TODAY: SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2018

ON THIS DAY

54 YEARS AGO (1964)

It was “touch and go” whether a UN-brokered truce between Greece and Turkey in Cyprus would hold. PM Sir Alec Douglas-Home and opposition leader Harold Wilson had cut short holidays to tackle the crisis.

50 YEARS AGO (1968)

British Rail’s last passenger steam train ran from Liverpool via Manchester to Carlisle and back before the steam ban came into force the following day.

19 YEARS AGO (1999)

Around 350 million people across Europe and Asia witnessed an extremely rare total eclipse of the sun. Cornwall and the Scilly Isles were the only part of Britain to experience a total blackout. Britain will not see another one until 2090.