SWINDON

1952: Appearing in her first musical festival competition, Diedre O’Brien, of Faringdon Road, Swindon won a medal for second place in the vocal class for girls under ten, at the British Railways Musical Festival in Reading. She was awarded 85 marks by the adjudicator Mr E Cundle. Keith Jarvis of Bowood Road, Swindon won the first prize of a silver medal with 89 points in the junior pianoforte class.

1952: At a meeting of the Trades Council in Swindon it was stated that there were 64 pianos in the 21 Swindon schools. Mr G S Fletcher, secretary of the Trades Council, read out a statement at the meeting declaring that the council and Swindon Education Committee were looking at economies, and one way to spend less money was on pianos for schools. They were currently spending £350 a year on pianos, he said.

1962: Children from the Marlborough area, looked after by the National Children’s Home, were to benefit from proceeds of The Marlborough Festival of Queens held at Marlborough Town Hall. A feature of the festival was a personal appearance of Miss Mary Dalley, who plays the part of Prue Forrest in the radio serial The Archers. She delighted the children with her humour and conjuring tricks. The Mayor of Marlborough, Ald Eric J Free, paid tribute to the work of the home.

1962: With the almost continual flow of new families on to the Swindon Park Estates, the churches, St John The Baptist and Queen’s Drive Methodist, had trouble keeping up, so they combined in Operation Highway, a mission which took the church and its message into the 2,000 homes on the Park estates. A team of eight Oxford University students led the Operation.

1972: Swindon Youth Council wanted to brighten up its public image so at a meeting of the council they decided to form a public relations committee. The members elected were: Lynette Goodfellow, Susan Parker, Michelle Samm, Peter Whittaker and Dorino Rucci. Three youth council officials completed the committee they were: Jim Wolfenden, Alan Walters and Sandra Little.

1972: The North Wiltshire Gipsy Society had been sending letters to the Wiltshire County Council about not wanting to go to the new, proposed site at Wroughton because of a lack of transport facilities for their work. They said the sites at Ogbourne and Rushey Platt would be more suitable than Wroughton. At a meeting in Swindon, the chairman, Coun Eric Hodges, stated that no reply from the council had been received.

THE WORLD

1687: Jean-Baptiste Lully, composer who made French opera popular, died from an abscess on his foot caused by striking it with the stick he used to conduct his Te Deum.

1859: In Melbourne, plasterer Ben Douglas became chairman of the Political Labour League of Victoria, the first Labour Party.

1888: The English Football League was formed by 12 clubs meeting at a Fleet Street hotel.

1895: The first celluloid film was presented to an invited audience by Auguste and Louis Lumiere in Paris.

1896: Thomas Hughes, lawyer, author and Liberal MP, died. Born in Uffington, he was involved in the formation of some early trade unions and wrote Tom Brown’s Schooldays.

1907: The first cabs with taxi meters began operating in London.

1945: The Arab League was founded by seven Middle East countries.

1958: Showman Michael Todd, husband of Elizabeth Taylor, died when his light aircraft iced up and crashed into mountains in New Mexico. The plane was called Lucky Liz.

1963: John Profumo denied having an affair with model Christine Keeler. The Secretary of State for War later resigned admitting he had lied to parliament.

1979: The British ambassador in Holland Sir Richard Sykes was shot dead by two IRA gunmen who opened fire outside his home in The Hague.

1996: The war crimes tribunal in The Hague made its first indictment of three Muslims and a Croat for the torture, rape and murder of Serb prisoners.

2017: Five people were killed and 50 injured when a terrorist drove into pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge and stabbed a policeman.

BIRTHDAYS

Stephen Sondheim, songwriter, 88; William Shatner, actor, 87; M Emmet Walsh, actor, 83; Roger Whittaker, singer/songwriter, 82; George Benson, guitarist, 75; Lord (Andrew) Lloyd Webber, composer, 70; Matthew Modine, actor, 59; Beverley Knight, singer, 45; Reese Witherspoon, actress, 42.