25 YEARS AGO

SIX Irishmen were gaoled for life today for the Birmingham pub bombings in which 21 people died. All six were found guilty of murder at the end of a 10-week trial at Lancaster Crown Court - the biggest murder case in British history.

POTATO prices have dropped by between £2 and £4 over the past few weeks, but Bolton chip shop owners are still struggling to make a living. 'We can't afford to drop the price of our chips below 10p a bag yet,' said one.

50 YEARS AGO

A 75-seat ex-harbour defence motor launch, Whinlatter, on the first 'leg' of a holiday voyage to France, went aground on Salter's Bank in the mouth of the Ribble yesterday. Aboard were a Bolton businessman, Mr J.W. Porkess and his wife, and Mr and Mrs Douglas B. Truscott, of Preston. As the tide was ebbing fast, the situation became dangerous, and the party abandoned the boat and, drenched and shivering, clambered on to the navigation barge moored off Lytham. Here they were refreshed with tea.

THIS afternoon, Kathleen Mayoh, the 18-years-old Farnworth clothing factory worker, abandoned her attempt on the 10 miles swim of Lake Windermere. She had swum nearly seven miles. This is the first time a woman has made an attempt to swim the length of the lake.

125 YEARS AGO

MATRIMONIAL advertisements have been getting quite common lately, and scarcely a week passed over without several appearing in the Melbourne dailies. The Melbourne correspondent of The Guardian says:- 'A gentleman of this city, not entirely unknown in the "soft goods" line, a widower, with something of a family, and, as rumour says, a goodly bank account, advertised for a wife over a fictitious signature. Several answers were received, among which was one that particularly pleased him. The chirography was delicate and graceful, the language chaste, and the signature, like his own, fictitious. After a brief and mutually agreeable correspondence, a time and place were agreed upon for a meeting. At the appointed hour the gentleman was waiting in a private parlour at a certain fashionable hotel, and shortly afterwards a lady entered, thickly veiled. She came in trembling, and did not venture to look up until the voice of the gentleman, in respectful greeting, fell upon the ear, at which she started convulsively, raised her eyes to the face of her swain, and then uttered a suppressed cry - a cry, the tone of which struck upon the gentleman's ear with a sound not unfamiliar. He lifted the veil and looked upon the sacred face of his own daughter, who he had supposed industriously pursuing her studies at a school in a town some distance westward from Melbourne. The young lady has since been installed as housekeeper in the paternal mansion, and her papa is not likely to advertise for a wife again until this daughter is married.