Front pages (and usually back, middle or other pages) chosen at random (more or less) from my collection of mostly 20th Century mostly British newspapers. Weekly new posts on Sundays, a Random Cutting on Wednesdays and a Random Advert on Fridays.
 |
| Click to Read
‘French make own Swing-wing’ probably refers to the Dassault Mirage G jet fighter of which a few prototypes were built but never went into active service.
The ailing Lord Clement Attlee had been the Labour Prime Minister of the UK from 1945 until 1951 and was to die of pneumonia at the age of 84 on October 8th 1967.
Click to Read
Continued from page 1 -
This rather pessimistic account of the launch of
the replacement for Cunard’s RMS Queen Elizabeth, the un-imaginatively named
Queen Elizabeth 2 (or QE2), reflects the widely held opinion that this was a
very odd time for Cunard to be investing in a new trans-Atlantic ocean liner.
Air travel was now the preferred way of getting to America as it was faster and
relatively cheap. The QE2 went on to serve Cunard as a passenger liner and a
cruise ship right up to 2008, having been converted from an oil-fired steamship
to diesel electric engines in 1986.
Click to Read
Continued from page 1 -
The ‘Soviet Scientist’ story is about Vladimir Tkachenko, a 25 year-old Russian who had been doing research at Birmingham University. When he boarded a plane bound for Moscow on the 14th September the British police and Secret Service agents pulled him off because they said he was being taken back to the USSR against his will. The Russians then claimed it was Britain that was kidnapping the scientist and a diplomatic row broke out which was calmed by Tkachenko being allowed to board another plane for Moscow on the 19th.
Click to Read
This was the era when everyone wanted to go to Art School,
go on anti-Vietnam War demos, smoke pot, take LSD and then become a World
famous pop group member. Science? Heavy, man.
Click to Read
For years the Liberals were the party that was there to vote
for if you didn’t want to endorse the Tories or Labour because they would never
get into power and, whichever of the other two parties won, you could say, ‘Don’t
blame me, I didn’t vote for them.’
Jeremy Thorpe was the Leader of the Liberal Party from 1967 until
the scandal that ruined his career in 1976. See this post
for details.
Click to Read
The Vietnam War dominated the UK media and the Political
scene throughout the late ‘60’s, despite it being one of America’s blunders
that Britain didn’t get sucked into.
Click to Read
Although it is now generally accepted that Norsemen (aka
Vikings) travelled from Greenland to North America, in particular Newfoundland,
1000 years before Christopher Columbus, none of the artefacts found in Canada
or the USA have ever been authentically linked to the Norsemen of that period
and the Vinland of Norse sagas.
Click to Read
Just one of the many changes of regional government during
the Nigerian Civil War that went on from 1966 until 1970 and haunted our TV
news coverage with scenes of death and starvation in Biafra.
Click to Read
White Rhodesian leader Ian Smith opposed the transfer of
power from Britain to the black majority in his country and issued a Unilateral
Declaration of Independence in 1965. The area came back to British rule in 1979
but was then almost immediately given independence as Zimbabwe in 1980.
Click to Read
The trial ended with Neville Fineberg being
found guilty of the attempted murder of Wylie Roberts.
Click to Read
The dock strike lasted 6 weeks from September 18th
until the end of October 1967. Jack Dash was a Communist who wanted to see an
end to the ‘casual labour’ way of staffing the docks i.e. employing men day by
day and only when there was work for them to do.
Click to Read
Not your usual knights-of-the-realm littered
cast for this version of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Robin Bailey is
remembered for his portrayal on TV and radio of the dour Northerner Uncle Mort
in the stories by Peter Tinniswood, Bernard Bresslaw from 15 or more ‘Carry on@
films, Jim Dale from 8 ‘Carry on’s and Cleo Laine as the jazz singing wife of
band leader Johnny Dankworth.
Click to Read
Editor – We need a Beatles story. How about ‘how much they
earned in the last 4 years’?
Reporter – No-one knows.
Editor – So?
|
