From the Evening News, 1993: JOHN Major is to issue libel writs against two magazines over allegations about his private life.

They appeared in the left-wing magazine New Statesman and Scalliwag, a satirical magazine. He may be the fourth Prime Minister this century to sue for libel. Harold Wilson, Winston Churchill and David Lloyd-George also went to law.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

January 28, 1978

MORE than 300 local leather workers will lose their jobs as the result of a drastic cutback of production at William Walker's tannery, Bolton. The firm is to close its Rose Hill tannery, where it has produced leather for 130 years, and concentrate at its Hartford Mill in Weston Street. Of the 460 employees, only about 130 are expected to be retained.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

January 28, 1953

A CROWD demonstrated outside Wandsworth Prison in London, today, when 19-years-old Derek William Bentley was hanged for his share in the murder of P.C. Sidney Miles. The time of the execution was nine o'clock. At a minute past nine, a section of the crowd of 500 sang "Abide with Me", and the 23rd Psalm, "The Lord is my Shepherd". At 9.10 one of the giant iron gates opened. The crowd booed, jeered and flung coins towards the entrance as a uniformed prison officer came out carrying a large black-framed, glass-covered board containing the execution notice. The crowd surged forward again as he struggled to put it up. Arms clutched at the board, which was lifted for a moment on to a hook on the main gate and then flung back against the door, The glass shattered into a hundred pieces, but the notice remained inside the frame. Eventually, the notice was posted that Bentley had been hanged.

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

January 28, 1903

THE mortal remains of the late Mr John Openshaw, who died on Friday afternoon at his residence, Lever Cottage, Green-lane, Great Lever, at the ripe old age of 92, were today laid to rest in the family grave at St Michael's Church, Great Lever. The obsequies were marked by many evidences of affectionate regard and esteem for the venerable worthy who had been a striking figure in the district for a period extending beyond the memory of the oldest inhabitant. For 56 years he had lived in the house where he breathed his last.