What happened this week in history
1508 - Pope Julius II excommunicated the entire population of Venice.
1667 - The blind and impoverished John Milton sold the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
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Hide Ad1749 The first performance of George Frideric Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks took place in London’s Green Park. It finished early due to the outbreak of fire.
1828 - London Zoo opened.
1840 - The foundation stone for the new Palace of Westminster was laid by the wife of Sir Charles Barry.
1937 - King George VI opened the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
1939 - Conscription of men aged 20 to 21 was announced in Britain.
1944 - The government banned all foreign travel.
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Hide Ad1961 - Sierra Leone was granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
1968 - Abortion was legalised in Britain.
1972 - Five colleges at Oxford University agreed to admit female students.
1981 - Xerox PARC introduced the computer mouse.
1986 - The city of Pripyat as well as the surrounding areas were evacuated due to Chernobyl disaster.
1992 -The House of Commons elected a woman, Betty Boothroyd, to the post of Speaker for the first time in its 700-year history.
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Hide Ad1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, was proclaimed.
1993 - All members of the Zambia national football team lost their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon en route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.
1997 - The last rugby union match was played at Cardiff Arms Park, before it was torn down to make way for the Millennium Stadium.
2014 - Popes John XXIII and John Paul II were declared saints in the first papal canonization since 1954.