FROM THE ARCHIVES

25 YEARS AGO President Mikhail Gorbachev finally announced his resignation last night, and was hailed for his achievements by the West. The Prime Minister and President George Bush led the accolades. Mr Major said the former Kremlin leader was one of the few men in history who had changed the world for the better. As the red Soviet flag came down from the Kremlin towers for the last time, Mr Gorbachev, 60, handed control to Russian leader Boris Yeltsin. 50 YEARS AGO The passing year will be remembered in the history of Scottish education for a variety of things. The most obviously memorable is the decision to admit men to the colleges of education to take a primary teacher’s certificate on the same terms as women. If the men do not come forward in sufficient numbers, the Secretary of State will have to think again, and think hard but at least we have entered a new phase of the problem. 100 YEARS AGO “For over sixty miles I went along the British lines of communication, and everywhere the spirit of Christmas rather than the spirit of war seemed the order of the day,” writes Mr Philip Gibbs in an article describing his experiences on the Western Front on Christmas Eve. The soldiers had put away for a time the remembrance of the battlefields and were preparing to celebrate the Feast day. Everywhere the men were in splendid fettle. 150 YEARS AGO Late on Monday night, fire was observed to be issuing from the hay loft in connection with the stables at Calder Iron Works, and very shortly the roof fell in amid a mass of flames. A large number of the workmen were collected, and a plentiful supply of water was got. The horses in the stable were all saved, with the exception of one, which was suffocated. The fire, after a great deal of exertion, was subdued. The want of a proper hose was very much missed.