KEITH HAMILTON looks through past editions of the Echo and reviews the issues which made the headlines

50 Years Ago Tickets went on sale for the Battle of Britain Gay Nineties Ball which was to be held at the Guildhall in Southampton.

Top of the bill was Leonard Hayes and his Full Broadcasting Orchestra from the Locarno ballroom in London.

40 Years Ago The scheduled departure from Southampton docks of the liner Queen Mary, was still in doubt as an unofficial dispute involving hundreds of crew members rumbled on.

Meanwhile some of the waiting passengers sunned themselves on deck chairs on the liner's upper decks.

30 Years Ago Ken Brewer, a lecturer at Southampton Technical College, successfully swam across the English Channel in 14 hours and ten minutes.

Tickets costing 6s (30p) went on sale to see rock group Status Quo on stage at the Sir Walter Tyrrell pub at Cadnam.

20 Years Ago A thunder storm brought chaos to the South with holidaymakers in the New Forest especially hard hit.

Many campers were flooded out and forced to abandon their tents to spend the night huddled in cars while parts of Southampton were blacked out by a lightning strike.

10 Years Ago There were fears that thousands of jobs could be lost in Southampton as the construction industry hit crisis point.

Talks were underway between building firms and the city's MPs over government aid to save the industry struggling with high interest rates.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.