ON THIS DAY

TODAY: Monday June 8, 2020

43 years ago (1977)

Our front page showed the Queen waving to crowds during the celebrations for the Silver Jubilee.

A special thanksgiving service at St Paul’s Cathedral, London was attended by world leaders including US President Jimmy Carter, PM James Callaghan and all living former UK premiers.

More than a million people lined the procession route hoping to catch a glimpse of the Royal Family.

71 years ago (1949)

George Orwell’s famous dystopian novel 1984 was published, which laid out his vision of a nightmarish future where the oppressed citizens of Oceania are kept in a state of permanent war and subjected to the totalitarian rule of The Party enforced by the surveillance of Big Brother.

52 years ago (1968)

James Earl Ray was arrested in London after going on the run following his assassination of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr in Memphis.

He was stopped by police at Heathrow as he attempted to board a plane to Brussels.

He was extradited to the US where he pleaded guilty and sentenced to 99 years in jail. He died in 1998.