Happy Anniversary: Turkey in a spin

HERE are some dates to celebrate in the coming week, traditionally a busy period for funfairs, fast food, females, fraud, felony, failure and bifocals.

17 May:

1620: The world's first merry-go-round is seen at a fair in Philippolis, Turkey.

18 May:

1920: Oxford University gives equal status to women professors.

1955: England's first Wimpy Bar opens in London.

19 May:

1977: Mrs Sandra West is buried in San Antonio, according to the terms of her will: 'next to my husband, in my lace nightgown . . . in my Ferrari, with the seat slanted comfortably.

1989: A defendant in a fraud trial at Cardiff Crown Court super-glues her mouth shut 'to draw the public's attention to the mistrial and injustice in this court'.

20 May:

1895: Miss Lilian Murray becomes Britain's first female dental surgeon.

1959: In Paris, Guy Trebert becomes the first person to be arrested after identification through an Identikit picture.

21 May:

1898: The first motor-car bumper is fixed on a prototype at the Imperial Nesseldorf wagon factory in Moravia. On a test run to Vienna it falls off within 10 miles and is not re-attached.

1923: The International Congress of Dancing Masters in Paris condemns the foxtrot and tango.

22 May:

1921: Chicago institutes fines on women with bare arms and short skirts.

1929: Mussolini bans beauty contests as immoral.

1959: Alabama bans a children's book that features a black rabbit marrying a white one.

23 May:

1785: A letter written by Benjamin Franklin gives the earliest description of bifocals.

1797: A Gillray cartoon gives the Bank of England the name 'Old Lady of Threadneedle Street'.

1988: Fleming Koch and Nina Tolgard wed in the first underwater marriage ceremony on a reef in Mauritius. The vows are taken in divers' language.