Happy Anniversary: England annihilate Australia

HERE are some dates to celebrate in the forthcoming week, a period of coincidental birthdays and death days.

28 June:

1859: The world's first dog show opens in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

1881: King Milan of Serbia agrees to ban Serbian propaganda from Austria.

1902: The United States buys the Panama Canal from France for dollars 40,000.

29 June:

1801: The first census in Britain reveals a population on this day of 8,872,000.

1966: Britain's first credit card is issued.

30 June:

1837: The pillory is abolished as a form of punishment.

1859: Charles Blondin makes the first crossing of the Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

1951: England beat Australia 17-0 at football in Sydney.

1 July:

1847: America licks its first gummed postage stamps.

1937: The 999 emergency service begins in Britain.

1941: The first television commercial, for the Bulova Clock and Watch Company, is screened in the United States.

1977: The last time the Queen visited Wimbledon for the tennis.

1980: The sixpenny bit ceases to be legal tender.

2 July:

Birthday of Sir Alec Douglas- Home (1903) and David Owen (1938).

1900: Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin flies his first airship.

1924: British government rejects the idea of a Channel tunnel.

3 July:

Leos Janacek (1854), Franz Kafka (1883) and Tom Stoppard (1937) all born in Czechoslovakia.

4 July:

American Independence Day: the birthday of President Calvin Coolidge (1872) and death days of Presidents Thomas Jefferson, John Adams (both 1826) and James Munroe (1831).

1848: Communist Manifesto published.

1984: Dog licences abolished in Britain.