100 years ago

The Austrian and Hungarian Governments were both making desperate efforts to prevent any further increase in the price of food.

The Austrian Ministry had recently directed that after December 1st the practice of exchanging or returning stale white bread from restaurants and cafes should be prohibited. In order to prevent any waste of flour the Government had now ordered the mills to restrict the quantity of the finest grades of flour because the milling of these produced a much smaller percentage of flour from the grain.

In Hungary all the efforts of the Government to restrain the cupidity of large landed proprietors in demanding exorbitant prices for their grain had so far failed, and the Ministry had now warned agriculturists that steps would be taken to import flour from America.

The whole situation was becoming very acute, and it was expected that the Hungarian Cabinet would shortly be forced to take very drastic steps to settle the question of grain and flour prices.

 

50 years ago

At Cape Kennedy, Florida, American space scientists said there was no chance of America’s Mariner Three spacecraft successfully completing its mission to Mars.

“It looks like a loss,” said National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials. No signals were being received from the spacecraft which had been launched the previous day to take pictures of the planet Mars the following July. Space scientists were preparing for a second attempt with the twin Mariner Four expected to be launched later in the month.

The National Space Agency had until November 29 to fire the rocket. After that date Mars would not be in a favourable position for two years. Mariner Three was to have sent back television pictures of the planet from a distance of 8600 miles, after making a journey of eight-and-a-half months from the earth.

 

25 years ago

Actor Brian Blessed had been in Harrogate to announce he was to join an international expedition to Everest the following year. The star of television, film and the West End stage revealed he would be making an attempt on the world’s highest mountain for a two-part television programme to be called Galahad of Everest.

Brian, who said he had been a keen but bad mountaineer for around 25 years, unveiled his plans during a visit to the Camping and Outdoor Leisure Association’s exhibition at the Harrogate Conference Centre.

Brian would be joining top climbers from the United States, the Soviet Union and China in the international World Peace Expedition and said the climb would be the realisation of a life-long ambition.