- A journey back through time to look at significant news and events reported by the South China Morning Post from this week in history
A US Marine posing seminude for Playboy, an archbishop appealing for "cheerful news" on television, and Hong Kong being used as a transit point for Vietnamese spies made the headlines 40 years ago this week.
February 24, 1980
● US Marine Corps Sergeant Bambi Lin Finney was kicked out from the service after posing seminude for Playboy. In a display of defiance, Finney, 22, said, "These people are archaic if they think I brought disgrace on the Marine Corps." Finney and six other military women posed for a photo series in the magazine. All the other women were seminude in at least one picture while Finney appeared in five photos in the magazine's April issue that year.
● Tai-Pan, the on-again, off-again film about the founding of Hong Kong, loosely based on James Clavell's 1966 eponymous novel, was all set to go before the cameras, according to sources in London and Los Angeles. The film would star Sean Connery with Martin Ritt as director, the sources said. It was revealed that Connery's casting followed pressure by the author, who felt the Scotsman was ideal for the leading role.
February 25, 1980
● A man who hacked to death a couple and their eight-year-old son with an axe was executed in front of a crowd of 10,000 people near Shantou in Guangdong. According to local news reports, Chen Fazong had heard a rumour that his wife had been raped by their neighbour Li Songlin. Although there was no evidence, Chen had sworn to kill the entire Li family in revenge. Besides killing the three, Chen also seriously injured the couple's five-year-old daughter and two other people who tried to stop him.
February 26, 1980
● The government granted Far East Hydrofoil Co Ltd the right to operate a night jetfoil service between Hong Kong and Macau. But the service was not expected to begin until the end of that week as formal approval had not yet been obtained from the Portuguese government.
● Too much bad news was unbearable, according to the Archbishop of York, the Rt Rev Stuart Blanch, who said he had stopped watching the evening news on television because of that. He said the evening news consisted of "endless repetitions of violence, strident speeches, declarations of war".
The Archbishop, second-ranking prelate in the Church of England, appealed to television authorities to include at least one item of "cheerful news" every day "to remind us that the most important things are never achieved by violence".
February 27, 1980
● Hong Kong was being used to set up a worldwide network of Vietnamese spies, according to diplomatic and government sources. The spies, posing as refugees were "sleeper agents" while in transit in the city pending resettlement abroad. Their aim was to reach Vietnamese communities overseas. A source reassured that: "I don't think there is any kind of a North Vietnamese espionage offensive against Hong Kong."
February 28, 1980
● An Israeli man was arrested in Lower Manhattan after he tried to push a Chinese man into the path of an underground train because he "did not like Chinese people", police said. Officers said the attacker jumped the turnstiles at a station near Chinatown and tried to push the man onto the tracks as a train was approaching.
● A Brooklyn man was shot in the back with an arrow by a man wearing a green hooded jumper who jumped from a van and then sped off in the vehicle after the attack. There was no apparent motive. The victim was in critical but stable condition.
● A London forklift truck driver won nearly GBP1 million (about HK$11 million at the time) on the football pools. It was the second time that David Preston, 47, had correctly forecast the results. He won GBP10,000 10 years before.
February 29, 1980
● An English debutante was romantically linked to Prince Charles, according to British newspapers. Anna Wallace, 25, was said to be causing "quite a ripple" among her rivals because she just might be the one love of the heir to the British throne. Though a commoner, Wallace had many close ties to British royalty.
● A woman in New York who cracked an egg and found a snakelet inside was suing the egg supplier for US$3.6 million (about HK$18 million at the time). The woman said: "I was almost hysterical. I haven't been the same since. I have a thing about rodents and snakes."
March 1, 1980
● The Chinese Communist Party announced that it had sacked four prominent officials for "failing in their leadership duties". The four had come under severe attacks, most notably for their suspected association with the notorious Gang of Four political faction and for their opposition to the policies of Senior Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping.
Remember A Day looks at significant news and events reported by the Post during this week in history
Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
