Happy Anniversary: 'Mad Dog' Sithney rejects the girls

SOME lesser-known anniversaries worth celebrating during the coming week:

2 August:

1875: Britain's first roller-skating rink opens in Belgravia.

1876: 'Wild Bill' Hickok shot by Jack McCall.

1987: Luis Reina becomes first matador to sport an advertiser's logo in a Spanish bullring.

3 August:

1921: A catalpa grove infested with leaf caterpillars in Ohio is the scene of the world's first crop spraying by aeroplane.

1925: A motorist who killed a pedestrian in Indiana is ordered to spend an hour alone with the body of his victim.

4 August:

Feast Day of St Sithney, whom God, according to legend, asked to be patron saint of girls. He asked to be excused, on the grounds that their requests for husbands and finery would never give him a moment's peace, so God asked him to look after mad dogs instead. 'I'd rather have mad dogs than women any day', he replied.

1966: John Lennon claims the Beatles are more popular than Jesus Christ.

5 August:

Oyster season opens.

1916: American chewing gum goes on sale in France.

1970: Penalty kicks first used as tie- breaker in first-class match in England.

6 August:

1859: Beechams Powders are marketed with the world's first advertising slogan: 'Worth a guinea a box'.

1890: William Kemmler, a murderer, is the first to die in the electric chair.

1926: Gertrude Ederle becomes first woman to swim the English Channel.

7 August:

1556: An unidentified flying object is seen over Basle, Switzerland.

1840: Parliament passes an act forbidding the employment of boys to climb chimneys for sweeping.

1858: Rules drawn up for Australian Football.

8 August:

1925: First National Congress of Ku Klux Klan in Washington.

1963: Great Train Robbers steal pounds 2.6m from the Glasgow to London mail train.

1974: President Richard Nixon resigns.