Thursday, September 16, 2004

100 years ago:

A Scarcroft resident drew attention to the nuisance and even danger to the public caused by the reckless playing of cricket and football. Two ladies were struck by footballs while respectively cycling and walking along Scarcroft Road, which had also happened to him. Proper and desirable though the games of cricket and football may be, a blow in the face with a muddy football, followed by a volley of abuse instead of an apology, was exasperating, to say the least. The Evening Press asked the juvenile athletes to curb their enthusiasm somewhat, and show a little more regard for the unsuspecting wayfarer.

50 years ago:

A mysterious "flash" had been seen off the North Wales coast the previous week, and then a resident of Newton-on-Ouse saw an equally strange phenomenon in the west. Just after 11pm they were looking out of a window when the sky in the west glowed a vivid green, then something like a spinning top fell earthwards, leaving a trail of sparks, before suddenly disappearing, leaving no trace. A York amateur astronomer also said his room was lit up as a huge object moved across the sky at terrific speed. Another eyewitness report came from a man riding home from work, near Selby, at about 11pm, when he saw an object appear in the sky before him. It was of a spherical type, which seemed to be glowing white hot, followed by a trail of vivid purple and green light with white objects shooting from it. It eventually disintegrated into hundreds of pieces of glowing white substance. Meteorological experts believed the flash in North Wales was caused by a meteorite breaking up in the earth's atmosphere.

25 years ago:

For two years no one appeared to have noticed that there was a wrong spelling in a road sign near Weaverthorpe. This had now been rectified and a photograph was reproduced, showing the sign pointing the way to "Drifield". Columnist Pressman approached the North Yorkshire Highways Agency about it, who said they already knew that the joiners responsible had made the error on both sides of the sign, when it was replaced after a bus took off the Driffield 'finger' on the previous sign. They hadn't changed it again, to save taxpayers paying for another sign when the old one was still there and doing its job.

Updated: 08:35 Thursday, September 16, 2004