THIS DAY IN OUR PAST

The following events took place on January 31 in the years identified:

1970: The combination of major UK/US institutions to establish a new merchant bank in Jamaica is announced by Leslie E. Ashenheim. Ashenheim, who will be chairman of the board of directors. Mr. Ashenheim stated that the new bank, Crown Continental Merchant Bank Jamaica Limited, with headquarters in Kingston, is being sponsored by Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations of London, and also by Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago.

1972: Prime Minister Hugh Shearer announces that Jamaica will go to the polls on Tuesday, February 29, Leap Year Day, to elect the Government of the country for the next five-year term, 1972 - 1977. Nomination day is Monday, February 7. (See related photo below)

1972: The fashion luncheon organised by the ladies committee of the Jamaica Dental Association as part of the annual convention which opens at the Sheraton Kingston Hotel, ends with song as the gathering marked the birthday of Warren Robinson, chairman of the convention committee.

1973: The Kingston & St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) street cleaners defy orders from four trade unions to end their six-day-old strike over wages, as garbage continued to pile up throughout the Corporate Area. Mayor Eli Matalon notified the Ministry of Labour that KSAC representatives would not meet with the unions until work resumed. The Corporation had set a deadline for work resumption so that a local-level meeting could be held to resolve the issue over a 15% wage differential which the cleaners are supposed to get, in keeping with an arbitration award of 1977.