IRISH TIMES ODDITIES/Goalkeeper on fire:An unprecedented incident at an ice hockey match in Toronto occurred yesterday. The "puck" (the rubber ring used instead of a ball) struck the goalkeeper, who had a box of matches and a celluloid comb in his pocket, writes Allen Foster.
The impact ignited the matches, and the comb also burst into flames, with the result that the player's clothes took fire, and he was badly burned before his companions and the spectators were able to put out the flames.
February 19th, 1930
Jackdaw had wedding ring
Mrs Mary Miskelly, of Glastonkill, Co Armagh has found her wedding ring, which was lost 42 years ago. In March 1908, she lost the ring while planting potatoes. When workmen, dismantling the chimney of a disused house on her farm yesterday, pulled out the remains of a jackdaw's nest a glittering object amongst the twigs and hair was found to be Mrs Miskelly's lost ring.
January 13th, 1950
Betrayed by his hat
When Police-Constable Hodgson, of the Manchester police, saw a light in a shop in Davyhulme he became suspicious, as he knew that the shopkeeper was away.
He peered inside, and saw a man in the act of switching off the light. As the officer entered the building a man dashed out through the back door and escaped. Unfortunately for him, his hat fell from his head, and the policeman took charge of it. Some time later the officer found Ernest P Simpson, an electrical engineer, standing hatless in the doorway of his house in Chistlehurst avenue, Davyhulme. Simpson said that he was returning from visiting friends. "And were you wearing a hat when you left your friends?" he was asked.
"Yes," he replied. "I had one when I left the house, but lost it. I had some drink, and I fell."
Police-Constable Hodgson then showed him the hat that he picked up, and Simpson said, "I may as well admit it".
At the Manchester County Police Court yesterday Simpson was fined £10 for stealing articles and money to the value of £5 4 shillings from the shop.
August 31st, 1928
Bombs in a coffin
The Berlin correspondent of the Globe states that the Berliner Tageblatt publishes an extraordinary telegram from St Petersburg, according to which a plot to destroy the Winter Palace of the Tsar in St Petersburg has been discovered.
The correspondent states that a minor official at the palace died a few days ago, and shortly afterwards two men came to the palace bearing a coffin.
They were permitted to enter, but instead of proceeding direct to the room in which the dead man lay, they carried the coffin through into the Tsar's residential quarters.
Here they were stopped by an official, who questioned them closely as to why they were carrying the coffin that way, and, as their replies were considered unsatisfactory the coffin was opened, whereupon it was discovered to contain a quantity of explosives.
The correspondent adds that both men were immediately placed under arrest, and that an inquiry has been opened concerning the affair. Both protested ignorance as to what the coffin contained.
April 11th, 1911
Twins born in different years
Thomas Anthony McGroarty and his sister Annie Elizabeth of Ballinamore, The Cross, Co Derry are twins, but when the time came for them to start going to school this year a remarkable fact emerged.
Inquiries made with a view to obtaining copies of their birth certificates for the school authorities showed that the children were born in different years - Annie in 1939 and Thomas in 1940.
The explanation given for this was that Annie was registered as having been born at 11.30pm on December 31st, 1939, and Thomas at 12.30am on January 1st, 1940.
January 21st, 1946
Culled from the archives of The Irish Times, available online at www.ireland.com/archive