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In This Week In …

  • 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte dies in exile on the remote island of St Helena. His last words were reportedly “France, armée, Joséphine” (5 May 1821);
  • 1937, the airship Hindenburg bursts into flames upon touching its mooring mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey (6 May 1937);
  • 1915, the British ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine. 1198 people are drowned. (7 May 1915);
  • 1984, the USSR announces it will boycott  the 1984 Summer Olympic Games to be held in Los Angeles, California (8 May 1984);
  • 1960, the American FDA approves the world’s first birth control pill (9 May 1960);
  • 1940, Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the UK following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain (10 May 1940);
  • 1812, the only British Prime Minister to ever be assassinated, Spencer Perceval, is shot dead in the Palace of Westminster (11 May 1812).