SWINDON

1952: A dozen boys from Bentham House School in Purton Stoke visited Swindon County Court for an insight into the workings of civil law. Judge Kirkhouse Jenkins began by explaining that he had earlier dealt with a number of cases, mostly involving adoptions and compensation issues, in private. He then allowed the boys to see some public cases, and lamented that they were not especially interesting.

1952: Records kept by Mr H Cook, Swindon’s leading amateur weather watcher, showed that six inches of snow fell during a blizzard on the last Saturday in March, making it the heaviest March snowfall since 1947, when Mr Cook recorded a total of 16 inches. Rainfall totalled three inches, which was 1.23 inches above the average, although total rainfall for the first three months of 1952 was slightly below average.

1962: A shorter working week, more leisure hours and little idea of how best to use them were among the problems to be discussed at a forthcoming conference, Focus on Outdoor Activities, organised by Swindon Education Committee. Due to be held at Walcot Secondary School later in the month, the conference was to promote activities including fly fishing, archery, golf, sailing, gliding and other hobbies.

1962: A Swindon woman, Mrs Joan Templer, who had emigrated to Australia 13 years earlier to work as a nurse, was the new president of a women’s club in the town of Mentone. She had started her career in Romford, Essex, and decided to go to Australia while serving in Japan as a nursing sister with the Queen Alexandra’s Nursing Service Reserves.

1972: An AA spokesman urged so-called summer drivers - people who didn’t use their vehicles during the autumn and winter months - to make sure their cars were not rolling death traps. A major problem, the spokesman added, was people taking to the roads with tyres which were completely bald.

1972: The Orchard caravan site in Wootton Bassett was targeted by a thief who went from mobile home to mobile home and prised open electricity meters. Of the 37 caravans, 22 had their meters raided, and it was estimated that the total loss was about £80 in coins. The police launched an investigation.sTHE WORLD

1367: Henry IV was born at Bolingbroke Castle, Lincolnshire.

1882: Jesse James, the legendary outlaw, was shot in the back by one of his own gang.

1897: Johannes Brahms, German pianist and composer, died in Vienna.

1901: Richard D’Oyly Carte, English impresario best remembered as the man behind Gilbert and Sullivan and who built the Savoy Theatre to house their works, died.

1913: Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst was sentenced to three years for inciting supporters to place explosives at the London home of David Lloyd George.

1922: Joseph Stalin was appointed general secretary of the Communist Party in Russia.

1987: The late Duchess of Windsor’s jewels fetched £31 million at auction.

1991: Graham Greene, one of Britain’s leading novelists for more than 30 years, died at Vevey, Switzerland, aged 86.

2010: Apple released the iPad in the United States.

2017: Residents were left desperately searching their ruined homes and a local hospital for loved ones after a torrent of water, mud and debris swept through a city in southern Colombia, killing more than 200.

BIRTHDAYS

Doris Day, actress, 96; Helmut Kohl, former German chancellor, 88; Alec Baldwin, actor, 60; David Hyde Pierce, actor, 59; Eddie Murphy, actor/comedian, 57; Kenny Logan, former rugby union player, 46; Will Mellor, actor, 42; Leona Lewis, singer, 33.