Source:
https://scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3079165/big-ben-joke-fell-flat-japan-and-diplomat-who-killed-his
Hong Kong/ Society

A Big Ben joke that fell flat in Japan, and a diplomat who killed his wife: headlines from 40 years 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
Tourists take photographs of the Elizabeth Tower, commonly known as Big Ben, at the Houses of Parliament in London. Reuters

A hoax about London’s Big Ben going digital, a Belgian envoy shooting his wife after a holiday and abandoned babies being sold in the Philippines made the headlines 40 years ago this week.

April 6, 1980

The Post reported that Hong Kong police were investigating a homosexual sex racket in which teenage boys were recruited by middlemen who made big profits by hooking them up with wealthy businessmen. This illegal syndicate had been the focus of an investigation by the Special Investigation Unit of the police since 1978. Police believed there were at least 1,200 male prostitutes working in nightclubs, discos and bars in Hong Kong.

April 7, 1980

A youth was killed while a hotel was set ablaze and a row of shops destroyed in a riot which erupted when a man winked at a married woman at a cigarette kiosk near Surat in India’s Gujarat state.

An April Fool’s joke about Big Ben forced the BBC to repeatedly apologise to listeners in Japan. Photo: SCMP Archive
An April Fool’s joke about Big Ben forced the BBC to repeatedly apologise to listeners in Japan. Photo: SCMP Archive

The BBC had repeatedly apologised to overseas listeners who took seriously an April Fool’s day broadcast that London’s Big Ben was going digital. Unfortunately, its Japanese listeners didn’t find the hoax funny. The tongue-in-cheek news item was so convincing that many Japanese began sending in letters and messages furious that someone was meddling with what they perceived as the world’s most famous clock.

April 8, 1980

A man had been brought before a local court in West Java, Indonesia, charged with killing his daughter to obtain insurance payments, the Armed Forces Bulletin reported. The bulletin said the court heard that the accused had hired six men to kill his 11-year-old daughter, who died of strangulation. The defendant pleaded guilty.

Belgian diplomat Jacques Despoorter killed his wife at the airport in Athens at the end of their Easter holiday before he took up a new post in Iraq, police said. He told police he shot his wife five times with a revolver because of “family differences”. The shooting took place in a taxi at the airport while the driver was unloading their luggage. The couple was leaving for Baghdad.

April 9, 1980

A six-year-old boy, separated from his parents during an Easter picnic, trekked 12 miles to safety across rivers and marshes in remote moorland, police said. Tony Webster made the journey in four hours, arriving exhausted and cold but otherwise unharmed at a northern Dartmoor farm in southwest England. Police had earlier organised an air and ground search for the boy.

A New York judge imposed a US$1 million (about HK$5 million at the time) fine on the unions representing 33,500 New York City transport workers who walked off their jobs eight days before, disrupting America’s biggest public transit system. Despite the hefty fine, union leaders vowed that the strike would continue.

April 10, 1980

China enthusiastically joined the world of sponsored sport when it was announced that a HK$250,000 (US$50,000 at the time) Grand Prix Tennis Classic would be held in Guangdong in October that year. The American cigarette giant, Marlboro, was putting up the cash for the tournament, which was expected to attract some of the world’s leading professional players.

British transport minister Norman Fowler travelled to Guangdong for discussions over electrifying the Kowloon-Canton Railway. Photo: Getty
British transport minister Norman Fowler travelled to Guangdong for discussions over electrifying the Kowloon-Canton Railway. Photo: Getty

April 11, 1980

Philippine health officials had begun to clamp down on the reported sale of abandoned babies by some hospitals. Health minister Enrique Garcia said reports of abandoned newborns being sold cast a negative image on the entire medical system of the nation and ordered stricter surveillance of hospital nurseries. There were also reported incidents in which babies were not released to their biological parents because they were unable to pay the hospital bills.

Thai family planners were concerned that an energy conservation measure that cut short peak evening television broadcasts would lead to a surge in pregnancies. The government had ordered reduced hours of television broadcasts for three months to save energy.

April 12, 1980

British transport minister Norman Fowler arrived in Guangdong for discussions on the possibility of British firms helping to electrify the Kowloon-Canton Railway which joined southern China with Hong Kong.

Remember A Day looks at significant news and events reported by the Post during this week in history