From our archives:

85 years ago

Members of the House of Commons had expressed their concerns about the future of the country’s currency policy. The immediate cause of anxiety was the added depreciation of the dollar. During his speech, Mr Chamberlain announced that it was once the Government’s policy to “manage” the currency, without reference to the way in which the dollar is managed. The pound he said, would however, always maintain its in independence. In York, Councillor H E Harrowell was elected as the new Lord Mayor and Mr H L Greer appointed City Sheriff. The retiring Lord Mayor Alderman H Rhodes Brown, finishing his final role, was honoured with a pathway lined with boys and girls from the York Blue Coat and Grey Schools as entered he into the historic Guildhall just as Big Peter struck noon. And Adolf Hitler made one last plea to the German nation to back him to the limit during his final election appeal at the Siemens Electrical Works, in Berlin.

50 years ago

President Johnson and President-elect Richard Nixon were reported to be in discussions over the stalled Vietnam peace talks, during a White House lunch. A high Nixon source said Mr Johnson may be asking the President-elect to send an observer to the talks in Paris. The White House meeting was originally announced as a discussion on the hand-over of administrations, but it was soon obvious that the main subject was progress of the war and peace talks. Hundreds of people had lined the riverside walk between the Viking Hotel and Lendal Bridge to watch three replicas of Viking ships burn on the Ouse. Drenched in paraffin the plywood boats were set alight to mark the opening of York Arts Centre in Micklegate a week earlier, after the water-borne part of the ceremony had been postponed due to floods.

20 years ago

Residents were forced to flee their homes in York, when a gas cylinder ignited and became what firefighters described as a potential bomb. Wetherby Road in Acomb was under red alert as around 40 houses were evacuated when the flammable gas cylinder caught fire inside the van in which it was stored. As firefighters struggled to cool the highly-dangerous acetylene cylinder many residents went to shelter with friends. And ‘Save Our Bacon’ was the message to commuters and shoppers travelling into York on the A19 in the form of a 14ft banner erected by desperate pig farmers.