Advertisement

Remember A Day | A millionaire corpse collector, a daring rescue operation and a KGB assassination plot: headlines from four decades ago

A journey back through time to look at significant news and events reported by the South China Morning Post from this week in history

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
The wreckage from the plane crash that killed former UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjold in 1961. Photo: TopFoto

Grabbing headlines four decades ago this week was news about Indonesian police hunting for a local millionaire who collected corpses as a hobby, and a daring James Bond-style operation carried out by an Australian journalist to sneak his lover out of Laos.

June 4, 1978

• KGB agents allegedly killed former UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjold in a 1961 plane crash, according to a Penthouse magazine article to be published in August that year.

Former UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjold died in a plane crash near Ndola airport in 1961 in the former Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. Photo: AFP
Former UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjold died in a plane crash near Ndola airport in 1961 in the former Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. Photo: AFP

The article, which quoted a secret CIA report, said Hammarskjold was assassinated because he had refused to inaugurate a three-man leadership system at the world body. The document claimed a Soviet-designed explosive device had been placed on the aircraft carrying him.

• Argentina, which had just signed a trade agreement with China, planned to use Hong Kong as the centre of its trade thrust into Asia and had already set up a trade commission in the city.

Advertisement