From the Evening News, December 8, 1992 - THE Prince and Princess of Wales are to lead separate lives, it was officially announced this afternoon.

Prime Minister John Major made the historic announcement in the Commons. It followed months of speculation about the state of the marriage.

DETECTIVES were today investigating a petrol bomb attack on a Hindu temple in Bolton. Arsonists struck at the Vishwa Hindu Parishad Temple, off Chorley Old Road, early today, igniting fears of Hindu/Muslim violence. The attack, one of six in the UK since Sunday, came after 250 people were killed as a tide of religious mob violence swept India yesterday.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

December 9, 1977

RITA Nightingale, 24-years-old nurse from Blackburn, was jailed for 20 years in Thailand today for heroin smuggling. A weeping Miss Nightingale told newsmen after the sentence: "They got it all wrong." Miss Nightingale was arrested last March as she was about to board a Paris-bound plane after spending a few days in Bangkok on her way from Hong Kong. Two Chinese men arrested at the same time were released after a month because of a lack of evidence.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

December 9, 1952

SIR,- What a queer lot of folk we are. We spare the lives of dogs and cats merely because we don't fancy eating their flesh, and terrify and murder God's other innocent creatures merely because we do fancy eating their flesh. Science and experience has proved that we can both live and clothe ourselves without exploiting these innocent creatures. It is time to stop and wonder if an avenging God does allow the slaughtering of innocent young men (in war) in return for the unjust killing of His innocent animals. Far from being a race of animal lovers, we are a race of cruel and thoughtless people.

Yours, C. Anderson, The Bungalow, 123 Darwen-rd., Bromley Cross.

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

December 8, 1902

AN interesting ceremony took place at Westhoughton on Saturday afternoon, the occasion being the formal opening of the new smallpox hospital erected at a cost of about £300 by the Westhoughton District Council on their sewage farm off Mill-lane. The recent outbreak of smallpox in the town, which resulted in nine persons being affected, all of whom have now recovered and left the temporary hospital at Oakhurst, was the outcome of the present erection. The hospital is capable of holding sixteen patients. It is provided with baths, all necessary cooking arrangements, and is replete with all conveniences suitable to modern requirements for the treatment of smallpox cases.