TODAY: MONDAY, JULY 24, 2017

ON THIS DAY 43 YEARS AGO (1974)

We revealed that passengers on a BA flight from Belfast to London had a lucky escape after a bomb planted by the IRA failed to detonate. Among the 85 passengers on board was RUC Chief Constable Sir James Flanagan and his wife.

48 YEARS AGO (1969)

British lecturer Gerald Brooke was released by the Soviet authorities after four years in jail. Brooke, a language teacher, was exchanged for Soviet agents.

58 YEARS AGO (1959)

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and American Vice-President Richard Nixon publicly debated the merits of communism versus capitalism at the start of Nixon’s 11-day visit to the USSR. The “kitchen debate” took place at a US trade exhibition held in Moscow’s Sokolniki Park.