week in week out

Friday In 1950 the damn Yankees beat Britain 1-0 in the World Cup in Brazil, even though our side included Billy "Mr Beverley Sister" Wright. In 1984, after over a century, the weekly Tit (sic) Bits was axed.

Saturday The first person to grapple with that intractable radio problem, the tennis commentary, was Captain HBT Wakelam, at the 1927 Wimbledon. Forty years ago, Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe were married; pretty soon they were asking the dating agency for their money back. As was Prince Charles, who admitted adultery in the 1994 Dimbleby documentary.

Sunday Gone With the Wind was published 60 years ago, a massive seller and Margaret Mitchell's only novel. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was premiered in 1960 and showers haven't been the same since.

Monday The first daily news-paper came out in Leipzig in 1650. Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of the anti-slavery Uncle Tom's Cabin, died a century ago; Popeye the Sailor was born in 1929. 1941 saw a day of TV firsts from New York: a sponsored show in colour, featuring Ed Sullivan; regular TV news, consisting largely of bought-in newsreel film; an advertisement, costing $9 for 20 seconds; and a regular panel game.

Tuesday Nostradamus died in 1566; his prophecies are still incomprehensible. In 1661, Charles II became the first British monarch to go to the theatre; Samuel Pepys wrote that the cast was wonderful - apart from the (real) Eunuch, who was hissed off. Forty years ago, Elvis Presley barked out "Hound Dog".

Wednesday Joel Chandler Harris, who long before Watership Down gave us Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit, turned up his paws in 1908. A bad day for pavements: Britain's first cable TV was switched on in Greenwich in 1972.

Thursday In 1862, Lewis Carroll, on a boating trip in Oxford with young friends, began telling a story about a little girl called Alice. In 1985, the previously black-and-white Yankee Doodle Dandy was re-released - the first of the recolourisations.