THIS WEEK

JANUARY 14, 2002

The UK was declared free of foot-and-mouth disease after an 11-month crisis.

Six and a half million animals were slaughtered during the outbreak, with the Army brought in to organise mass pyres and graves.

The disease cost the economy £8 billion, with £1.3bn paid to farmers in compensation.

JANUARY 15, 1982

Mark Thatcher, the PM’S son, was found safe after being missing in the Sahara Desert for six days. The 29-year-old and two team-mates were competing in the Paris-dakar rally when they lost their way and broke down.

JANUARY 18, 1967

Albert Desalvo, “The Boston Strangler”, was convicted of a series of rapes.

He admitted killing 13 women, but there was no real evidence until DNA testing linked him to one of the murders five years ago. Desalvo was killed in prison in 1973.

JANUARY 19, 1915

In the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target, German zeppelins bombed Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn, killing 20. The raid, which caused £200,000 worth of damage in today’s terms, prompted bizarre rumours that a zeppelin was operating from a secret base in the Lake District.

JANUARY 19, 1973

The UK sent its last oceangoing supertug to protect trawlers from Icelandic patrol boats as the Cod War intensified.

The Statesman was not armed, but had orders to defend fishermen against tactics such as wire-cutting.