this is the week that was
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Your support makes all the difference.12 February:
1831: Rubber galoshes are first marketed by JW Goodrich of Boston, Massachusetts.
1898: Henry Lindfield becomes the first motorist killed in a car crash.
1956: Britain's first yellow no-parking lines appear in Slough.
13 February:
1917: The Government passes a bill allowing women taxi-drivers.
1971: US vice-president Spiro Agnew hits three spectators with his first two shots at the Bob Hope Desert Golf Classic.
14 February:
1477: Margery Brews sends a letter to John Paston in Norfolk addressed "to my right welbelovyd Voluntyne", the first recorded Valentine's card.
15 February:
1925: Regents Park Zoo announces that lights are going to be installed to cheer up the animals on foggy days.
1971: Decimal currency comes into circulation in the UK.
1978: England loses to New Zealand at cricket for the first time.
16 February:
1568: The Spanish Inquisition sentences the whole of the Netherlands to death.
1659: The first cheque is drawn on a British bank account.
17 February:
1883: Mr A Ashwell, of Herne Hill, patents the Vacant/ Engaged sign for lavatory doors.
1909: A Royal Commission reports that conditions in London produce a "degenerate race, morally and physically enfeebled".
18 February:
1478: George, Duke of Clarence, is drowned in a butt of wine (reputedly Malmsey) in the Tower of London.
1678: John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is published.
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