Swindon

1951: A tame fox, around three and a half months old, and named Fritz, was kept by Mr V Bartlett of Beech Avenue, Pinehurst, Swindon. Fritz’s home was a shed at the rear of a steel fabricated house. Mr Bartlett got him when he was just one month old from a smallholder. Fritz goes for a walk, like a dog, along Regent Street and romps around the house with Mr Bartlett’s young children.

1951: Flt Lt B R Harrington was interviewed on stage at the Regent Cinema during the meeting of the Gaumont Junior Club. But the children were more interested in Raff, the St Bernard who had been travelling the country raising money for various charities. Raff had collected £127 including £25 for the Swindon parish Church Restoration Fund.

1961: When the £109,000 extensions to Kingsdown Secondary Modern School at Stratton St Margaret have been completed the school will accommodate 630, despite the original design to accommodate 350 pupils. There was to be a new assembly hall and administration block and the school will have an imposing entrance and foyer.

1961: A Swindon contingent joined 10,000 jazz fans at the Beaulieu Jazz Festival on the lawn of the Palace House, Beaulieu in the New Forest. The Swindon jazz enthusiasts were members of the Traditional Jazz Club and the Swindon Oriental Jazz Club. Some of the party hitch-hiked to the festival.

1971: Brenda Kilford, 19, of Pewsham Road, Penhill, Swindon competed in a heat for the Miss HTV West competition on This Is The West This Week programme. Jennifer Benton, 23, of Amesbury was also competing for the viewers’ vote.

1971: J H Mudfords and Sons, previously of The Parade, Marlborough, have moved to Wootton Bassett. The former Wiltshire Joinery Factory in Morestone Road now houses Mudfords, who were forced to leave Marlborough as their lease ran out. Mudfords produced plastic sheeting, tarpaulins and products for the building trade.

The world

1540: Thomas Cromwell, chancellor to Henry VIII, was beheaded on Tower Hill for promoting the king’s failed marriage to Anne of Cleves. On the same day, Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.

1586: The first potatoes arrived in Britain in Plymouth, brought from Colombia by Sir Thomas Harriott.

1750: Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer, died of a stroke. Earlier that year he had two operations by an English occulist to try to cure his blindness. His sight was restored on July 18, just 10 days before his death.

1794: Maximilien Robespierre, one of the leaders of the French Revolution, was guillotined in Paris.

1865: Doctor Edward Pritchard was hanged in Glasgow for poisoning his mother-in-law and his wife. It was the last public hanging in Scotland.

1866: Beatrix Potter was born in London - she was the author and illustrator who created the immortal characters Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin and Jemima Puddleduck, among others.

1945: A US bomber crashed into the 78th floor of the Empire State Building, killing three crew.

1959: Postcodes were introduced into Britain by the Postmaster General together with new postal sorting machines.

1976: One of the greatest natural disasters of recent centuries occurred when an earthquake hit Tangshan in China, killing three-quarters of a million people.

1987: Laura Davies became the first Briton to win the US Women’s Open.

Birthdays Sir Garfield Sobers, former cricketer, 81; Riccardo Muti, conductor, 76; Elizabeth Berkley, actress, 43; Justin Lee Collins, comedian/TV presenter, 43; Michael Carrick, footballer, 36; Cher Lloyd, singer, 24; Harry Kane, footballer, 24.