THIS DAY IN OUR PAST

The following events took place on April 16 in the years identified:

1925: A step in advance in the realm of secondary education in Jamaica is made when Kingston College, under the direct control and supervision of Lord Bishop of Jamaica, the Rt Rev G.F.C. deCarteret, is formally opened at 111 ¾ East Street, where the college is temporarily located until the necessity arises for a more spacious accommodation.

1952: Hundreds of spectators press and surge in and around the St Andrew Parish Church as Valerie Hart-Collins, the pretty Irish girl, who whose romance captured their hearts, weds Maurice William Facey in a ceremony at which the couple received the blessing of the Lord Bishop of Jamaica, the Rt Rev Basil Dale.

1959: A discussion between the Government and the Water Commission concludes that there is no real cause for alarm in the immediate water supply needs of the Corporate Area, although projected needs had far exceeded expectations, especially due to the rapid expansion in housing.

1962: Eighty-eight migrants leave Jamaica by BOAC chartered immigrant flight, in the beat-the-ban rush to Britain.

1963: The Jamaican Government launches a campaign to stamp out the cultivation and use of ganja in the island. This is disclosed in an announcement to the House of Representatives by Minister of Home Affairs, Roy McNeil. The new drive against the drug is the direct result of an incident of violence in the Rose Hall area near Montego Bay, in which eight persons were killed and others injured due to members of the ganja-smoking Rastafarian cult going wild with guns and machetes and setting fire to a petrol station, among other things.