Happy Anniversary: Easy riders hit the street

HERE are some important anniversaries that you might otherwise overlook in the forthcoming week.

26 April:

1921: First police motorcycles seen in London.

1926: One-way traffic introduced, and proclaimed a success, in Trafalgar Square.

1956: The Archbishop of Canterbury says that Premium Bonds 'debase the nation's spiritual currency'.

1989: The first annual pig race in Naas, County Kildare, is won by Porky's Revenge.

27 April:

1908: The First International Congress of Psychoanalysis opens in Salzburg.

1931: A twopence rise in duty in the budget puts the price of petrol up to one and fourpence halfpenny a gallon.

1968: Abortion legalised in Britain.

1981: James Goldsmith's NOW] magazine aborted after less than two years.

28 April:

1789: William Bligh, captain of the Bounty, is cast adrift.

1965: Harold Wilson becomes the first Labour prime minister to meet a Pope.

29 April:

1913: The modern zipper is patented by Gideon Sundback, of Sweden. His version improves on the earlier design of Whitcomb L Judson by actually working properly.

1935: Cat's-eyes, invented by Percy Shaw, first appear on British roads.

30 April:

1901: A new game called table- tennis or 'ping-pong' is launched by James Gibb.

1962: Metropolitan Police set up their first frogman unit.

1979: Jubilee line opened on London underground.

1 May:

1907: Death of Neil Brodie, reputedly Canada's dirtiest man, who only bathed when ordered by law to do so.

1927: Imperial Airways serves first hot meals on London-Paris flight.

1939: Edition 17 of Detective Comics sees the first appearance of Bob Kane's invention, The Batman.

2 May:

Feast day of St Gennys, patron of St Gennys, Cornwall, about whom nothing certain seems to be known.

1923: First transmission of Woman's Hour on BBC Home Service.

1982: General Belgrano sunk in the Falklands War.