THIS DAY IN OUR PAST

1975: Delegations comprising finance ministers and central bank governors from the 124 countries, which are members of the Interim Committee of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will be meeting from January 4 to 10, 1976, at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel. Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister David Coore, in association with the governor of the Bank of Jamaica, G. Arthur Brown, will be hosting this meeting, which will be concerned with the international monetary system.

1980: The Bureau of Standards offers to assist consumers in determining if cylinders of cooking gas supplied to them are of the correct weight. In a statement setting out the offer, the bureau points out that the methods mostly used by complaining consumers are entirely inadequate to determine whether a cylinder of gas is short-weight.

1983: One thousand persons are awarded the Prime Minister’s Medal of Appreciation “for outstanding contributions to our nation since Independence”. Guest speaker at the special presentation ceremony in the Spanish Town Square, St Catherine, Prime Minister Edward Seaga-says that the yearlong commemoration of Jamaica’s 21 years as an independent country provides an opportunity to put these ‘unsung heroes’ in the picture. The following events took place on December 15 in the years identified: