From our archives:

85 years ago

Herr Hitler, the German chancellor, had received a rousing welcome as he addressed the electors of Berlin in the big Sportpalast building. Decorated with streamers and banners bearing the inscriptions “Never Again A Pact Which Stains Our Honour,” and “With Hitler To A Peace With Honour And Equality,” the address was a direct attack over the details highlighted in the Versailles Treaty. In York, residents living in a house in Huntington Road had applied to York County Court for a possession order. Speaking during the case Judge Stewart stated, “There seems to have been something like a feud or a vendetta of some kind in this house, and the parties have no doubt been intensely hostile, and this is most undesirable.”

50 years ago

A major operation between all three emergency services had been mounted as thousands of gallons of dangerous acid had escaped when a 10-ton tank fell off an articulated lorry on the York to Thirsk road between Shipton and Easingwold. Giving off choking fumes, 11 people, including the occupants of a van hit by the falling tank, were ferried to hospital by Haxby ambulance for treatment. Twelve hours after the accident, traffic was still being diverted via Tollerton as mopping-up operations continued. Viscount Linley, son of Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon had chickenpox. The seven-year-old Lord had contracted the complaint earlier in the week. And the latest Yorkshire champion weightlifter was a 17-year-old prisoner from the Northallerton Young Prisoners Centre. The new champion had managed to lift a total of 970lb after a trio of lifts to smash the previous Yorkshire record of 30lb.

20 years ago

Tadcaster had been presented with prized memorabilia from a warship that the town had adopted more than 55 years ago. Reunited with their military past the townspeople who helped raise money to build sloop HMS Peacock, had now been presented with mementos of the ship’s past at a special ceremony at Tadcaster Royal British Legion Club. And a dedicated group of volunteers had travelled from all over the country to carry out some urgent repair work on Pocklington Canal. Staying nearby in the Pavilion and Melbourne, Waterway volunteers immediately got stuck in restoring the Cottingwith Lock and replacing brick work to strengthen the canal walls.