![Times Past: May 24, 1960 Times Past: May 24, 1960](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/Yecs3Py5qDsXRaXHGQZdPb/00c7e0dd-c79a-41f9-a3a3-bc38939b7b81.JPG/r0_0_1089_1695_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
As Canberrans adjust to the rules and the etiquette of their shiny new trams, we revisit a front page story from this day in 1960 when a noisy passenger on a Victorian train made history.
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In what was recorded as the first prosecution of its kind in Australia, Peter Graham Myers, 21, was fined £5 for using a transistor radio in a railway carriage.
The report said that he had "wilfully interfered with the comfort of other passengers'' by playing rock 'n roll and horse-race descriptions for the full duration of the trip from Melbourne to Lilydale, a distance of 23 miles.
When the railway staff member spoke to him about it, Mr Myers admitted: "I did not think of anyone else."
Suggesting the newfound portability of radio was causing headaches all around, the same report said a prosecution was about to be launched in a Sydney children's court for a similar breach.
"We will not hesitate to prosecute anyone who refuses to do the reasonable thing," the railways commissioner said.
That news, and a photo of a couple of boys in Reid putting out their bonfire that had "tragically'' caught alight a few hours before sundown, were probably a welcome distraction from some of the other worrying Cold War news gracing the front page that day.
The lead story reported on the Soviet condemnation of US spy flights, while another story reported on scientists in both countries working towards "Death Ray'' bombs, which could kill huge numbers of enemy troops without hurting friendly forces. Just another day in 1960.