January

AMBULANCE crews in Greater Manchester have a busy start to the year with a record 757 emergency calls in the first six hours of New Year's Day. Animal shelters also face their busiest New Year on record.

A FRENCH coach driver is sentenced to pay a fine of 12,000 francs (£1,230) over a crash the previous July in which three Bolton schoolchildren died. The headteacher of tragedy hit St James's School at Farnworth says he is pleased that that the driver walks free to "get on with his life."

THE showbiz opening takes place at the £12 million Warner Village Cinema complex at Horwich. The line-up of names includes Aussie megastar Dame Edna Everage, Rik Mayall and Shirley Ann Field.

TEENAGER Lyndsay Rigby astounds the medical profession when a mystery stomach "illness" turns into a bouncing baby! February

THE might of the military throws down the gauntlet to Saddam Hussain - with the code name BOLTON! The Ministry of Defence refuses to change the name Operation Bolton, causing a storm of outrage in the town.

A DOZEN primary teachers from St Mary's RC School chalk up a huge £1,579,211 win on the National Lottery.

BONE marrow from nine-year-old Nicholas Russell will be used to save his sister's life in a rare transplant - a first for surgeons at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. March

DARING blokes at Asda's Middlebrook store strip off in Full Monty style to promote the blockbuster video release.

GOVERNORS at Bolton Institute launch a high profile campaign in a last ditch effort to win university status.

BOLTON Wanderers fans from around the globe join forces to cheer their team to victory in a vital relegation game. But the season ends with Wanderers going down to Division One.

COMMUNITY leaders attack a travel writer who brands Bolton "a dump", sparking a War of the Roses wrangle between Bolton leaders and their Leeds counterparts.

A GAS blast rips through Bury pub the Bridge Inn. But miraculously, the people inside escape serious injury. April

PRINCE Charles names Bolton on a hit list of the country's most deprived areas. He is hoping to shame big business into investing money in Farnworth and Little Hulton.

POLICE hunt teenage firebugs believed to be responsible for arson attacks on garages and homes in the Horwich area. More than a dozen fires are thought to have been started by the fire raisers.

MORE than 200 jobs are to be lost through the closure of a Horwich factory. Horwich Sewing Ltd, which has 220 staff at its Moss Lane plant, says it is relocating to Eastern Europe.

BRAZEN gipsies dance the night away in the once-plush Burnden Park Executive Club as frantic efforts are underway to evict them from the car park. Coloured lights flash and loud music blares from the former club, which stands on concrete stilts at the front of the soccer stadium. May

A BOLTON dad flies out to Cyprus to be at the bedside of his serviceman son, seriously ill after being stabbed. The RAF arranges a flight for Adrian Sweeney, aged 52, after his son Christopher, 28, was wounded in the stomach on a night out. The RAF man later makes a recovery and comes home to Blackrod.

AN old Bolton soldier who spent years as a Japanese PoW blasts a State visit by Japan's emperor - but Capt William Harris, chairman of the Bolton and District Far East PoW Association, then slams planned protests as an "insult" to the Queen.

MILLIONS of pounds are wiped off Wanderers' shares after the team go down 2 - 0 to Chelsea on the final day of the season sinking them from the Premiership after a nail-biting last ditch effort to stay up.

WANDERERS' old ground, Burnden Park, goes up in flames as 60 firemen try to save it. The Manchester Road stand of the now derelict stadium is wrecked. The bulldozers are to come earlier then expected for the benefit of local residents after gipsies and vandals plague the century-old stadium. June

BOLTON is on track to become a university town for the Millennium. Education Secretary David Blunkett announces he will make a final decision on the status of Bolton Institute towards the end of 1999.

GIANT policeman Keith Marsh from Bury is believed to be Britain's tallest bobby. The PC stands a whopping 7ft 6ins in his helmet and has to have his uniform specially made.

HUNDREDS of Bolton people could face shock extra gas bills - because British Gas puts its "foot" in it. The company admits it has been inadvertently charging some customers per cubic metre of gas when the household meter has been measuring in cubic feet.

Sadistic

A MURDERED pensioner is burned alive after being viciously beaten. Frail Daniel McFadden, aged 65, is left unconscious before the sadistic killer piles furniture, clothing and papers around him and sets it alight at Mr McFadden's home in Mere Gardens, Halliwell. The killer is still being hunted.

A TEENAGER who was left with catastrophic brain damage when he was starved of oxygen at birth wins damages of more than £1million. Raymond Spencer, now 19, of Blenheim Road, Breightmet, was born just two minutes after his twin sister, Suzanne, who was not injured in the tragedy.

GUTTED England soccer fans from Bolton are refused entry into France for the crunch group match against Columbia. The 17 ticket holding fans from the Stags Head on St Helens Road miss seeing England's proud 2-0 win in Lens, leaving them to face Argentina in the knock-out phase. July

A BOLTON five-year-old and his mum die in a seaside arson attack in Clacton, just five weeks after they left their Little Hulton home to start a new life. The deaths of Jean and Anthony Trigg leave four-month-old Callum an orphan.

AN unofficial pardon is given to a Bolton soldier shot at dawn during the First World War. James Smith was one of many executed for crimes including desertion, casting away weapons, cowardice and sleeping on duty. But a formal legal pardon for the soldiers could not be issued because of poor records.

SCIENCE boffins from Bolton Institute come up with the ultimate green machine. Dr Christopher Nwagboso and student Mikaele Dreu develop the first engine in the world that runs on coconut oil.

EVIDENCE of life 800 years ago in Bolton is discovered by archeologists. Pottery and a terraced court yard is uncovered on the former site of the Boar's Head, Churchgate, and historians hail the artefacts from the 13th century as Bolton's most important ever historical discovery. August

BOLTON'S newest Wanderers fan cheers on the Whites for the first time - at the age of 93! Great-grandmother Elsie Brown, from Worsley, stunned her family when she turned up at the Reebok Stadium for her first ever football match.

TWO pupils who fought cancer are told they will not be awarded GCSE results. Philip Gibson and Ainsley Kenyon couldn't sit their exams at Canon Slade School due to their illness and the hope they would get their GCSEs kept them going.

TWO women from Bolton reveal how they suffered a holiday from hell, trapped for 45 minutes in a towering inferno, 15 floors up a Tenerife apartment block. Pat Wright and Susan Chappell were poised to jump to their deaths from a window rather than be burned alive.

TOURISTS are shocked to discover their luxury hotel is really an old folk's home. Holiday highlights for young Bolton couple Philip Rowlands and Louise Sutton include a coffin being carried through the reception area and an old man wetting himself as they try to eat their evening meal. September

A BUSINESSMAN closes his shop because he can no longer stand having to fight a losing battle against crime. David Roe, who owns Wellfield Stores on Quebec Street, Deane, says Bosnian refugees who moved to the area to start a new life regard the place almost as bad as the place they left behind.

A YOUNG welder from Leigh causes sparks - as the spitting image of David Beckham. David Hamer, 20, has people doing double takes and young girls mob him because of his likeness to the Manchester United star.

A COMMUNITY weeps for a young Bolton family found slaughtered in their beds. Celeste Bates, 31, and her two children Daniel, eight, and baby Milo, aged just 17 months, were found battered to death at their home in Blackburn Road, Egerton. October

THE former Mayor of Westhoughton, Nicholas Green, is jailed for 10 years after admitting charges of rape and indecent assault. Green, of Holden Lea, Westhoughton, pleads guilty to three charges of rape and 13 of indecent assault.

A TEENAGER dies after a "sniffing for kicks" tragedy with lighter fuel. Gareth Greenhalgh, aged 15, from Little Lever, slumps to the ground after inhaling the fuel on the edge of a playing field.

THE BEN exposes the frailties of Bolton's emergency ambulance service and calls on its bosses to give crews the equipment they need to communicate effectively, and train all relief crews unfamiliar with Bolton to navigate their way around town. The call follows our probe into the death of a 48-year-old Sharples man who dies after a 21-minute wait for an ambulance because the street wasn't listed on the service's master map or maps in the vehicle.

A FORMER model on a stalking charge is ordered to keep away from her former boss by Bolton court. Simon Beveridge received up to 100 calls a day and was sent photos to his office and home.

THE Nathan Blake transfer mystery is unravelled when the striker joins Blackburn Rovers in a £4.25 million deal. The deal is clinched after Coventry striker Dion Dublin turns down a £6.75 million transfer to Rovers. November

A SEX-SWAP Falklands veteran is to take on the Navy in a compensation battle, claiming she was sacked for wanting to be a woman. Bolton transsexual Lynda Cash, formerly Brian Waling, claims she was unfairly dismissed in 1986.

BURY band AL!VE court the rich and famous at the 50th celebrity bash for the Prince of Wales. The teenage rockers are lavished with praise after playing the gig of a lifetime at Buckingham Palace.

FA CUP heroes Leigh RMI score a sensational 1-1 draw with Kevin Keegan's Division Two giants Fulham and set up the prospect of a money-spinning replay at their home ground of Hilton Park.

THE man who ordered the bungled contract killing which ended in little Dillon Hull's murder is still at large - as his killer begins life behind bars. Paul Seddon refused to name the man who paid him the "blood money" which ended in Dillon's death in a Bolton side street. Police say they know who bankrolled the shooting but do not have enough evidence to arrest him.

AFTER a 116-year absence, the £1.5 million Moran painting is back home in Bolton. The painting was dramatically secured in a last-minute bid just hours before the deadline. December

A BOLTON family are among hundreds of holidaymakers who are flown back from Israel to escape possible repercussions of the Allied air strikes on Iraq. Gerry and Ruth Orchard, and son, Joshua, 14, have to cut short their winter break. And they tell the BEN how they had heard planes roaring over the holiday resort the day before being sent home, without realising what was happening.

BOLTON'S oldest Santa - sacked because his bosses thought he was past it at the age of 83 - is back at work. Jimmy Duffy is proud to be back in the Market Place at an age when most Santas have been pensioned off. He claims he lost the job he loved in the grotto at Crompton Place two years ago after missing days on sick leave.

A MUM whose baby died in the womb after Bolton Hospital medics failed to perform an emergency delivery is awarded compensation by health bosses. Paula Tomlinson and husband John, of Carlton Gardens, Moses Gate, Farnworth, say that no amount of money can make up for the loss of their daughter and vow to carry on their fight.

BOLTON comic Peter Kay rubs shoulders with the Prince of Wales and pop superstars The Spice Girls when he appears at the 77th Royal Variety Performance at London's Lyceum theatre.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.