Happy Anniversary: The layabout parliament

HERE ARE some important dates to celebrate in the coming week, an eventful time for cricketers and Roy Jenkins.

7 June:

1614: Dissolution of the Addled Parliament, which had not passed a bill since its first sitting on 5 April.

1950: First radio broadcast of The Archers.

8 June:

1923: The Matrimonial Causes Bill gives women the right for the first time to divorce their husbands for adultery.

1988: Nippon Airways of Japan announces a 20 per cent cut in mid-air collisions with birds after painting large eyes on their jet engines.

9 June:

1934: Walt Disney's cartoon The Wise Little Hen sees the birth of Donald Duck.

1980: Roy Jenkins first hints of plans to form a new centre-left party.

10 June:

Time Observance Day in Japan, when punctuality is especially esteemed. Birthday of Prince Philip (1921) and Robert Maxwell (1923).

1943: A new pen is patented by the Hungarian hypnotist, journalist and sculptor, Laszlo Biro.

11 June:

1873: Last use of the stocks in England: Mark Tuck is sentenced to four hours in the Newbury stocks for insobriety and causing disturbance in a parish church.

1907: Nottinghamshire all out for 12 against Gloucestershire in county cricket championship.

1952: Denis Compton hits his 100th century.

1953: Len Hutton becomes the first professional to captain England.

12 June:

1667: Jean Baptiste Denys, personal physician to Louis XIV, carries out successful blood transfusion on a 15-year-old boy using sheep's blood.

1839: Abner Doubleday invents baseball.

1920: Charles Stephens, a barber from Britain, goes over the Niagara falls in a barrel and dies.

13 June:

1886: Mad King Ludwig II of Bavaria commits suicide by drowning. His psychiatrist, Bernhard von Gudden, dies trying to save him.

1983: Roy Jenkins resigns as leader of the SDP, recommending that Dr David Owen should succeed him.