5 years ago

A humpback whale has been spotted swimming in the Firth of Clyde. The 40ft-long mammal, believed to be an adult male, was observed by whale watchers breaching the water near off Tighnabruaich in the Kyles of Bute on Monday. Two days later the whale surfaced alongside the Scottish Ocean Youth Trust’s yacht, before spouting and swimming strongly off in a northward direction into Loch Fyne. Humpbacks are rare visitors to the west coast.

10 years ago

Fugitive Raoul Moat, pictured, was caught in an extraordinary standoff with dozens of armed police last night in the village at the centre of the manhunt. In an amazing twist, Moat was cornered after he was apparently spotted strolling along a street near the centre of Rothbury in Northumberland. Britain’s most wanted man was eventually found close to where hundreds of police officers had based a massive search that has covered hundreds of square miles of upland moorland and remote forest.

25 years ago

Glasgow University has signed a contract to develop the technology which would allow spacecraft to rendezvous and dock with each other unmanned. In an agreement with the European Space Research and Technology Centre, the department of aerospace engineering will carry out laboratory work to produce a basic computer programme for spaceships to follow. Spacecraft computers are around 10 years behind those on earth as they must be more robust to withstand radiation in outer space.

50 years ago

The rapid growth in the use of computers, videophones, and other telecommunications equipment could halt Scotland’s brain drain of managers and decision-makers, Mr Douglas Crawford, Scottish National Party director of communications, said yesterday in Edinburgh.

The use of such sophisticated equipment made it possible for industrial decision-making to be decentralised as never before, to the great benefit of Scotland, he added.

100 years ago

A shoemaker named Henry Johnstone, 46 years of age, was at Paisley Sheriff court yesterday sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for having on June 29 assaulted his wife with a poker in their house at 4 Middle Lane, Paisley. Accused pleaded guity. Mr W. J. Sim. Depute Procurator Fiscal, submitted a medical certificate from the prison doctor which showed that Johnstone suffered from delusions of suspicions against his wife and her brother.