Happy Anniversary: Chloroform? We are not amused

SOME of the less celebrated anniversaries of the coming week.

4 April:

1887: Argonia in Kansas elects Susanna Salter as the world's first female mayor.

1930: The Archbishop of Canterbury approves free discussion of sex.

1934: The first cat's-eye reflecting studs are embedded in a road near Bradford.

1988: The long-running television soap Crossroads ends after 24 years.

5 April:

1614: First sitting of the 'Addled Parliament' which was dissolved on 7 June without having passed a single bill.

1910: Kissing is banned on the French railways, because it is believed to cause delays.

1989: The Marie Stopes charity launches Sex Aid, suggesting the participants should donate 25p each time they make love.

6 April:

1917: US declares war on Germany.

1928: Handshaking is banned in Rome as unhygienic.

1944: Pay As You Earn taxation comes into force in Britain.

7 April:

1739: Dick Turpin is hanged at York. While in prison on a minor charge, he is identified as the highwayman by his handwriting.

1827: Friction matches, invented by John Walker, go on sale for the first time.

1832: James Thompson sells his wife in Carlisle. From an asking price of 50 shillings, he settles for 20 shillings and a Newfoundland dog.

1853: At the birth of Prince Leopold, Queen Victoria becomes the first member of the Royal Family to use chloroform.

1943: First synthesis of the psychedelic drug LSD.

1958: The Church of England gives its moral backing to family planning.

8 April:

1986: Film star Clint Eastwood is elected mayor of Carmel.

9 April:

1483: Death of Edward IV. French sources attribute his demise to mortification at the Treaty of Arras; the English blame excessive debauchery.

1747: Lord Lovat is the last person to be executed by beheading in England.

1970: Paul McCartney issues a writ to dissolve the Beatles' business partnership.

10 April:

1633: Bananas go on sale in Britain for the first time.

1849: The safety pin is patented by Walter Hunt of New York.

1858: The bell Big Ben is cast in Whitechapel and named after the commissioner of works, Sir Benjamin Hall, who is also known as Big Ben.

1950: The head of the National Hairdressers Federation says that many men have longer hair than their wives.