Cast your minds back 30 years when all this was happening.
Images from 1994 have been preserved in the Sunderland Echo highlights and here are some of them.
We had a visit from Princess Anne, Tony Blair was touring a new fire brigade HQ and Dave Stewart was passing on his musical expertise.
Intrigued? Here's more.
9. Raising a cap to Andy
Eileen Turner of Ford Estate was pictured with her grandson Liam who made the headlines after he read every Andy Capp book. | se
10. Maggie's star visit
TV presenter Maggie Philbin was the VIP guest at the Science and Technology Fair at Sunderland University. Here she is with four year old Jade Jones, left, Michael Robbie, 17 of Plains Farm and Adam Edward, six of Barnes Park. | se
11. Your 1994 memories are needed
We shared some of our 1994 archive images. Share your memories of them by emailing [email protected] | se