News

25 YEARS AGO:

The Globe and Mail reported that tanks and artillery were guarding major access routes into the Nicaraguan capital of Managua in what was described as the most intensive military mobilization since Nicaragua's 1979 revolution. Nicaragua was responding to what it perceived as "threats of military aggression" from the United States. Thousands of striking coal miners armed with fire-bombs and homemade spears fought police in northern England and Wales while hundreds more men broke ranks and returned to work. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher threatened to bring in new laws to curb the violence that had swept through coal-mining communities during the nine-month strike.

50 YEARS AGO:

The Globe and Mail reported that Belgian paratroopers stood ready to take action against one of the atomic age's weirdest wars - a bitter tribal conflict in Rwanda where seven-foot-tall Watusi tribesmen were sending pygmy archers into battle against Bahutu tribe rivals. The paratroopers were flown to the Belgian-mandated territory in Central Africa from the neighbouring Belgian Congo to be held in reserve in quelling the fighting. In Ottawa, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation leader M.J. Coldwell said the effect of storing nuclear warheads in Canada under control of U.S. forces was that Canadians were being "drafted into the American army, except that we have to pay the bills." Coldwell said in a statement that storing nuclear warheads on Canadian soil was both frightening and backward.

100 YEARS AGO:

The Globe reported that the British Committee on Dramatic Censorship had advised that the censorship be retained and extended to music halls. Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were on a visit to German Kaiser William in Potsdam. Fort William, Ont., was billed for $3,345.50 for costs of the services of the militia in connection with strike riots there. Montreal lost its only Chinese constable, Lee Johnston, who died of typhoid fever. He was known as a terror to the evil element of the city's Chinatown, and thought to be the only regularly sworn Chinese police official in Canada. He was engaged by the Montreal police force on account of the difficulty of handling and recognizing Chinese criminals, and was a great aid to police. The Toronto parks committee recommended two civic bowling greens and approved the proposed skating rink in Exhibition Park.