Fifty years ago, in the morning of September 19, 1961, the assistant curator of the Kandy museum opened the doors and to his amazement found the crown of King Rajasinghe II missing from its usual display. He also noticed an opening in the wooden ceiling of the centre gallery of the museum and that the door of the glass show case had been forced open.

Beseiged Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi is now a controversial figure, but in 1976 when he visited Sri Lanka for the Non-Aligned Movement conference, he was a celebrity, one of the most prominent of the many heads of state attending the summit. It was the only time he visited Sri Lanka.