Swindon

1951: David Pinnell, 14, and his sister Ann, eight, of Ferndale Road had a lucky escape when they were passengers in the Wild Goose, one of the trains from Far Tottering to Oyster Creek which crashed head-on into the Emmett Railway in the Battersea Pleasure Gardens. The children were trapped under the engine, but escaped with only bruising and abrasions.

1961: Former Swindon Mayor, Mr F D Jefford, footed the bill so 181 old folks could enjoy a trip to the seaside. Five coaches left Swindon on Jefford’s Jaunt to Southsea. The Old People’s Welfare Committee chose people who were deserving causes. It cost Mr Jefford £1 a person.

1971: Dr Bernard James, the leader of a Swindon medical team to cholera-smitten India returned with tales of death, disease and acute human suffering. While there, his team inoculated 70,000 people and dealt with 10,000 hospitalised cases.

the world

1643: In the English Civil War, the Cavaliers beat the Roundheads at Roundway Down.

1837: Queen Victoria moved into Buckingham Palace, the first monarch to live there.

1939: Frank Sinatra made his first record, From The Bottom Of My Heart, with the Harry James Band.

1955: Nightclub hostess Ruth Ellis became the last woman hanged in Britain when the sentence for murdering her lover David Blakely was carried out at Holloway Prison.

1973: The Everly Brothers parted on stage in California when Phil smashed his guitar and stormed off, leaving Don to finish the gig.

BIRTHDAYS Patrick Stewart, actor, 77; Harrison Ford, actor, 75; Erno Rubik, Rubik’s Cube inventor, 73; Ian Hislop, Private Eye editor, 57.