London 79

On Jan. 10, 1979, a tanned Jim Callaghan, then the prime minister of Great Britain, gave an impromptu press conference at a freezing Heathrow on his return from a Caribbean summit. An unofficial strike by lorry drivers had halted petrol supplies and the country was almost at a standstill. Troops were on standby for a state of emergency to be declared. Callaghan's view that this did not amount to "mounting chaos" led the Sun to carry the front page headline quoting Callaghan as saying "Crisis, what Crisis?" and its editorial to use Shakespeare's opening line from Richard III, "Now is the winter of our discontent."