THE NEW millennium is now just 134 days away and as the South prepares for a new age it is time to look back over the decades to the events and personalities that have shaped our lives today.

Next month the Daily Echo launches a major series of special supplements that traces the day-to-day lives of local people in and around Southampton, significant happenings and momentous occasions of the past 100 years.

Echoes Of A Century will appear throughout September inside your copy of the Daily Echo.

There will be page after page of nostalgic photographs, memories of how life used to be, reminders of shops and streets long gone and even what was on at the cinema and theatre in years past.

Using the extensive resources of the Daily Echo archives the supplements will present a fascinating and unique snap-shot of every year of this remarkable century.

The landmark events, such as the world wars, the story of the ill-fated Titanic and the development of modern-day Southampton, will be there but so will normal everyday episodes which are so important when it comes to painting a picture of all our yesterdays.

There is the report of a case at Southampton Magistrates' Court which appeared in the Daily Echo on June 12, 1901. "A Southampton woman was fined 2s (10p) by local magistrates for giving her husband a black eye because she did not like the fact that he had shaved off his moustache,'' reported the newspaper at the time.

The sadness of human life is also touched upon in a short report of another court story, which appeared six years later.

"A ship's fireman was given an absolute discharge and an amount from the poor-box after he appeared before Southampton magistrates charged with attempting to commit suicide by cutting his throat with a razor,'' said the Daily Echo of 1907.

As the decades marched on Southampton's importance was growing and so was the port as some of the greatest passenger liners the world has ever seen arrived and departed from the dockside.

Echoes Of A Century will tell the story of that golden age of ocean travel when the funnels of ships crowded the skyline of Southampton and hotels, such as the Southern Western in Canute Road, and the former Polygon, were packed with passengers setting off on journeys to all corners of the world.

Enemy bombing may have blitzed the centre of Southampton during the Second World War but it never destroyed the heart of the community.

"It would be a distortion of the truth not to admit that these raids left Sotonians shaken physically and mentally,'' said the 1940 Daily Echo story which appears in the supplements.

"But it must be recorded too, that the Luftwaffe's viciousness had not broken the spirit of the people."

"Out of disaster was born a wonderful camaraderie. Earlier raids had shaken the barriers of reserve and self-centredness; the blitz nights had shattered all of them. Everywhere one found a new spirit of helpfulness; everywhere was a neighbourliness at its best.''

The supplements will tell the story of the huge task of rebuilding Southampton afterfollowing the war, years, how the Swinging Sixties reshaped our views and the emergence of modern Southampton as it sets a course for the new millennium.

The first part of Echoes Of A Century is due to appear on Monday, September 6, with the remaining supplements published on each of the following three Mondays.

In October a book containing an expanded version of all four publications is due in the shops.

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