From the archives of the Hindustan Times: September 26

Administrative unit for Nagas (1957)

New Delhi- Accepting the proposal made by the Naga People’s Convention held at Kohima last month, the Union Government have decided to join up the Naga Hills district of Assam and the Tuensang Frontier Division of N.-E.F.A., which is also inhabited by Nagas, and make the area one administrative units, within the Union.

The new administrative unit is likely to be named Naga Hills. This is one of the details on which a final decision has yet to be taken, it is believed. It is to be directly under the President. It will be administered by the Governor of Assam on behalf of the President under the Union Ministry of External Affairs.

The Prime Minister conveyed the Government’s decision to the members of the nine-man Naga delegation who met him this morning (September 25). The discussions lasted about 15 minutes. Mr. S. Dutt, Foreign Secretary and Mr. B. K. Acharya, Joint Secretary, were also present during the talks. The Government have also decided to grant amnesty in respect of all offences committed in the area in the past. This amnesty, the Prime Minister stated, would not cover offences that might be committed hereafter.

Ceylon youth shoots Bandaranaike (1959)

Colombo- A young man in the yellow robes of a Buddhist monk shot at the Ceylon Prime Minister, Mr. Solomon Bandaranaike, at his residence in Rosemead Place today (September 25) dangerously hurting him in the abdomen and hand.

A state of emergency was declared throughout the country soon after the Prime Minister was rushed to the hospital in a pool of blood for an emergency operation for multiple internal injuries. The operation lasted five hours.

A health bulletin issued after 7 p.m. said the Prime Minister had made slight improvement. No further bulletins will be issued until tomorrow morning.

The assailant whose name was given as Somarama Thero, was shot in the groin by the sentry on duty at the Prime Minister’s residence and was badly beaten by visitors there before he was taken into police custody.

He shot six rounds, four of which hit the Prime Minister at close range, one hit a visitor who sought to intervene and the sixth went wide, piercing a clean hole in the glass panel that separated the drawing room of the Prime Minister’s residence from the verandah.

The attempted assassination, first in the history of Ceylon’s political life, cast gloom over the entire country.

Political leaders of all parties in Parliament said that the “dastardly act” which introduced a new element into politics deserved “outright condemnation.”

In the House of Representatives where the incident was referred to, the members hoped and prayed for the speedy recovery of the Prime Minister.

Over 300 dead, 700 injured in Japan typhoons (1966)

Tokyo- More than 300 Japanese were dead or missing today (September 25) after two typhoons within 24 hours hit central and western Japan.

Police headquarters, gathering casualty figures from damaged prefectures, listed 174 dead, with the figure mounting, and 140 missing. More than 700 were injured.

More than 4,000 homes were destroyed and 40,000 suffered from flood damage. It was Japan’s worst typhoon disaster in six years.

By this evening both typhoons Ida and Helen-had lost most of their fury and been reduced to tropical storms.

Ida hit just south of Tokyo last night with 68-mile an hour winds, swung north over the length of Honshu, the main island, then burst into the Pacific again late today.

Serious damage

Helen struck Shikoku island today with 55-mile an hour winds, passed across the narrow waist of Honshu just south of Osaka then pushed into the Japan Sea.

It was expected to curve eastwards and hit northern Honshu or Hokkaido early tomorrow. Ida struck central Japan at high tide last night and caused most of the deaths and damage. In a night of howling winds and driving rains, thousands of Japanese fled from their flooded low-lying homes for safer ground.

The typhoon caused serious damage at Tachikawa, U.S. Air Force base, 20 miles west of Tokyo, add AP, AFP.

Hardest hit were the provinces of Shizuoka on the Pacific seaboard and Yamanashi, south-west and west of Tokyo.

In Saiko, Vamanashi prefecture at the foothills of Mount Fuji, 23 villagers were killed and 40 others were missing when two villages were entombed in a massive landslide. Defence forces and police were engaged in frantic rescue operations, digging into the mountainous heaps of earth for survivors.