DIARY OF THE YEAR
Wednesday 3 February: In the Sunday Tele- graph secrets case all the defendants, Brian Roberts, Jonathan Aitken and Col Douglas Cairns were acquitted of breaking the Official Secrets Act. Public funds will pay their £50,000 costs. The emergency meeting of the Cabinet on the future of Rolls-Royce lasted three hours and set the City and Lobbies buzzing with specula- tion. Acid bombs and machine-gun fire were met with rubber bullets and water cannon from British troops in Belfast. A strike by Shell-Mex and BP tanker drivers threatened to close 1,000 garages.
Thursday 4 February: 'stunned' and 'mourning' MPS heard today that Rolls-Royce, with debts of f300-£400 million and unable to pay even its wages bill, had gone into voluntary liquidation and that its profitable areas were to be nation- alised. The Duke of Kent was posted to Northern Ireland with the Scots Greys, not as a VIP but 'to lead his men into action against rioters if necessary'. Lifting a six-day news blackout the us revealed two massive new effen- elves in Indochina.
Friday 5 February: on their first day on the moon astronauts Shepard and Mitchell put in four hours' hard work in the dust of the Fra Mauro region, watched by millions on Earth,
As Tories bustled to get the Rolls-Royce rescue operation under way, BAC announced that Concorde was not affected by the bankruptcy. With the postal strike in its third week the PO hinted at the disappearance of Saturday deli- veries, parcels service and 30,000 jobs within 5-10 years. Britain and most Western countries agreed to recognise General Amin's new govern- ment in Uganda.
Saturday 6 February: after a couple of 6-iron golf shots, the astronauts boarded their landing craft, docked at the first attempt with the com- mand module and headed home. Meanwhile back on Earth, oil-purchasing countries were faced with an ultimatum from OPEC insisting that they either pay an additional £400 million a year for Middle East oil imports or else have their supplies cut off. In Italy the mediaeval town of Tuscania was destroyed by an earth- quake.
Sunday 7 February: explosions throughout Ulster wrecked customs posts, electricity trans- formers and gas 'works. A fourteen•year-old boy had his hand blown off trying to throw a gelignite bomb in Ballymurphy. Mr Gomulka was today suspended from the Central Com- mittee in a purge by Polish communists; four of his former advisors suffered similar fates. As talks went on in London, Washington and New York to avert the collapse of Rolls-Royce's customer, Lockheeds, Mr Heath warned that much of Britain's prosperity was based on illu- sions about pay demands, subsidies and business economics. In Switzerland a referendum of the all-male electorate overwhelmingly granted women a Federal vote.
Monday 8 February: thousands of South Viet- namese troops today cross the Laotian border to destroy communist supply bases on the Ho Chi Minh trail. There were accusations in the Commons that the IRA were paying 'child bombers' to attack troops; a five-year-old girl was run over by an army car and sparked off another riot in Belfast. Mr Powell abstained in the debate on Rolls-Royce in disapproval of the Government's intention to nationalise parts of the company. A concert to be given by the Mothers of Invention and the Royal Philhar- monic Orchestra was banned by the Royal Albert Hall on the grounds that some of the lyrics were obscene.
-Tuesday 9 February: while Apollo 14 was splashing down safely in the ocean North of New Zealand, Los Angeles (and more particu- larly Hollywood) was being severely shaken by an earthquake; deaths were reported, splits -in the highways and considerable damage to build- ings. Two BBC engineers and three other civilians were blown to death by an IRA mine on their way to a transmitter in Enniskillen. In the swirling mist near Pegwell Bay police arrested a boatful of illegal Pakistani immigrants.
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