THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

In glorious sunshine and to the strains of Home Sweet Home, the liner Corsican berthed in Princes Dock, Glasgow, yesterday with the 450 remaining men of the 1,000 members of the 25th Middlesex Battalion, which after three years of globe-trotting have now touched British soil again. Officers and men looked hale and happy after their long and adventurous journey round the world. Colonel John Ward said: “It was in 1916 we started off from Plymouth intending to make Hong Kong our destination.”

50 years ago

Armed men took over two international airliners yesterday, landing the giant jets at gunpoint to demand fuel in Chile and Guyana in twin attempts to reach Cuba. An Argentine Boeing 707 with 68 people aboard was refuelled at Santiago, Chile, after five young men armed with sub-machine-guns threatened to kill everyone on the plane if their skyjack was foiled. Three children were used as human shields. The captain of the plane said the hijackers were all Argentines and “appeared to be students”.

25 years ago

Scotland’s Alan McManus won his first ranking event snooker title yesterday when he defeated Grand Prix champion Peter Ebdon 9-6 to capture the £40,000 first prize in the Dubai Duty Free Classic. Ebdon received £22,500 and a £2,000 bonus for the highest televised break of 130 during the semi-finals. In a final which often lacked sparkle, McManus never once lost the lead although the scores were levelled four times after Ebdon had cancelled out the young Scot’s early charge for victory.

One year ago

Council leader John Alexander has said Dundee must capitalise on the success of the V&A after the museum welcomed its 100,000th visitor yesterday. The waterfront museum is expected to receive 500,000 visitors in its first year but is a fifth of the way to that target in just over three weeks. Mr Alexander has said the challenge now for Dundee is to ensure the benefits of such a large number of visitors are felt across the city. Mr Alexander said: “V&A Dundee are well on their way to achieving the projected visitor numbers.”