25 years ago:
The Globe and Mail reported that Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, sworn in a day earlier, after a landslide election victory, named a cabinet dominated by close aides and party faithful. But there were a number of surprises among his choices, the first sign of the "clean and efficient" government he had proclaimed as a goal during his campaign. In New York, a quiet and friendly electrical engineer surrendered to police for a crime that thousands of New Yorkers considered a Christmas present - the shooting of four threatening teenagers on the city's subway. Bernard Hugo Goetz, 37, turned himself in to police in Concord, N.H., where he had fled with New York police hot on his trail. In Helsinki, Canada's world junior hockey team was tied by Finland, while Czechoslovakia downed the Soviet Union, knocking the defending champions out of title contention. Canada needed a tie against Czechoslovakia to win the championship in the gold-medal game. [Canada's junior team tied Czechoslovakia, 2-2, to win the championship.]/p>
50 years ago:
The Globe and Mail reported that Prime Minister John Diefenbaker forecast economic growth in 1960 in his New Year's message. "The decade just ended has witnessed phenomenal progress for Canada and the Canadian people." Diefenbaker stated. "Significant as these years have been, new horizons of national development in the decade ahead can be hopefully anticipated since economic indications generally point to greater expansion than ever before. The statement ended like this: "To all my fellow Canadians, I extend my personal wishes of happiness, health and good cheer for the coming year."
100 years ago:
The Globe reported that 1909 was a good year, and that "may 1910 be better." The probabilities were that Montreal would soon be afflicted with worse things than typhoid fever if the city's water supply did not improve. At Henry Birks & Sons store the water supply stopped, and on investigation a live eel was taken from a faucet. It was speculated that unless the water conditions improved the usual list of new-year recruits for the water wagon would be sadly diminished in numbers.