From the Evening News, January 2, 1904: A sad fatality occured at Westhoughton early this morning, the victim being Joseph Turner, 17, residing with his parents at Hunt Bank.

The unfortunate youth left home about seven o'clock this morning in company with two others, the three going to a pit lodge about four hundred yards away, for the purpose of skating. Turner went across the ice, but it gave way and was drowned, not withstanding attempts by his comrades to save him.

A sixpence placed, according to the old custom, in a Christmas cake, has caused the death of a three-year-old Battersea boy, the coin lodging in his throat and suffocating him.

The Pope's decision against the inclusion of women in church choirs is likely to cause the Austrian village church to return to the plainsong of the mediaeval monks.

From the Evening News, January 2, 1954: QUEEN Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh today became paramount chiefs of the Maoris. The Queen made history when she became the first woman ever to be allowed to speak on a Marae, a sacred Maori courtyard. More than 10,000 Maories from all parts of New Zealand went wild with excitement when Bishop Barnab of Aotearoa presented first the Queen, then the Duke, with a korowai -- a ceremonial cloak of fine flax fibre, with black tassles, signifying the highest order of chieftainship.

TRAINS and buses might be held up and office workers might be late, but by 8.45 am today, when the fog was at its thickest, a queue of 40 women had gathered outside a Bolton dress shop where a sale was scheduled to begin half an hour later. One woman bought four coats, two dresses and a suit -- an economy which cost £63 8s.

From the Evening News, January 2, 1979: AN 18-hour sponsored badminton marathon has been held at St John's Methodist School, Horwich to raise money for the church development fund. The six teenage boys who completed 115 games were brothers Andrew and David Walton, Keith Rigby, Martin Garrity, Nick Lawson and Tim Denton.

It is hoped that more than £100 will be raised.

From the Evening News, January 1, 1994: TORY MP Peter Thurnham has stepped into the row surrounding the OBE for opt out headmaster Chris Hampson. He said he was delighted that Mr Hampson, headmaster of St James's at Farnworth, had been given the award. Earlier leading members of Bolton's Labour-controlled authority had slammed his OBE as a "purely political award."

WORSLEY Labour MP Terry Lewis seized the chance to meet up with Tornado pilot David Waddington over the festive season. David, who was captured and tortured by the Iraqis during the Gulf War, was diverted to RAF Honington on a routine training flight from his station at Rossiemouth.