From our archives:

85 years ago

Mr Frank Savage, of South Parade, York, who was well-known for his skill as an amateur artist, had received word that one of his paintings had been accepted and hung by the authorities of the Art Exhibition in London. Mr Savage, chief clerk to the Hotels Superintendent of the LNER and one-time committee member of the York Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society, was very pleased with his artistic achievement. “We do not want a peace that will mean war in two years,” stated Dr Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, during his first election campaign speech to more than 10,000 supporters. Meanwhile, Cook’s For Travel in Coney Street, York, had some great suggestions for a quick winter getaway, with a nine-day tour in Nice for £11. For the more experience traveller, why not embark on a 15-day trip to Egypt, Palestine or Morocco for just £20.

50 years ago

Mr Alex Lyon, MP for York, believed that Mr Wilson’s new proposals for a Rhodesia settlement were unmeetable on moral grounds. Leading a revolt of Labour MPs, sixty-nine back-benchers signed a motion “declining to endorse” the proposals for a settlement made by the Prime Minister on Board HMS Fearless. America’s Apollo Seven spacecraft had landed upside down in the Atlantic but was righted after five minutes by flotation bags which popped out of the spacecraft. Its inverted position had apparently interfered with communication giving mission control an agonising ten minutes of waiting for contact to be established by search helicopters, planes and ships. And plans had been drawn up for a modernisation scheme for Bishopthorpe’s Village Hall. Built around 1908 on a piece of land given by the then Archbishop of York, William Maclagan, it was no longer adequate for a village which had doubled in size over the last few years.

20 years ago

Three British tourists were feared dead after the bus taking them to an airport in Turkey for their flight home was involved in a head-on-crash with a taxi. The Airtours bus which was carrying 38 passengers to Izmir airport for their flight home to Gatwick was hit by a car on the opposite side of the road, knocked down the embankment before rolling over several times. And a surprise birthday cake presented to actor Bill Maynard by the cast and the crew of ITV’s Heartbeat had been baked and sculpted by Selby’s very own Creative Icing in Micklegate.