100 years ago

The ceremony of declaring Skeldergate Bridge had attracted a large gathering of York citizens the previous afternoon.

The Lord Mayor (Councillor Henry Rhodes Brown) performed the ceremony by cutting a silk riband which had been stretched across the structure at a point near to the toll lodge.

He said that instead of paying a toll in the future, the citizens of York would have to pay a rate for the freeing of the bridge.

The bridge as a toll bridge would have paid for itself in 13 years, but the citizens would now have the privilege of paying for the next 26 years a one-farthing in the pound rate, though it would be a benefit to the citizens generally that the bridge would be free.


50 years ago

Five men emerged from 30 days of isolation in a sealed chamber where they proved that life could be supported for at least a month in space or on the moon.

Their water was reclaimed from wastes after the first small supply was used. All food was dehydrated and freeze-dried into small lightweight packets, then reconstituted with water. The same air, purified by chemicals, was breathed over and over.

Life was under conditions they would have encountered in space, except for weightlessness. The experiment, conducted by the Boeing Co. for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was the first in the United States integrating all systems for support of life away from earth.

It had been set-up for “150 man days” — equivalent to five men for 30 days. Wives, families and NASA and Boeing officials greeted the “astronauts” as they stepped from the windowless, L shaped box that had been their home since March 2.


25 years ago

Hoteliers and guesthouse landladies had been the first to respond to an appeal to make Bridlington a brighter town.

The Hotel and Guest House Association planned to raise £100,000 in the following three years to provide their town with what they described as a neon fantasia to bring a bit of Blackpool to the east coast.

The initiative had been the first response to the local council and civic trust campaign for local organisations to put up ideas through a business steering group’s improvement project.

The improvement project, headed by newly appointed officer Tania Kay, was aiming to get those who benefited from holidaymakers to make a contribution to brighten up the town centre.

The Hotel and Guest House Association spokeswoman, Mrs Norma Curtis, said: “It may be just a start but it was the guest houses and hotels in Blackpool who started the ball rolling with their illuminations many years ago.”