25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, December 5,1975

BBC TV is mounting its biggest-ever Christmas comedy line-up this year. Favourites like Morecambe and Wise, Ronnie Barker, Michael Crawford, Mike Yarwood and Bruce Forsyth will have their own shows during the BBC's Christmas holiday, which will last two weeks. A 90-minute edition of Kojak, which the BBC considers its most important buy of the year, will be shown on Christmas Eve.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, December 5,1950

PERHAPS the natives don't realize that Bolton is renowned for more than its mills, its smoke, and its football team. One local woman, while visiting her mother-in-law in Manchester, spoke to some people who lived close by. When they heard that she came from Bolton they said: 'Ah, Bolton. It's a wonderful place. We should like to live there.'

The wife -- living within 20 minutes bus journey of Manchester -- said that she always went to Bolton to shop. 'The goods are so much better and so much cheaper there,' she said.

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, December 4,1875

ON Wednesday, about 20 minutes to eight o'clock, a shocking accident occurred at Burnden, on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. A man named John Amos, in the employ of Messrs Grierson and Co., Manchester, was engaged on the fixing of a turn-table. He had gone on to the line in order to measure the exact distance between the metals, and was stooping down for that purpose when the pilot engine from Moses Gate coming up at the time, he was struck a violent blow on the side of the head from which blood flowed freely. He was picked up by a fellow workman named James McEvby and conveyed to the Infirmary, where he died the same day. The driver of the pilot engine, Elijah Ireland, was unable to see Amos on the rails in consequence of his stooping posture. An inquest will be held today.