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

50 YEARS AGOAfter being out of commission for five weeks for her annual overhaul, the Queen Elizabeth retur-ned to North Atlantic service when she sailed to New York.

University College Southampton held a Rag Ball with Cyril Stapleton and his orchestra.

40 YEARS AGOBBC TV was showing the Perry Como Music Hall and Sportsview while Southern ITV were offering Rawhide and The Flying Doctor.

Southampton's ABC cinema in Above Bar and Portswood's Broadway were screening Two Way Stretch.

30 YEARS AGOColiseum Coaches, West End, were offering ten days on the continent, including six nights in Switzerland and two in Paris for £56.

Julie Edge dropped into the Rising Sun pub in Shirley to publicise the James Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

20 YEARS AGOThere were fears that clouds of deadly chlorine gas were escaping from a sunken Greek freighter in the Channel and were heading for Hampshire.

Hampshire Fire Brigade's Southampton-based fire-boat was called to help pump out a leaking cargo ship off the Isle of Wight.

10 YEARS AGOHomeowners in the South were facing more financial pain as building societies announced a mortgage rate rise to 15.4 per cent.

The plug was pulled on a pirate radio station broad casting in Southampton after police raided a house in Millbrook.

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