What happened this week in history

In 1303, the Sapienza University of Rome was instituted by Pope Boniface VIII.
Doctor Who actor Louise Jameson celebrates her 65th birthday this week EMN-161204-141447001Doctor Who actor Louise Jameson celebrates her 65th birthday this week EMN-161204-141447001
Doctor Who actor Louise Jameson celebrates her 65th birthday this week EMN-161204-141447001

1534 - Jacques Cartier began his first voyage to what is today the east coast of Canada, the island of Newfoundland and Labrador.

1653 - Oliver Cromwell dissolved the Rump Parliament.

1887 - The first ever motor race was held in Paris. It was won by the only entrant.

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1906 - An Australian wombat, who was the oldest known marsupial, died at London Zoo.

1913 - Actress Isadora Duncan’s two children drowned when their car plunged into the River Seine. The car had stalled on a hill and, when the driver got out to crank the engine, the car rolled back into the river.

1931 - A bill was passed allowing cinemas to open on Sundays.

1937 - Britain’s first aircraft carrier, The Ark Royal, was launched. It cost £3 million to build.

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1939 - Billie Holiday recorded the first civil rights song, Strange Fruit.

1946 - The League of Nations officially dissolved, giving most of its power to the United Nations.

1949 - The Badminton Horse Trials were held for the first time at Badminton, Gloucestershire.

1951 - Romanian surgeon Dan Gavriliu performed the first successful replacement of a human organ.

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1959 - A 13-year-old Dolly Parton released her first dingle, Puppy Love.

1964 - BBC Two launched with a power cut because of the fire at Battersea Power Station.

1968 - English politician Enoch Powell made his controversial Rivers of Blood speech, criticising Commonwealth immigration and anti-discrimination legislation that had been proposed.

1981 - Steve Davis won the World Snooker Championship for the first time, at the age of 23.

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1987 - A Japanese expedition reached the North Pole by motorcycle.

2002 - Carl Howard and Stephen Brayshaw, from Manchester, became Britain’s first same sex couple to go through a marriage-style ceremony in a register office.

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