July 9 (From York Press)

July 9

12:06pm Monday 9th July 2012 in Way we were

100 years ago

At Goole an inquest was held on the body of Mrs Lizzie Hill, aged 42, who had died on Saturday night.

John Hill, the husband, a coal agent, said the deceased had been in ill health for fourteen months, and had been a patient at the Leeds Infirmary, where she had undergone four surgical operations. She had been discharged at the end of June, and had since been in a depressed state.

On Saturday night she walked out of the kitchen into another room, remarking that she was all right. He had left her alone, but a little later he heard her cough, and, on going into the room, she said, “I have drunk something.”

He afterwards found out that she had taken a quantity of carbolic acid. Dr Erskine, the deceased’s medical attendant, said he had warned the deceased’s relatives not to let her be out of their sight, as he understood that she had attempted her life when in the Infirmary. The jury returned a verdict of suicide while temporarily insane.

50 years ago

The US had exploded a powerful hydrogen bomb out in space over Johnston Island, with a gigantic flash visible at Honolulu 750 miles away, and also in New Zealand, 3,500 miles away.

Communications across the Pacific went haywire. Because of the fantasy of colour produced by the explosion, it was dubbed “the rainbow bomb”.

The explosion of the megaton-range weapon between 200 and 500 miles over the Pacific produced a flash which turned the Sunday night into daylight for an instant.

Unofficial reports said the blast was equal to 10 million tons of TNT.

After the initial green flash, the sky glowed red, gradually fading to a sunset pink which remained for about seven minutes after the blast.

The stars disappeared from view in a flash, and the moon was eerily centred amidst the changing colour patterns in the sky.

It was the third attempt the US had made in the previous month to fire the test shot to check the effect of high-altitude nuclear explosions.

25 years ago

Dr David Owen told the SDP’s 60,000 members that a merger with the Liberals could not be forced by ultimatum. As the merger ballot got under way, he warned that once merged, the SDP would be lost for ever.

“You can vote for the SDP or you can vote for merger – you cannot vote for both,” said Dr Owen.

The warning was contained in a 750-word statement by Dr Owen and the party’s anti-merger factions, which was being sent out with ballot papers.