this is the week that was Concorde's first flight

26 February:

1797: The Bank of England issues its first pounds 1 note.

1839: The first Grand National is run at Aintree and won by Jem Mason on Lottery.

1936: Hitler launches the Volkswagen, newly designed by Ferdinand Porsche.

27 February:

1557: The first Russian Embassy opens in London.

1860: The State of Connecticut bans Playboy.

1897: The first decorated wedding car appears in Paris.

28 February:

1912: In Missouri, Albert Berry is the first person to jump from an aeroplane with a parachute.

1923: The House of Lords passes a bill ruling that husbands may no longer be deemed to have coerced wives who commit offences in their presence.

1950: The sale of Coca-Cola is banned in Paris.

1988: A 90-year-old newly- wed in Miami is charged with beating his 76-year-old bride to death during an argument over honeymoon plans.

29 February:

992: Death of St Oswald of Worcester, whose feast day was celebrated only every four years until the 1930s, when it was moved to 28 February.

1792: Gioacchino Rossini born.

1956: Muffin the Mule makes the leap from BBC to ITV.

1 March:

1909: Lloyd George tells the House of Commons that the old-age pension is more popular than had been expected.

1934: The Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) says: "I see no reason why women should not wear shorts."

1966: The Soviet space craft Venus III lands on Venus, the first to land on another planet.

1990: The Royal Navy scraps daily rum rations.

2 March:

1949: The first non-stop, round-the-world flight is completed by the US Air Force plane Lucky Lady II, after being refuelled eight times in flight.

1969: Concorde makes its maiden flight from Toulouse.

3 March:

1895: Driving tests for cyclists are instituted in Munich.

1904: Kaiser Wilhelm makes the first recording of a political speech on an Edison cylinder.

1931: "The Star-Spangled Banner" becomes the United States' national anthem.

1991: The Queen needs three stitches in a finger after trying to break up a fight between two corgis at Windsor.