THIS week 15 years ago, The Queen was recovering in hospital after a torn cartilage was removed from her right knee.

The operation, which took place at the King Edward VII Hospital in central London, went “very well” Buckingham Palace said.

The palace also said that she was expected to be "fully active again within a few weeks".

The injury came after she wrenched her knee while walking on uneven ground during a private visit to Newmarket.

Also, that week, a £6m sports research laboratory was being built on a university campus in Teesside.

An environmental chamber, with temperature controls that could change with pinpoint accuracy to simulate the climate of almost any country in the world, was being constructed as a feature of the research laboratory.

The lab was planned to be opened in time for the new academic year at the University of Teesside, in Middlesbrough, with the capability to test competitors against a range of adverse conditions and to adjust them.

And a haul of 500 original Beatles tapes stolen in the 1970s and containing tracks which had never been released were found after police cracked a piracy racket.

Police said the tapes were priceless and the only recordings from them which have ever been heard before were on bootlegs.

The tapes contained what are known as the Get Back sessions. There was to be an album of that name in 1969 but the project was shelved.

Instead, some of the songs, including Get Back itself, became part of the Let It Be album.

For many devoted fans and collectors, the original reel-to-reel tapes were the equivalent of the Holy Grail.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) led the investigation in consultation with the City of London Police central detective unit.

They identified a number of suspects who were thought to have been involved in the theft and handling of the tapes.

Further inquiries across Europe led to a joint operation between the London officers and Dutch police.