Tiny Grace Loughton proved to be a truly ‘Amazing Grace’. She was born at York Hospital on New Year’s Day: 24 years to the day after her mum Sarah was also a New Year’s Day baby.

After days of rain and cloud, the sun came out just in time for the traditional New Year’s Day hunt at Thonton-le-Dale.

York learned that it was to have its own marathon, run in memory of Jane Tomlinson – and a few days later also learned that it was to host one of the opening stages of the 2014 Tour de France.

A trainee pilot and instructor had a lucky escape when their Tucano trainer crash-landed at RAF Linton. And hundreds of mourners attended the funeral of six-year-old Blaise Etheridge- Clarke, who had finally lost his three-year battle with cancer. “If Blaise has taught me something in this life it’s please love your family and friends,” said his heartbroken mum, Theresa.

A few days later another brave youngster – Jamie Inglis – died at the age of seven after losing his fight against rare childhood cancer neuroblastoma. TV chef Jamie Oliver, who was Jamie’s hero and who had once met the little boy, said: “He was an absolutely smashing kid and I’m honoured to have got the chance to meet him.”

Snow turned the region into a winter wonderland – and Press photographer Mike Tipping caught a fun picture of sisters Amber and Tia Hardy sledging near the University of York. York’s Theatre Royal, meanwhile, celebrated after learning it was likely to receive £2.9 million of lottery funding towards the cost of its £4 million refurbishment.

Velvet the baby zebra drew appreciative crowds when he emerged at Flamingo Land zoo for the first time to play in the snow. And York learned it would be connected to the new high speed rail line – cutting travel times to London to just one hour 23 minutes after the HS2 route opens in 2026.


In national and international news...

…Broadcaster Andrew Marr suffered a stroke; a helicopter spun out of control and crashed near Vauxhall Station in London in bad weather, killing the pilot and one other person; and US cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted for the first time that he had taken performance-enhancing drugs during each of his seven Tour de France wins.

Prince Harry confirmed that as a gunner on an Apache helicopter, he had killed taliban insurgents during his tour of Afghanistan; the director and restaurant critic Michael Winner died at the age of 77; and the MoD announced tat up to 5,300 soldiers could face redundancy.

More than 200 people died in a fire that broke out in a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil; several UK supermarkets withdrew processed meat products after tests found they contained traces of horse DNA; and 37 foreign hostages and 29 kidnappers were killed in the Algerian hostage crisis at a remote BP gas plant. The attacks were said to be in retaliation to the French military intervention in Mali.


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