became the first African American cabinet member when he was appointed United States Secretary of housing and urban development.

1982 - Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet, crashed into Washington, DC’s 14th Street Bridge and fell into the Potomac River, killing 78 people, including four motorists.

1993 - The first British soldier was killed in Bosnia.

2004 - Serial killer Harold Shipman was found hanged in his cell at Wakefield Prison.

2012 - The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sunk off the coast of Italy. There were 32 confirmed deaths among the 4,232 passengers and crew.