Remember A DayMargaret Thatcher’s son dabbling in modelling, the Kowloon bomber and an Olympics squabble: headlines from 40 years ago

British Rail promoting jollity with “games trains”, Margaret Thatcher’s son dabbling in modelling and Soviet and Indian astronauts hoping to shake hands in space made the headlines 40 years ago this week. February 16 was a non-publishing day due to Lunar New Year. February 10, 1980 ● A squad of 33 hand-picked detectives was formed to hunt the “Kowloon bomber” whose escapades had left four young people injured. Officers of the new team had been relieved of all other duties and told to concentrate on hunting the bomber or his gang. The bombs were made from nails, concrete fragments and explosives from fireworks. Police said the attacks had no apparent motives. February 11, 1980 ● China was developing two gold mines with foreign technical help. Experts projected these mines had a potential yield of at least US$200 million (about HK$1 billion at the time) worth of gold per year by 1982. February 12, 1980 ● Playing snakes and ladders on commuter trains was proposed to break down the reserve of the stand-offish British. State-owned British Rail unveiled the experiment on a “games carriage” with gaming tables fitted between passenger seats. Pontoon, better known as blackjack, was another of the four games proposed. ● Three people died and several others were injured in Tehran when they were accidentally crushed by a tank during a military parade to mark the first anniversary of the Islamic revolution. A further 67 people were also injured when a grandstand collapsed along the route of the procession. February 13, 1980 ● Mark Thatcher, son of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, had agreed to model for leading Japanese textile company, Kanebo. Thatcher, 26, who operated a management consulting firm in London, would appear wearing Kanebo’s synthetic suede products in advertisements, the company said. ● A man pretending to be a plumber walked into the Paris flat of a 100-year-old retired American architect and fled with a Rembrandt and five other paintings valued at 2 million francs (about HK$2.5 million at the time). The owner, Andre Kahn, told police the man said he had come to check if there was sand in the water pipes. February 14, 1980 ● The White House said that the US was consulting other governments on the possibility of holding international games to rival the Moscow Olympics. In a statement, the Carter administration said it regretted the International Olympic Committee’s decision to go ahead with the games in Moscow after rejecting the US proposal to transfer or cancel the event in light of the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan. ● There had been a general drop in the number of people using taxis, buses, minibuses and ferries to cross the harbour since the Tsim Sha Tsui-Central cross-harbour section of the MTR started running two days before. The MTR estimated 150,000 people used these two stations. The greatest impact was apparently felt by Star Ferry as it reported a 20 to 30 per cent drop in passengers. ● A man was killed when he plunged from a Wan Chai building and crashed through the roof of a passing tram. Three tram passengers were also injured. February 15, 1980 ● The Soviet Union had offered to train Indian astronauts, an Indian government spokesman said. The two countries had agreed to see whether Indians could be trained for space travel. Soviet ambassador to New Delhi, Yuli Vorontsov said: “We firmly believe that soon Indian and Soviet cosmonauts will shake hands in outer space.” ● Local transport officials wanted to reduce the fleet of 4,350 minibuses to 3,300 by 1983. They were studying various approaches to achieve this target. The proposed curb on the number of minibuses came as transport officials were convinced the demand for minibuses would decline considerably as a result of rising popularity of the MTR and its continued expansion. Remember A Day looks at significant news and events reported by the Post during this week in history

.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