THIS WEEK

OCTOBER 29, 1964

The “Jewel Heist of the Century” saw the Star of India, the Eagle Diamond and the DeLong Ruby stolen from the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

A gang led by former surfing champion “Murph the Surf” found the museum’s burglar alarm was non-operational, a window was left open for ventilation and the batteries in the display case alarms were flat.

OCTOBER 31, 1973

Three IRA men escaped from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin aboard a hijacked helicopter.

The pilot thought he was participating in an aerial photoshoot until he was ordered, at gunpoint, to land in the jail’s exercise yard.

OCTOBER 31 1984

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her bodyguards.

The men, both Sikhs, shot her in retaliation for her ordering the storming of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, and Gandhi’s death resulted in 3000 being killed in anti-Sikh riots.

NOVEMBER 2, 1947

The Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes’ huge flying boat, made its first and only flight.

The plane, actually constructed mostly from wood, flew for a mile just 70 feet above the water with Hughes at the controls.

NOVEMBER 2, 1975

The Queen formally opened the UK’s first oil pipeline as North Sea oil began to flow.

The pipeline, serving the Forties oilfield, ran 130 miles from Cruden Bay to the refinery at Grangemouth, and the Queen started the flow by pushing a gold-plated button at BP’s control centre in Dyce, near Aberdeen.