100 YEARS AGO

● Councillor CP Simmonds was elected as Newport mayor in an animated council chamber meeting.

● A serious fire in Abergavenny resulted in Mr A R Williams’ fish and fruit merchant and offices being gutted.

● Newport borough electrical engineers prepared a report on the condition of Newport tramway tracks and concluded that there were serious defects and heavy costs likely.

● The football match between Bedwas and Machen had to be stopped before time owing to the players being involved in a free-forall fight.

50 YEARS AGO

● Railwaymen in all grades were offered a 6 per cent pay rise.

● Children living at the Glebelands, Newport, woke to find that the bonfire they had worked for weeks to build had been burned down in the night.

● Two 17-year-old youths were killed in a collision with a lorry on the Caerleon to Usk road.

● The North Monmouthshire College of Further Education was officially opened in Ebbw Vale.

● The Welsh Hospital Board was asked to establish Wales’ first cancer clinic at St Woolos Hospital.

● Newport’s chief constable, F H Smeed, warned of the additional winter road hazards of fog, slippery roads and more hours of darkness in his road accident report, calling for greater caution, awareness and skill by drivers.

25 YEARS AGO

● Ten men were gassed at Spencer works and had to receive emergency oxygen treatment.

● The passport office was under threat of closure while The Property Services Agency decided whether or not to renew the lease at Olympia House.

● Nimbus Records was taken over in a £24 million deal by Daily Mirror publisher Robert Maxwell.

● Labour leader Neil Kinnock called for more financial support to be given to unemployed people on training schemes.

● Cwmbran DIY company Texas Homecare was threatened with tough legal action following its disregard of planning regulations.