The week that was

A look back at the week ahead.

14 April 1901: Actors are arrested at the Academy of Music in New York for wearing costumes on a Sunday.

14 April 1934: Mussolini increases the tax on bachelors by 50 per cent.

14 April 1989: Huddersfield police report that putting prisoners in a pink cell has a calming effect.

15 April 1753: Samuel Johnson's dictionary is published.

15 April 1793: Bank of England issues the first £5 notes.

15 April 1942: The government bans embroidery on women's nightwear and underwear.

15 April 1988: Kim Il Sung, President of North Korea, receives an estimated 43,000 presents on his 76th birthday.

16 April 1900: The United States issues the world's first book of stamps.

16 April 1923: Stanley Baldwin's budget cuts sixpence off income tax and a penny off a pint of beer.

17 April 1421: Over 100,000 are drowned as the sea bursts through dykes at Dort, Holland.

17 April 1932: Slavery is abolished in Ethiopia.

18 April 1499: A pig is condemned to be hanged for killing an infant near Chartres. Its owners are fined 8 Francs.

18 April 1934: The world's first launderette opens in Fort Worth, Texas.

19 April 1637: Amye Everard becomes the first Englishwoman to be granted a patent - for a tincture of saffron and essence of roses.

19 April 1988: Western pop music is broadcast for the first time in China, but "Roll Over Beethoven" is banned.

20 April 1887: In Paris, Georges Bouton, driving a 4-seater steam quadricycle, wins the first ever motor race. He was the only entrant.

20 April 1987: Fukashi Kazami of Japan becomes the first person to reach the North Pole on a motorcycle.