From our files

SUNDAY was America's 200th birthday and from coast to coast the country celebrated with the all star-spangled ticker-taped ballyhoo which is America.

But it is doubtful that any community on the other side of the Atlantic put in more effort or went to greater lengths to celebrate the bi-centenary than the Lanchashire village of Warton.

George Washington was America's first president and though he never set foot in Warton his ancestors did.

They settled there in the Middle Ages and for present-day villagers that was a good enough excuse to make Independence Day 1976 the biggest event in their history.

Villagers put their heads together 15 months ago and came up with a week of celebrations which attracted several thousand people, including visitors from America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The stars and stripes flew from the church flagpole, as it does every Independence Day, and a signed photograph of President Gerald Ford hung inside, near the Washington coat of arms.

50 Years Ago--July 14, 1951

Third attempt

FOR the third successive year Mr Donald Campbell is coming to Coniston Water with his speedboat Bluebird.

Preliminary arrangements have been made and it is expected that the boat will arrive this weekend.

Mr Campbell will follow in a few days, after his mechanics have prepared Bluebird for her trials.

For some weeks past the proposed visit has been known to a few people in the Coniston and Hawkshead districts, but the matter has been kept a close secret.

Bluebird was recently brought back to this country from Italy where she was piloted by Mr Campbell in international trials on Lake Garda.

Mr Campbell paid four visits to Coniston last year between May and the end of October when he abandoned his speed trials for that year.

100 Years Ago-July 12, 1901-Speedy driver

AN engineer named George Hageman was charged at Brentford with driving a motor-car to the common danger and causing injury to Joseph Collier by running into him.

A constable said he saw the motor-car driven by prisoner at a very fast rate, and heard someone shouting, "Stop, you've run over a man!"

Witness held up his hand for the car to stop, but prisoner took no notice and went on, but something went wrong with the works and it stopped, so that a young man on a bicycle caught it up and stopped prisoner.

He was not drunk, but had a good deal of spirits.

Charles Weedon, of Isleworth, said the car was not going at great speed but was swerving from side to side.

Prisoner had his hand around a young lady's waist, and was kissing her, so that he could not steer with the other hand.

When the young lady was pitched out on top of a man she called to prisoner, "Oh Georgie, go along, go along! Don't stop!" Prisoner denied that he was holding a young lady.

The reason he doubled his pace after knocking down the injured was that he was going to fetch a policeman.

150 Years Ago--July 12, 1851-Black powder

A WANT of attention to the chemical action of colours has sometimes led ladies into an embarrassing predicament.

Bismuth-powder, sometimes sold as a substitute for genuine pearl powder, has the property of turning black when in contact with fumes of sulphur.

A lady who painted with this cosmetic, happened to bathe in a mineral water impregnated with this gas; and the consequence was that the artificially whitened skin turned nearly black, and so remained for several weeks.

Another lady attending a lecture in Harrogate on mineral waters; the lecturer handed round a bottle containing sulphurated water.

The lady did as the other ladies smelt at the bottle, and the result was, that she became not merely figuratively, but literally "black in the face." Instances have been known in which a lady, seated near a large fire at Christmas time, has had one side of her white neck tinged with a darkness.