What happened this week in history

In 1541, Queen Catherine Howard (the fifth wife of Henry VIII) was confined in London Tower. She was beheaded three months later.
Poet and lyricist Roger McGough celebrates his 79th birthday this week EMN-160411-083232001Poet and lyricist Roger McGough celebrates his 79th birthday this week EMN-160411-083232001
Poet and lyricist Roger McGough celebrates his 79th birthday this week EMN-160411-083232001

1888 - Jack the Ripper’s fifth and probably last victim, Mary Jane Kelly, was found dead on her bed.

1906 - Theodore Roosevelt became the first sitting President of the United States to make an official trip outside the country. He did so to inspect progress on the Panama Canal.

1907 - The Cullinan Diamond was presented to King Edward VII on his birthday.

1916 - Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to the United States Congress.

1918 - Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicated and Germany was proclaimed a republic.

1937 - The first Labour Party prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald, died at sea on board the liner Reina del Pacifico. He was 71.

1940 - Former prime minister Neville Chamberlain died of bowel cancer, aged 71.

1944 - The Red Cross won the Nobel peace prize.

1960 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy became the youngest, and first Roman Catholic, president of the United States of America.

1970 - France mourned the death of wartime hero and former president General Charles de Gaulle, who died of a heart attack at the age of 79.

1979 -Four men were found guilty of killing 12-year-old paperboy Carl Bridgewater at Yew Tree Farm. Eighteen years later, the convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal.

1985 - Garry Kasparov, 22, of the Soviet Union, became the youngest World Chess Champion by beating fellow Soviet Anatoly Karpov.

1989 - Communist-controlled East Germany opened checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany. This key event led to the eventual reunification of East and West Germany, and the fall of communism in eastern Europe.

1994 - The chemical element darmstadtium was discovered.

1998 - Capital punishment in the United Kingdom was completely abolished for all capital offences.

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