Friday, May 6, 2005

100 years ago

A correspondent signing himself "An aggrieved parent" had written to the editor of the Evening Press regarding the conduct of the master of Scarcroft School. He inquired if he could be kindly informed as to when the School Committee had made the school master a judge on how best to dress children's hair, and who had given him the authority to send children home when the style did not suit him. Several children, including his own, had been sent home, he protested "incredulously, because their hair had been in curl papers," and despite explanations, this critic of hairdressing had refused to admit the children to their lessons.

50 years ago

A scheme to give school children homegrown apples just like they received free milk each day had been considered by the Minister of Education but had been rejected as unpractical, stated Mr Dennis Vosper, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister. Sir Alfred Bossom had asked the Minister to consider the scheme in view of the importance of apples as a preventive to dental decay.

25 years ago

(Industrial action means there was no Evening Press 25 years ago. Instead we have used an entry from a paper as close to this date as possible.)

The "cheap chip" and its implications for work and play in the future was featured at York University in one of the three programmes of open lectures to which York citizens as well as university members were invited.

Experts of the Electronic Physics, Computer Science and Education Departments had organised a course on Microcomputers and the Information Society.

Though there had been rapid advances in some areas bringing about startling reductions in size and cost of some computer components, progress in other sectors was much slower, said the organisers.

The slower sectors included storage of large volumes of information, communication with and between computers, and programming and system design.

"The cheap chip has led to prophecies of widespread economic and social change," they said. "This series of lectures considers the present realities of microcomputer technology and the predictable opportunities and problems for our society."

Updated: 16:41 Thursday, May 05, 2005