25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, December 7, 1976

FIFTEEN people were trapped in a lift at a Bolton store when a power cut plunged about 280 shops, stores and offices into darkness at the weekend. They managed to free themselves by climbing a ladder to another floor of the Greater Lancastria Co-op in Victoria Square.

A LONE Canadian sailor spent 17 days at sea clinging to his capsized trimaran before he was rescued suffering only from water on the knee.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, December 7, 1951

A WELL-known Boltonian of many parts was Mr George Harwood, JP. At a meeting in Miles Platting about 50 years ago, Mr Harwood said he had practised as a barrister, preached as a parson, seen life as a writer and reviewer, earned his living as a cotton spinner, and finished up as a politician in the House of Commons.

DRESS styles for mid-winter are simple and inexpensive. Just for once, fashion has made a wise concession to the woman with the slender budget. Silhouettes follow straight lines, flattering narrow waists and slightly rounded hips. Skirts are designed to let the wearer walk in perfect comfort. It is an essentially feminine silhouette, elegant and practical, equally suitable for the teen-ager, her stylish sister or the mother with a well developed sense of fashion.

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, December 7, 1876

A Daily News, dated New York, Wednesday, says: "The Brooklyn Theatre was burned down last night, just previous to the close of the performances. About nine hundred persons were present. Hundreds perished.

The gallery contained four hundred and twenty five persons. These, in rushing down a narrow staircase, broke away the balustrade, and were precipitated in a heap to the cellar of the building, where they miserably perished of suffocation and fire.

More than two hundred bodies were found in one charred heap, barely recognisable. This was in the lobby of the theatre, to which the gallery stairs descended.

The auditorium of the theatre is still untouched, and many bodies may be found there. Two actors, Mr Claude Burrows and Mr H.S. Murdock, perished. The theatre is completely destroyed.

Business is completely suspended in Brooklyn. The Law Courts are closed. The streets near the theatre are crowded.