100 years ago

For the most part Pudsey had no Sunday delivery of letters, and a speaker at a meeting described the system of giving them out at the Post Office on the Sabbath on application as almost antediluvian.

One speaker said the current system diverted many children from the Sunday schools, because they were sent for letters, which, in many cases, to his knowledge, they delivered to their parents in the chapel pew. Another speaker said that the ministers of the town, with only one or two exceptions, sent for their letters, which did not show a very Sabbatarian spirit on their part.

 

50 years ago

Finnish police confirmed reports that the Moscow-Washington "hot" line had been cut earlier in the month, when someone cut a section of an overhead cable near Helsinki.

It had taken four hours to re-establish communications. The cable carried 12 communication channels, including the "hot" teletype line that provided instant communications between the White House and the Kremlin. Police said it appeared the act was hooliganism, and not a case of attempted sabotage. The cable ran from Helsinki to Porkkala, about 15 miles west of Helsinki. From there the signal went to Tallin, in Soviet Estonia by submarine cable.

The break had cut most communication channels with Russia. However, the break, presumably, would not have affected Moscow-Washington communications. There was an alternative circuit in case of wire breaks.

 

25 years ago

Britain had become one of the filthiest countries in Europe with city streets strewn with litter, junk and graffiti, according to a report just published.

Streets carried the daily disgrace of a nation's rubbish, from discarded sweet wrappers and half-eaten food to abandoned cars and illegal tipping, according to a study by the Royal Fine Art Commission. The report blamed the problem on a growing lack of personal discipline and called for urgent action to halt the decline.

Author Judy Hillman described: plastic sacks dumped around lamp posts; sodden mattresses, supermarket trolleys and other junk at the roadside; fast food remains scattered around shopping centres; dog and pigeon droppings on pavements and in parks. She talked of graffiti in subways, on trains, and buses and in "ill-designed areas of urban residential wilderness."

She added: "London is filthy - worse than comparable cities in mainland Europe. The same is true of Britain as a whole as children chuck away sweet wrappers and ice lolly wrappings, and adults calmly wind down car windows and dispatch empty cans as well as squashed paper packets."