THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

Exciting scenes were witnessed at a fire which occurred last night in Victoria Works, Ure Street, Dundee, a number of the workers having to be rescued from the dense smoke which filled their flat. The fire, which originated in the engine-room, is supposed to have been caused by an overheated channel. Dense volumes of smoked belched into the department imediately above the engine-room. Four women and nine men were shut off but managed to get to the roof of another building.

50 years ago

One of the Aberdeen University students who arrived home from a trip to Czechoslovakia spoke of the night tracer bullets streamed past the window of his bedroom in a students’ hostel in Prague. Douglas Dickie (21), a chemistry graduate, was one of a party of students who paid an exchange trip as guests of Prague University. As well as tracer bullets Douglas said they heard sporadic shots and there were Russian tanks everywhere. Slogans in Russian were seen on walls and windows.

25 years ago

An elderly woman was rushed to hospital suffering from extensive burns after a house in Cupar was badly damaged by an explosion and fire yesterday morning. Emergency services were called to the house at 6 Edenbank Road after Mr Ronald Dewar (76) and his wife Isobel were caught in a blast which devastated part of their detached bungalow. The alarm was raised about 8.30pm when Mrs Dewar appeared to catch the full force of the explosion while in the kitchen.

One year ago

Controversy over the £15,000 of public money given to the Glasgow Effect art project by Dundee lecturer Ellie Harrison helps justify the expenditure, Creative Scotland has claimed. The part-time Duncan of Jordanstone lecturer received a £15,000 grant to pay for an art project where she would not leave Glasgow’s city boundaries for an entire year and travel everywhere by bike. The public body said she had achieved the aims set out in her funding application.