Sunday, 9 June 2013

Nixon meets Brezhnev

Daily Mirror dated Tuesday May 23rd 1972
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Richard Nixon has gone down in history as a liar and a disgraced President but this Summit meeting in 1972 between Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev did a great deal to thaw the Cold War and produced the SALT 1 (Strategic Arms Limitation) and  ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaties that may well have saved mankind from destroying itself.

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Nine days after this protest march by 500 women of Derry (aka Londonderry) the Official IRA declared a cease-fire, although the Provisional IRA continued their armed campaign off and on up to 2005.

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After 133 years as British colonial Ceylon and 24 years as the Dominion of Ceylon within the British Commonwealth, the island finally tore itself free from our influence and became the Republic of Sri Lanka; and the Daily Mirror gave the news less than 1 column inch on page 2. 

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The Vietnam War had been going on in one form or another since 1950. US combat troops had been active since 1965 and it was to go on until 1975. The cost of the War was about 637000 military dead and at least 250000 civilian dead.

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One of the frustrating things about doing this blog is finding an interesting story like this and not being able to find out what happened next. I can’t afford to subscribe to an online archive or travel to the British Library every time I want to check on something.

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Margaret Rutherford started professional acting in 1925 with the Old Vic Theatre Company and was 41 when she first appeared in a West-End production in 1933. She appeared in her first film in 1936 and will be remembered for her 4 outings as Agatha Christie’s Miss Marples, but she also appeared as Miss Quickly in Orson Welles Shakespeare adaptation ‘Chimes at Midnight’, in Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ and Noel Coward’s ‘Blithe Spirit’ in a role specifically written for her. 

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Who can forget ‘The Young New Mexican Puppeteer’ by Tom Jones? Or should it be ‘remember’? A zero answer on ‘Pointless if ever I saw one. Don McLean’s Vincent pops in at number 18 and was destined for the top spot.

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Traffic Wardens (now known as Civil Enforcement Officers) first appeared on UK streets as far back as 1960. A weekly income of £23.10p was about half of the average salary in 1972.

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Harland Sanders started the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise business in 1952 and in 1964 he sold the US business for $2million but kept the Canadian franchises. He died in 1980.
By the way, in 1970 he appeared as himself in a film called ‘The Phynx’ which is well worth looking up (if you’re a film fan) on the IMDB.com as it has the most amazing cast of ‘as themselves’ people ever.

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Poet and author Cecil Day-Lewis, the father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis, was the Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death. He wrote 20 crime novels under the name Nicholas Blake as well as 3 literary novels under his own name.

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George Best had been with Manchester United since 1963 but by 1972 was becoming unreliable and in December of that year was put on the list of players available for transfer. He left Manchester United in 1974 and retired from professional football in 1983. He died in 2005.




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