From our archives:

80 years ago

The North Riding Education Committee had approved a sum of £30,000 for a new senior school in Thirsk. Under the schools re-organisation scheme, the school would be able to accommodate 480 children and should be completed within the next two years. All senior children in Thirsk and surrounding villages would be educated at Thirsk and the Undenominational School in Long Street would be closed. The future status of the Archbishop Holgate’s Grammar School in York, was also under consideration after a letter had been sent from the Dean of York, Dr H N Bate, asking the Education Committee to appoint a representative to confer on the matter of increasing the student intake from 20 to 30 a year. And Miss I P Pressly, assistant mistress at Queen Anne Secondary School, had announced she was leaving on health grounds. Miss Pressly had been on the staff rota for the best part of 30 years, during which she had also acted as head assistant mistress.

50 years ago

Britain’s first liver transplant patient had died at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. The precise cause of death had not been ascertained, but it was not believed to be due to the rejection of the transplanted liver. The six-hour operation was the world’s 14th attempt at a liver transplant and was conducted by a team of four surgeons. With the school holidays just around the corner it was time for the ritual six weeks of family movies. The Odeon launched the silly season in whiz-bang style with Blackbeard’s Ghost, the latest from the Disney studio and the ABC turned to adventure for its first holiday offering with the Vengeance Of She. And opening at York Theatre Royal this week was the revival of Terence Rattigan’s The Winslow Boy, which would run for two weeks; and after that another revival, Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web.

20 years ago

Jinxed cyclist Alex Zulle’s dream of winning this year’s Tour de France had ended after his Festina team were thrown out of the event. The 30-year-old Swiss, who only joined Festina from ONCE, was lying 24th when race Jean-Marie Leblanc announced the decision after the culminating drama in the changing of France’s anti-drug law. And Moors murderer Myra Hindley had been granted legal aid to appeal against the decision she must die in prison.