FROM OUR ARCHIVES

5 YEARS AGO

A granite memorial has been airlifted to a unique war grave on a mountainside where six airmen died in 1941. The inscribed granite block now marks the crash site of an Avro Anson twin-engine aircraft on Ben More Assynt, pictured, in north-west Sutherland. Its crew all died. They were from Scotland, England and South Africa. Due to the inaccessibility of the crash site, the men were buried on the mountain. They are commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission at Inchnadamph, 20 miles from Ullapool.

10 YEARS AGO

Barry George was cleared of murdering television presenter Jill Dando yesterday, almost eight years after his original conviction. The 48-year-old’s eyes welled with tears after a jury at the Old Bailey found him not guilty by a unanimous verdict of Miss Dando’s murder in 1999 after an eight-week retrial. Mr George said after hearing the verdict: “I can’t believe it,” according to his solicitor Jeremy Moore. The solicitor said: “He is overwhelmed”. Mr George, a loner who suffers epilepsy and personality disorders, was convicted of the murder in 2001.

25 YEARS AGO

The brutal deaths of two Glasgow prostitutes might have been carried out by a serial killer stalking vice girls across Britain. Similarities exist between the murders of Karen Mcgregor and Dianne Mcinally and two other unsolved killings of prostitutes in Norwich and Stroud in Gloucestershire. There is also a belief the killer might have claimed a fifth victim because police in Ipswich are searching for a woman, who went missing from a red light district area three weeks ago. Glasgow police have computer-linked Karen Mcgregor and Diane Mcinally.

50 YEARS AGO

As thousands of jeering Czechs demonstrated in Prague’s main square last night against any sell-out to Russia, the President, Mr Svoboda, said the Soviet leaders had given an assurance of support for the country in its reform programme. The President went on television to renew Czechoslovakia’s pledge of loyalty to the

Communist movement after the conference of the Czech and Russian leaders. He said Czechoslovakia would not retreat from the liberalisation followed under Mr Dubcek.

100 YEARS AGO

The long-standing dispute between the Saltcoats Food Control Committee and the producers in that area has been brought to the notice of the Ministry of Food by Mr Harry Hope, MP. The price fixed for milk in Saltcoats was twopence per gallon less than in the adjoining towns of Ardrossan and Stevenson. The producers’ reply to this was to withhold supplies, whereupon the Food Control Committee requisitioned the milk paying the producers’ price for it, and opened shops for the purpose of carrying on the retail distributing service.