100 years ago

“Utilitarian” wrote: “As a victim I wish to make an appeal to the ladies of York regarding an article of dress.

I was standing looking at the Christmas display in Boyes’ window on Saturday last, when three ladies came sweeping by right in front of me, and in passing one of them inflicted on my face a long and severe scratch from a hatpin, which, without any undue exaggeration, was sticking out at least three inches from the brim.

I think it is a very silly and dangerous practice for people to go wandering about among crowds with hatpins left uncovered in such a fashion, and probably this reminder will stir all reasonable women to either obtain a covering for the point of the pin, or to use shorter and more suitable hatpins for their headgear.”

 

50 years ago

Hundreds of West Berliners queued at schools at dawn waiting to apply at makeshift offices for passes to visit East Berlin at Christmas.

In the working class district of Neukoein, in the American sector, about 400 people stood in the roadway outside a school where an office had been set up. Police kept close watch as the crowd began to gather. In the front line stood Frau Erna Schuetz, 37, who said: “I have been waiting here since 4am.” A grey-haired middle-aged man behind her said: “I brought along two flasks of hot coffee to keep me going during the waiting hours.”

In the American sector district of Kreuzberg, which had one of the longest stretches of wall bordering on East Berlin, there were no queues outside the schools. The headmaster had sent his pupils off for the Christmas holidays three days early. Inside, in the well-heated classrooms, about 500 people were waiting in comfort for their passes to cross the wall. Agreement on the Christmas passes had been reached the day before between West Berlin and East German Government officials.

 

25 years ago

Members of the House of Lords were trying to ban parents from giving their children a “clip round the ear” in an amendment to the Children Bill currently before Parliament.

The move would abolish the legal right parents had to “administer punishment”. However, mothers and fathers would still have a common-law right to use “reasonable force” on their children. Backers hoped the proposed change in the law would protect children from serious abuse which, they said, often started with a casual slap.

A similar move in Sweden 20 years before began a change in public opinion which resulted in a ban on all hitting of children in 1979.