100 years ago

Mrs John Jacob Astor, widow of the multimillionaire, Colonel John Jacob Astor, who had gone down with the ill-fated Titanic, had given birth to a son.

Both mother and child were doing well, and the youngster was to be christened John Jacob. The news of the event was given to New Yorkers by a bulletin posted outside the Astor mansion in Fifth Avenue and huge newspaper headlines, which could not have been bigger for a royal birth. Ever since the Titanic disaster the newspapers had been devoting columns to the expected event.

A large crowd quickly gathered and cheers were raised for the baby, the late Colonel Astor, and the Titanic heroes. For the benefit of the ships on the river, and such parts of the city as had not heard of the event, the news was megaphoned by enterprising reporters and tourist agents.

50 years ago

Millions of Africans and Asians became legally entitled to buy “white man’s liquor” for the first time in South Africa. Africans stood in groups pointing and talking excitedly, outside bottle stores in the centre of Johannesburg.

The window of one store, which boasted it was the “biggest bottle store in the world”, was specially stocked with gallon jars of wine selling for Rand 1.30 to 1.50 (13 to 15 shillings) and other cheap lines. But business was slow. “They are shy, they just stand and look,” the proprietor said. The press and public authorities were warning Africans “go slow... drink discreetly.”

A Government leaflet said too much drink was bad for the kidneys and liver – “it dims the eye and confuses your thinking”. In the past, apart from a few special qualifications, Africans were mainly restricted to “Kaffir beer” and illegal booze in the shebeens (beer halls). The shebeen queens and white middle-men who sold “white” liquor to non-whites at inflated prices were expected to be hard hit by the new law. It had been passed the previous year, but implementation had been delayed until now.

25 years ago

Archaeologists in Ryedale had discovered the remains of an Anglo-Saxon pet dog. The skeleton – nicknamed Norman – was unearthed at a major dig at West Heslerton.

The remains of what was taken to be a hunting dog – about the size of a small greyhound – were an unusual find because dead animals were usually cut up and fed to other stock.

“This was obviously someone’s pet and they didn’t want to see it eaten, but buried, probably close to the hut. It has proved to us that the Anglo-Saxons cared about their animals,” said project director Dominic Powlesland.