What happened this week in history

Actor Todd Carty celebrates his 54th birthday this week.

1888 - The body of Mary Ann ‘Polly’ Nichols, the first victim of Jack the Ripper, was found in Buck’s Row. To this day, the identify of the killer has not been proved.

1895 - The first ever game of American football was played in Pennsylvania.

1897 - Thomas Edison patented the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.

1900 - Coca Cola arrived in Britain, 14 years after it became available in America. Asa Chandler, son of the company founder, visited Britain with a jug of the syrup. It proved so popular he immediately ordered another five gallons from America.

1908 - W G Grace finished his last cricket season, aged 60.

1951 - Deutch Grammophon launched the first 33rpm long-playing record.

1954 - Hurricane Carol became the first storm to be given a name.

1957 - The Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia) gained its independence from the United Kingdom.

1962 - Chris Bonnington and Ian Clough became the first Britons to conquer the north face of the Eiger.

1968 - Garfield Sobers became the first batsman to hit six sixes in a single over in first-class cricket.

1980 - After two weeks of nationwide strikes, the Polish government was forced to sign the Gdańsk agreement, allowing for the creation of the trade union solidarity.

1988 - 25 million people were made homeless after flooding in Bangladesh.

1994 - The IRA announced a complete ceasefire in Northern Ireland.

1995 - The Meteorological Office said August 1995 had been the hottest August since records began in 1659.

1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales, Dodi Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul, were killed in a car crash in an underpass in Paris.

2006 - Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream, stolen on August 22, 2004, was recovered in a raid by Norwegian police.