ON THIS DAY

FEBRUARY 15

1564: Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and mathematician, was born in Pisa. 1842: The first adhesive stamp was used in the USA by the City Despatch Post, a private concern later acquired by the government for 1,200 dollars.

1874: The Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton was born in Kilkee, Co Clare. 1882: The first shipment of frozen meat left New Zealand for England.

1971: Britain changed over to decimal coinage on Decimal Day.

1981: Football League games were played on a Sunday for the first time.

FEBRUARY 16

1568: The death sentence was passed on an entire country when the Netherlands was condemned for heresy by the Spanish Inquisition.

1754: Richard Mead, English doctor and physician to George II, who promoted inoculation for smallpox, died.

1822: Francis Galton, founder of a new science called “eugenics”, was born in Birmingham. Among his ideas was the systematic creation of a superior race of human beings, later tried by Hitler.

1959: Fidel Castro became prime minister of Cuba after overthrowing the regime of Fulgencio Batista.

1990: Royal Navy wives marched through Plymouth and Portsmouth to oppose a Ministry of Defence decision to allowWrenstogotosea.

FEBRUARY 17

1818: Karl Christian Ludwig Drais von Sauerbronn patented the ‘draisine’, the forerunner of the bicycle.

1883: A Mr Ashwell, of Herne Hill, London, patented the Vacant/Engaged toilet door sign. 1909: Geronimo, the great Apache leader, died. His real name was Goyathlay, which means “one who yawns”.

1972: Volkswagen broke the record held by the Model T Ford by selling the 15,007,034th production model of the Beetle.

FEBRUARY 18

1564: The great Renaissance artist and sculptor Michelangelo died in Rome, aged 88.

1745: Count Alessandro Volta, physicist who devised the first battery, was born in Como, Italy.

1911: More than 6,000 letters and postcards were flown five miles from Allahabad to Naini Junction in India by Henri Picquet – the first official airmail.

2005: Fox hunting became illegal in England and Wales. The Hunting Act outlawed hunting with dogs.

FEBRUARY 19

1855: Bread riots broke out in Liverpool. 1878: Thomas Edison patented the phonograph.

1906: In America, William Kellogg formed the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company to make the breakfast cereal he developed as a health food for mental patients.

1942: The Japanese bombed the Australian city of Darwin.

1985: EastEnders began on BBC TV.