ON THIS DAY

APRIL 26

1895: At the Old Bailey, the trial of Oscar Wilde for homosexuality, then a crime, began.

1921: The first motorcycle police patrols went on duty in London.

1947: The English FA Cup Final (between Charlton Athletic and Burnley) was televised in its entirety for the first time. 1957: The BBC TV series The Sky At Night, presented by Patrick Moore, was first screened.

APRIL 27

1791: Samuel Morse, inventor of the Morse Code, was born in Massachusetts.

1937: Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was completed. At 4,200ft long, it was the longest in the world at the time.

1939: In Britain, conscription was introduced for the first time since the First World War.

1950: Apartheid in South Africa (the Group Areas Act), was passed, formally segregating races.

1968: Abortion was legalised in Britain. APRIL 28

1789: The crew of the HMS Bounty, led by Fletcher Christian, mutinied in the Friendly Islands in the South Seas, sailing for the Pitcain Islands. 1923: The first English FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium was staged. Bolton Wanderers defeated West Ham 2-0. 1945: Benito Mussolini and his mistress Claretta Petacci were executed by Italian partisans and their bodies hung in a square in Milan.

1947: The Kon Tiki expedition set out with Thor Heyerdahl, aiming to prove that ancient cults could have sailed on a balsa wood raft from Peru to Polynesia.

1967: Muhammad Ali refused induction into the US army and was stripped of his world heavyweight boxing title.

APRIL 29

1909: In a revolutionary Budget, Chancellor David Lloyd George introduced a “supertax” of sixpence in the pound for anyone earning more than £5,000 a year, to pay for pensions and re-armament.

1933: Footballers’ shirts were first numbered – from 1 to 22 – in the English FA Cup Final at Wembley.

1980: Film director Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, died aged 80.

1991: A 145mph cyclone devastated the port of Chittagong in Bangladesh, killing more than 100,000 people and making millions homeless.

APRIL 30

311: Christians were legally recognised in the Roman Empire.

1789: George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States of America.

1803: The USA bought Louisiana and New Orleans from France.

1900: Engine driver Casey Jones died at the throttle of the Cannonball Express at Illinois Central, slowing down the train to save passengers’ lives.