Historical Timeline
1950's
1950 - Bright's
Nursery on Whitworth Road opened on January 10. It was, at the time,
the
world's largest privately run nursery
1952 - Cyril Smith elected to Rochdale Council
1952 - Clover Mill destroyed by fire
1954 - Theatre Royal destroyed in a fire in November
1960's
1965 - C.W.S.
purchased Cassons
1966 - Cyril Smith elected Mayor of Rochdale - received
M.B.E.
1968 - The last steam train to make a scheduled trip from
York to Manchester passed through Rochdale
1970's
1971 - Rakewood
Viaduct opened in October. It is 840 feet long and rises 140 feet above
the valley bottom
1972 - Cyril Smith became Liberal MP
1978 - Gracie Fields opens shopping precinct in Rochdale
1978 - September 15 Gracie Fields opened the Rochdale
Exchange Shopping Centre
1980's
1984 - Fire
broke out in the Summit Tunnel
1988 - Cyril
Smith knighted
1990's
1991 - Cyril
Smith became Deputy Lieutenant of Greater Manchester
1992 - Cyril Smith stood down from Parliament
April 23, 1999 -
A dramatic police chase came to a stop a mile from the Rochdale city
centre. Police began pursuing a suspicious car on the M61 near Bolton.
The occupants of the car opened fire on the police car and this
precipitated a 50 mile chase, during which the occupants of the car
fired on a number of passersby, injuring several of them. Armed with a
handgun and a Kalishnikov rifle, the fugitives twice changed cars and
kidnapped a 27 year-old woman bystander. The chase ended near Rochdale
when the driver finally lost control crashing the stolen BMW into a
lamp pole.
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