LIGHTNING: A flash of lightning tore through the roof setting ablaze a house in Woodhall Close, Brandlesholme. Neighbours heard a crash like a bomb blast and from their windows saw the house burst into flames. The owner Mr John Rooney hurried back from work in Manchester to find his three-year-old detached home a burnt-out shell. The force of the blase blew out plugs in nearby homes.

CHICKENS: After a moorhen had been shot near a lodge at Elton, four schoolgirls found three tiny chicks huddled against the body of their dead mother trying to keep warm. Debbie and Cheryl Dawson and their friends Debbie and Marie Kiley, all of Holcombe Avenue, Bury, took the birds to the Greenmount Bird Sanctuary. SMALLPOX: Ainsworth Hospital is to become the sole reception centre for small-pox cases in the Merseyside and North Western regions.

HOLIDAY: A holiday abroad has ended in a hospital bed for 17-year-old Kim Berry of Pilling Street, Bury. She had almost completed an eight-days holiday in Majorca when she became ill with appendicitis and was admitted to a Palma clinic where she underwent an operation. Her parents flew out to the island to be by her bedside.

CELEBRATION: Chris and Cheryl Hamer had double cause for celebration back in July, 1975. A baby daughter was born to the couple of Dean Close, Edenfield, as they both celebrated gaining Bachelor of Arts honours degrees. Chris gain his BA in painting and fine art while his Malaysian wife gained hers for graphic art.

CINEMA: Showing at Bury's Odeon this were was the new adventure film 'The Land That Time Forgot' while the Classic was showing a Gene Hackman double-bill: 'The Poseidon Adventure' and 'The French Connection".