ON THIS DAY

TODAY: Wednesday December 12, 2018

43 years ago (1975)

Our front page reported MPs had rejected a bid to bring back hanging for terrorists by 361 to 232. Former PM Ted Heath, PM Harold Wilson and the London Police Commissioner were among those who argued reinstating the death penalty would put more lives at risk. The vote was a consequence of the six-day Balcombe Street siege in London when IRA gunmen took two hostages.

51 years ago (1967)

Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones had a nine-month jail sentence for possession of cannabis overturned by the Court of Appeal. Instead he was ordered to pay a £1,000 fine and was put on probation for three years.

24 years ago (1994)

Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered troops into the rebel state of Chechnya. A 20-month war followed in which an estimated 100,000 people died. Vladimir Putin forcibly put down a second rebellion in 1999 and held a referendum to approve a new constitution giving the mainly Muslim state greater autonomy within the Russian Federation.

Six years ago (2012)

North Korea successfully launched its first satellite. The United Nations Security Council condemned the launch, regarding it as a violation of the ban on North Korean ballistic missile tests, as the rocket technology was the same.