Swindon

1951: A coach party of 26 members and friends of the Swindon Branch of the National Union of Retail Tobacconists visited the Bristol No 4 factory of Messrs W D and H O Wills where they saw cigarettes and cigars being manufactured.

1951: The July meeting of the Corston and Rodbourne Women’s Institute was held in the gardens of Quarry House at the invitation of Mrs R Tindle. Miss Craik of Shaftesbury Cripple Home gave a demonstration of basketry and Mrs Tindle won the sack race.

1961: More than 30 farmers from Swindon and district flew from South Marston to Liverpool to visit farms belonging to cattle food manufacturers. They were accompanied by the Swindon district manager Mr H Essinton.

1971: Hollyhocks grown by Bert White had dwarfed the garden shed in Bert’s home at Heddington, near Calne. Some had reached the height of 11ft and were still growing. Last year, the 71-year-old horticulturist said, his hollyhocks only made it to 6ft.

1971: Brien Chitty, the administrator at the new Wyvern Theatre in Swindon, has welcomed town youngsters to a new Swindon Children’s Show, held once a month, with performances on both Saturday mornings and afternoons, to give mum a chance to go shopping. The first performance was by the Westminster Children’s Theatre and a special treat for Swindon young people was the announcement of a visit from television’s Lenny the Lion.

The world

1694: The Bank of England was founded with government backing.

1866: The Great Eastern arrived at Heart’s Content in Newfoundland, having successfully laid the transatlantic telegraph cable.

1890: Artist Vincent Van Gogh went to the spot where he had painted Cornfield With Flight Of Birds and shot himself. He died two days later, aged 37.

1900: Kaiser Wilhelm II makes a speech comparing Germans to Huns; for years afterwards, “Hun” would be a disparaging name for Germans.

1921: The first insulin was isolated by Canadians Sir Frederick Banting and his assistant Charles Best, providing an effective treatment for diabetes.

1949: The de Havilland Comet, the world’s first jet airliner, made its maiden flight.

1953: The Korean Armistice was signed at Panmunjom.

1964: Sir Winston Churchill made his last appearance in the House of Commons.

1980: The deposed Shah of Iran died of cancer in Cairo.

1987: RMS Titanic Inc. begins the first expedited salvage of wreckage of the RMS Titanic.

1988: Mercury Communications opened its first non-British Telecom payphones at Waterloo Station.

1989: The Common Cold Research Centre in Salisbury closed after giving colds to 30,000 people over 43 years.

2016: An orangutan called Rocky has outperformed Sylvester Stallone in the movie of the same name by displaying an ability to emulate human speech.

Birthdays Jack Higgins, novelist, 88; Baroness (Shirley) Williams, politician, 87; Bobbie Gentry, singer, 73; Allan Border, former cricketer, 62; Christopher Dean, former Olympic ice-skater, 59; Jo Durie, former tennis player, 57; Jonathan Rhys Meyers, actor, 40; George Shelley, former Union J musician, 24.