News

25 years ago:

The Globe and Mail reported that millionaire Saskatchewan rancher and MLA Colin Thatcher, found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his former wife, JoAnn Wilson, would appeal his conviction. Thatcher was sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole for 25 years. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney backed away from his election pledge to maintain all universal assistance programs as a "sacred trust." And he acknowledged that he suspected well before taking office in September, 1984, that the government treasury was too bare to carry out his election spending promises.

50 years ago:

The Globe and Mail reported that Premier Zhou Enlai proposed setting up a 25-mile [40-kilometre] neutral zone along the Indian-Chinese border while he and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru met to thrash out differences over the disputed area. Indian sources said the Chinese proposal was unacceptable, but Nehru was reported to have told a committee of his Congress Party that the spirit of the Chinese letter was "not bad." A Japanese expedition feared lost in an attempt to scale a mighty unconquered peak in the Himalayas was safe, the Foreign Office reported. Whether the 32-member party became the first to put a man atop the 23,440-foot [7,144-metre] Gauri Sankar - named for the Hindu god of destruction - remained unanswered. The Soviet Union said France's plan to explode an atomic bomb in the Sahara jeopardized disarmament negotiations and neighbouring countries.

100 years ago:

The Globe reported that it was impossible to exaggerate the depth of the impression created by a suffragette outrage at London's Guildhall, when two women, who had gained access to the roof, threw stones through a stained-glass window while the inauguration of the new Lord Mayor was on. The window was smashed just as the Lord Mayor began his toast to the King. The Prime Minister's wife, who sat at the right of the new Lord Mayor, Sir John Knill, looked both frightened and angry. Prime Minster H.H. Asquith had an expression like that of a smile on a figure carved in marble. The speeches which followed fell very flat. The women who threw the stones were arrested. Another suffragist in evening attire, who in the vestibule accosted Winston Churchill, president of the board of trade, was ejected.