A gift from God, a deadly game of Russian roulette, and bush fires near Sydney: headlines making the news 40 years ago

A priest being hailed a “jackpot hero” in a Spanish town, train services in London being delayed by a roasted bird and a dart-throwing football fan going to jail made the headlines 40 years ago this week. And December 25 that year was a non-publishing day. December 23, 1979 ● A priest was the hero of a small Catalan town after tickets he had distributed won around 5.8 billion pesetas (about HK$440 million at the time) for his parishioners in Spain’s Christmas lottery. The tickets Father Joan Samper sold in Granollers, north of Barcelona, won 29 of the 32 first prizes in the annual lottery – the world’s biggest. ● A football fan, who threw a dart at a rival goalie because his team was losing, was sentenced to six months in prison. The 17-year-old told a Nottingham court he threw a dart at the Arsenal goalkeeper because his team, Nottingham Forest, were losing 1-0 at home. December 24, 1979 ● About 1,200 people faced a bleak Christmas after a fire destroyed their homes the night before. The fourth-alarm blaze swept through a temporary housing estate in Wang Tau Hom. ● A fierce bush fire was posing the most serious threat in 20 years to the heavily-wooded Blue Mountains west of Sydney. More than 700 firefighters, many of them exhausted by days of battling the blaze, were concentrating on saving homes and building firebreaks around nearby towns. December 26, 1979 ● An Australian private detective playing Russian roulette shot himself dead on the third pull of the trigger at an office Christmas party in Sydney. ● China’s modernisation programme brought HK$1 billion of trade to Hong Kong in the first nine months of that year. Western medicines, motor vehicles, cigarettes, electrical goods, toys and sewing machines were among the purchased items which were believed to be in most demand on the other side of the border. The massive spending spree represented a five-fold increase over the previous year’s figure. ● A British businessman due to return home in January 1980 after working in Japan for five years left 4.3 million yen (about HK$90,000 at the time) in a taxi the night before. Fortunately, the taxi driver returned the cash to him the following morning. The Briton rewarded the driver and gave him 300,000 yen and donated 50,000 yen to the Metropolitan Police Department’s scholarship fund. December 27, 1979 ● A Canadian traveller told police he was knocked unconscious in a toilet at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and robbed of jewellery and gold worth 1.4 million guilders (about HK$3.6 million at the time). ● A 21-year-old handicapped man was injured when a Christmas parcel exploded in his lap, according to police in Atlanta, US. The parcel was accompanied by a card signed “Guess who?” The victim, who lost the use of his legs after a traffic accident several years before, was taken to hospital in critical condition. December 28, 1979 ● A passing train roasted a bird on a power line and caused a delay for hundreds of passengers on the London-Glasgow railway line. The bird was perched on a 25,000-volt overhead line died in a blinding flash when the train passed beneath and caused a short circuit. Service was delayed for an hour. ● The Public Works Department in Hong Kong would sign a new agreement with China in early 1980 guaranteeing a greatly increased supply of water from Guangdong province in the 1980s. Government’s dire warning over staggering Hong Kong population boom December 29, 1979 ● Some Hong Kong hotels refused to report crimes on their premises for fear their reputations would be tarnished as they would be viewed as “happy hunting grounds” for criminals, a senior police officer said. In one case, the hotel management even paid compensation to a guest for not making a report. ● A Hong Kong company had won a contract to develop a sophisticated beach resort on the south China coast. Goodyear Estates said it would jointly develop the resort, on a peninsula northeast of Hong Kong, with Chinese tourist authorities. The resort, to cost up to HK$30 million would have a 150-bed hotel and facilities for water sports, hunting and tennis. Remember A Day looks at significant news and events reported by the Post during this week in history

A gift from God, a deadly game of Russian roulette, and bush fires near Sydney: headlines making the news 40 years ago

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} A journey back through time to look at significant news and events reported by the South China Morning Post from this week in history

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