Happy Anniversary: Three die in dog-plunge horror

HERE are some of the anniversaries you might otherwise have missed during the coming week, traditionally a good period for the universe, the United States, and women, except in Italy.

18 October:

Feast Day of St Luke, patron saint of doctors, who, according to legend, died unmarried at the age of 84.

1826: Last state lottery in Britain.

1865: Lord Palmerston said: 'Die, my dear doctor? That's the last thing I shall do,' then proved he was right by dying.

1887: The United States buys Alaska from Russia for dollars 7.2m, slightly less than the budget for the 1960 film, North to Alaska.

1927: Dancing bears are banned from the streets of Berlin.

1977: Hilary Bradshaw of Maidenhead becomes the first woman to referee a rugby match when Bracknell play High Wycombe.

1987: A company in the United States announces a deal to sell 12 million pairs of chopsticks to Japan.

19 October:

1901: A Brazilian, Albert de Santos, wins a pounds 1000 prize for making the first successful airship flight around the Eiffel Tower.

1970: BP strikes oil in the North Sea.

20 October:

1818: Britain and the United States agree on the 49th parallel as the boundary between the US and Canada.

1915: Women are allowed to apply for licences as London bus and tram conductors.

21 October:

1824: Portland cement is patented by Joseph Aspdin.

1868: Birth of Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton, originator of the word 'tank' for armoured vehicle.

1958: The first women peers are introduced to the House of Lords.

22 October:

1797: Andre-Jacques Garnerin makes the first parachute jump, from a hot-air balloon 6,000ft above the Parc Monceau in Paris.

1903: Publication of the National Temperance Manifesto in London.

1910: Dr Crippen found guilty of murdering his wife.

1931: Al Capone jailed for 11 years in Chicago for tax evasion.

23 October:

4004 BC: According to James Usher, Bishop of Meath, the date of the Creation. John Lightfoot, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, later pointed out that it happened at 9am.

1918: House of Commons votes 274-25 to allow women to become MPs.

1926: A decree in Rome bans women from holding public office.

1947: Debut of Julie Andrews, 12, in Starlight Roof.

1988: In Buenos Aires, a dog falls 13 floors from a window, landing on a 75-year-old woman and killing her. As a crowd gathers to watch the incident, a woman is killed by a bus and a man dies of a heart attack.

24 October:

1857: The first football club is formed by Cambridge University Old Boys in Sheffield.

1861: The Pony Express Mail, from St Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, ceases its service after only 18 months in operation.