Happy Anniversary: Tight tie in cricket, looser ties in marriage

SOME of the neglected anniversaries in the forthcoming week, historically a particularly auspicious period for innovation and divorce.

13 December

1779: The first Smithfield Show is organised at Wooton's Dolphin Yard, London, by the Smithfield Cattle and Sheep Society.

1884: Percy Everitt patents the coin-operated weighing machine.

1903: Ice-cream cones patented by Italo Marcione of New York.

1937: Sellotape is first marketed in Britain.

1989: Gwyn Town Hall, West Glamorgan, hosts the world's first concert given by a deaf choir using sign language. They perform alongside a conventional choir to allow the deaf among the audience to enjoy the concert.

14 December

1918: Women over 30 exercise their right to vote for the first time in a general election in Britain.

1954: Divorce is legalised in Argentina.

1960: Australia and West Indies play the first tied Test match at the Woolloongabba ground, Brisbane.

1973: Idi Amin launches his 'Save Britain' fund to help us out of economic crisis.

15 December

1654: A meteorological office in Tuscany becomes the first to record daily temperatures.

1939: Nylon is first commercially produced, in Seaford, Delaware.

1964: Canada adopts the maple leaf flag.

1979: Chris Haney and Scott Abbott come up with the idea for Trivial Pursuit.

16 December

1809: The marriage between Josephine and Napoleon Bonaparte is dissolved after 13 years.

17 December

1849: William Coke, for the price of 12 shillings, becomes the first man to purchase a bowler hat, made by Thomas Bowler for Lock & Co of St James's.

1885: Jem Smith defeats Jack Davies in the last officially recognised bare-knuckle fight for the heavyweight championship of Britain.

18 December

1865: Slavery abolished in the United States.

1970: Divorce legalised in Italy.

1983: Ex-president Gerald Ford appears in Dynasty.

19 December

1863: Linoleum is patented by Frederick Walton of London.

1955: Carl Perkins records 'Blue Suede Shoes' at the Sun Studios, Memphis, Tennessee.

1980: Alexei Kosygin dies, aged 77, on Leonid Brezhnev's 74th birthday.