THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

The inhuman brutality which has characterised the attitude of the German military and civil authorities towards Allied prisoners since the beginning of the war has received further illustration in the particularly revolting conditions in the camp at Langensalze. According to the first reports received by the Spanish Ambassador in Berlin, nine French prisoners were shot point-blank by German soldiers at this camp, and 15 others severely wounded. Two delegates were sent to Langensalze.

50 years ago

The mystery of where the heart for Israel’s first transplant patient came from has started a gruesome argument in Israel. Belinson Hospital, at Petah Tikva, where Professor Morris Levi and a team of six gave a new heart to 41-year-old bank clerk Yitzhak Sulam on Thursday, refused to name the donor or say how he died. First reports said the donor was a teenage boy fatally injured in a car crash on Thursday. Then newspapers claimed it was the heart of Persian-born Avraham Sadgat.

25 years ago

Tough-tackling Matthew Taylor loves nothing more than a gruelling rugby training session – after getting home from nursery school. The dedicated four-year-old is Britain’s youngest rugby league starlet. Local league officials have even bent the rules to allow him to play for an under-sevens team. Now the angel-faced youngster is making a name for himself by knocking over the older lads with his bone-jarring tackles. “I love tackling – it’s my favourite part of the game,” said Matthew.

One year ago

A painting that captures the human drama of the “miracle of Dunkirk” has astounded auction bidders by selling in Perthfor £26,000. It had a modest pre-sale estimate of £1,200 but auctioneer Nick Burns had an inkling it could do better – and he was proved spectacularly right. Painted by John Spencer Churchill, nephew of the wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, he was an eye witness to the dramatic events of May 29 1940 as one of the soldiers evacuated.