Happy Anniversary: Britain succumbs to the Colombian potato barons
SOME reasons to celebrate every day of the forthcoming week:
26 July:
National Day of Liberia.
1745: Hambledon defeat Bramley in the first recorded women's cricket match.
1908: The FBI is established in Washington.
27 July:
1948: The first women's national athletics championships are held in Vienna.
28 July:
Death of two great baroque composers, J S Bach (1750) and Antonio Vivaldi (1741).
1586: First potatoes arrive in Britain, brought from Columbia by Sir Thomas Harriot.
1914: Austria declares war on Serbia.
1916: Import of cocaine and opium banned by royal proclamation.
1959: Post codes inaugurated in Britain.
1962: Simon Paterson becomes the first Briton to swim the Channel underwater.
29 July:
Feast day of St Martha, patron saint of housewives.
1926: London County Council medical officers praise modern fashions on grounds of hygiene.
1963: Kim Philby granted Soviet citizenship.
1981: Prince of Wales marries Lady Diana Spencer.
30 July:
1918: Captain Sarret of France makes the first parachute drop from an aeroplane.
1935: First Penguin paperback book goes on sale.
1938: First edition of the Beano goes on sale.
1968: Don Jones, California's state public defender, is fined for being too fat at 17 stone.
31 July:
1910: Dr Crippen is arrested aboard the SS Montrose, the first criminal apprehended through the use of a wireless.
1950: Sainsbury's open Britain's first self-service store in Croydon.
1 August:
1793: France introduces the kilogram, the first metric weight.
1969: The old (pre-decimal) halfpenny ceases to be legal tender.
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