this is the week that was

30 October:

1905: Aspirin goes on sale in Britain.

1938: Orson Welles's radio production of War of the Worlds causes general panic and one death through heart failure.

1988: The Rev Sun Myung Moon marries 6,516 couples at a mass wed-in in Seoul.

31 October:

1888: John Dunlop patents the pneumatic bicycle tyre.

1945: William Thompson, an Australian farmer, remembers that he left pounds 5 in the pocket of a waistcoat he put on a kangaroo as a joke.

1955: The first zebra crossings appear in Britain.

1 November:

1959: The first stretch of the M1 opens.

1988: Robin the Boy Wonder is killed by the Joker after a poll of readers votes for his death.

2 November:

1785: Lionel Lukin, a London coach builder, patents the unsinkable lifeboat.

1795: Birth of future US President James Polk.

1865: Birth of future US President Warren Harding.

1871: The Rogues Gallery is inaugurated with the first photographs of prisoners in Britain.

1896: The first motor insurance policies exclude damage caused by frightened horses.

3 November:

1843: Nelson's statue is hauled to the top of its column.

1871: Henry Morton Stanley says: "Dr Livingstone, I presume?"

1957: "Laika" becomes the first dog in space.

4 November:

1862: James Ritty, an Ohio saloon owner, patents the cash register.

1879: Richard Gatling patents the first effective machine gun.

5 November:

1917: The War Office agrees to provide Christmas puddings for British troops in France.

1932: Gillespie Rd tube station is renamed "Arsenal".