100 years ago

A HULL trawler’s skipper had had the shock of his life.

He had been out for six weeks, and was coming home, expecting to find things just as usual.

Sixty or eighty miles out of Spurn he received the shock of his life. Suddenly he found himself in the midst of searchlights.

One light particularly searched him through and through; later on he was hailed and his business and destination demanded. He was allowed to proceed, of course.

“But,” he said, “I never want to have such a fright again as long as I live.”


50 years ago

TWO thousand chrysanthemums in York Corporation nurseries had fallen for a man-made confidence trick.

They were being duped into a short 12- to 15-week cutting-to-bloom life by black plastic sheeting. Because of this method, being tried for the first time in the Parks Department’s Acomb nurseries, chrysanthemums - normally flowering in autumn - would be in bloom all the year round.

The trick came in when the plants - short-day flowerers - were put under the plastic sheeting long before nightfall. Now, with the covering, they were getting nearly 15 hours of darkness and a correspondingly short “day.”

The growing cycle, normally six months, was speeded up by this crash programme. And in the winter, lights - controlled by time switches - would reverse the process, giving 2 to 3 hours of “daylight” to break up the longer nights, which retarded growth.

The pilot scheme had been so successful that it was likely that all chrysanthemums grown by the Corporation in future would be given the same treatment.


25 years ago

A NEW threat to kill church envoy Terry Waite - the second in a matter of hours - had been made by an anonymous caller to a Beirut radio station.

But as the hostage crisis in Lebanon deepened following the execution of American Lt Col William Higgins, Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said Israel was engaged in contacts to obtain the release of all hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

It was the first comment on the affair by Shamir, as Israel stood accused of causing the crisis by kidnapping the Moslem cleric Sheikh Obeid the previous week.

The anonymous caller, claiming to speak for holders of Western hostages in the Lebanon, said Mr Waite would be killed by 10pm British time unless Israel freed Obeid.