DATELINE: July 1965


THE BIG STORY

US President Lyndon B Johnson proclaimed he would significantly increase the number of troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000, and to double the number of men drafted into the military per month from 17,000 to 35,000.

On July 29, the first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrived in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay.

It was a decisive moment in the war, which began in March 1959 and led to an increase in the number of American troops being killed.

Also known as the Second Indochina War, it was fought between the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and its communist allies, and the US-supported Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam).

The conflict ended ten years later, in April 1975, with the loss of millions of lives.

HEADLINES

A peacock which went missing from a Halifax park turned up 75 miles away in a hen coup owned by one James Armer, of the village of Holme, Westmorland – it had been missing a month but only suffered the loss of several tail feathers.

One of the county's most famous pieces of furniture, a writing desk made by Thomas Chippendale taken from Harewood House, was sold at auction for 41,000 guineas, or £527,000 in today's money. The table was made in about 1770 and was bought by London-based fine art dealers H Blairman and Son.

A Glaswegian magistrate, James Langmuir, was reprimanded in the House of Commons after he called the Rolling Stones "morons (who] wear their hair down to their shoulders, wear filthy clothes (and] act like clowns." He made the remarks whilst sentencing a boy who admitted smashing windows near to one of their concerts. Tom Driberg (MP for Barking) tabled a motion calling the remarks "snobbish" and "irrelevant".

Government planners agreed with a Leeds council decision not to allow Joshua Tetley to build a pub to replace the Globe Hotel, Broad Lane, Bramley.

Dewsbury Council came to the aid of whippet racers who were prevented from using a field in Crow Nest Park by a brewery. Coun M Jackson managed to find the whippet racers an alternative field, on Sands Lane, adding: "Dewsbury is well thought of in the whippet world."

An advert for The People newspaper threatened to reveal the truth about professional televised wrestling, calling the sport "the great hoax". It asked: "Do they really hurt and hate each other, or is the whole thing a laughable fake?" It added: "The People has found out the answers to these and many other intriguing questions." Hmm.

Copper thieves stole 850 yards of earthing wire between 11 spans of posts from Greetland to Moorland, Halifax – police reckoned their haul was worth about £79 – or, just over £1,000 in today's money.

Ind Coope Long Life beer claimed to be the first in a 'pop top' metal can, which had a rip off ring-pull on top.

Five Churchill commemorative stamps were sold on July 7, one day before their official release date, in a Cleckheaton Post Office – any which were posted and franked could end up being worth a lot of money to collectors, said a GPO spokesman. On July 8, there were queues to buy the stamps with some people snapping them up by the dozen – it was the first time a portrait had been carried on a stamp along with the head of the Queen.

Edward Heath became leader of the British Conservative Party.

The BBC employed the first ever "coloured" announcer, Dwight Whylie, of Kingston, Jamaica, who began work on the corporation's "domestic sound services" (radio, to you and me). Mr Whylie died in September 2002.

THE WORLD

US spacecraft Mariner 4 flew by Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to return images from the red planet.

Bob Dylan courted controversy among folk purists by "going electric" at the Newport Folk Festival.

The Mont Blanc Tunnel, which links France to Italy via an 11km route under the Alps, was inaugurated by presidents Giuseppe Saragat and Charles de Gaulle on July 16.

Greek Prime minister George Papandreou and his government were dismissed by King Constantine II, King of the Hellenes, who was eventually deposed by military junta on June 1, 1973.

THE GOSSIP

Comedian Tony Hancock, pictured below, offered no defence in a divorce court when his wife, Cicely Janet Elizabeth, was granted a decree nisi because of his adultery. She named her husband's publicity agent, Miss Freddie Ross, as "the other woman".

Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley was born on July 4; Slash (Saul Hudson), from Guns n' Roses, came into the world on July 23; as did JK Rowling on July 31.

Escaped train robber Ronnie Biggs was nowhere to be seen – police found his prison clothes at Fivehead, Somerset, his getaway car was found abandoned in Holloway, North London and a possible sighting was made in France. Biggs was one of the gang behind the Great Train Robbery, which netted them £2.6m.

AND FINALLY

More than 70 people entered the world pram pushing championships, from Kippax to Castleford. Competitors had to walk with an empty pram from Kippax War Memorial four-and-a-half miles to the Britannia Inn, Lock Lane, Castleford. Every man (presumably women also entered) finishing the course got two pints of beer, the winner got nine gallons. The annual race on July 18 began in 1956 after an argument between two men in a pub.