Wednesday, May 18, 2005

100 years ago

At the York Police Court, James Harrison, a labourer, of 11 Tanner Row admitted stealing eight stones of bones from a field near New Walk, the property of Harry Armstrong. Sergeant Barn said that he was going home about 6 a.m. when he met the prisoner with a bag. He spoke to him and he admitted having stolen the bones. The prisoner said he had never been in trouble before. He thought there was no harm in picking a few bones up. A fine of 2s 6d without costs was imposed.

50 years ago

Snow, sleet and rain had swept Britain during the night. A ship had been abandoned during a Channel storm, the Southend lifeboat had rescued three people from a yacht, a 14,000-ton troopship went adrift while being towed by tugs and the liner Queen Mary berthed at Southampton 12 hours late. All Yorkshire coastguard stations were on bad weather watch and gusts of over 60 mph had been recorded at Flamborough Head. About an inch of snow had fallen on high ground on the Wolds during the night. The River Derwent had risen about three feet, and about an inch and a quarter of rain had fallen at Bridlington in the last 24 hours, but there was no undue cause for alarm. Heavy seas prevented fishing boats from leaving Bridlington and Flamborough. In York rain and sleet driven by gale force winds caught many workers on their way home the previous evening, and in the morning a tree was blown down across Sim Balk Lane.

25 years ago

Although Diego Maradona had been poor, he had had the foresight to buy a football for his three-year old son. Diego junior had kicked it all day and slept with it at night, so the story went, and that investment looked like one of the smartest in the sport's history. By his 13th birthday young Diego had taken a team called "the little Onions" through 140 straight matches without a defeat. By the age of 18, when he led Argentina in the World Junior Championship in Japan in September 1979, the short, stocky midfielder was being billed as the "Golden Kid", a national treasure comparable to Brazil's Pele. The coach who led Argentina to the 1978 world cup title, Mr Menotti, called Maradona: "One of those supermen who appear only once in a while on the world soccer scene. They say he is the new Pele, but that's all wrong. This boy is the first Maradona".

Updated: 15:48 Tuesday, May 17, 2005