SWINDON

1951: THE new 255-acre housing estate at Penhill officially became part of the Borough of Swindon. A Royal Commission sitting in the House of Lords gave the King’s Assent to the Swindon Corporation Act, which made the incorporation official. The bill also brought the general powers of the Corporation up to date.

1951: A teenaged table tennis prodigy from France was taking on and beating all comers during a visit to Swindon. Jaques Segard, 14, was staying at the family home of a friend, 15-year-old Margaret Higgs, and spending a lot of time among the table tennis enthusiasts who gathered around the tables at the Mechanics Institute. We said: “Although he is fond of table tennis and always does two hours’ practice each day, Jaques has found time to visit London and Oxford.”

1961: The Duke of Edinburgh had opened Walcot’s playing fields during a busy visit to Swindon earlier in the year, but many local people were angry that their children were not allowed to play on the open space. One father reported receiving a threatening letter from Town Clerk David Murray John, saying he would be prosecuted for trespass if his son played there again. Swindon Corporation countered that the fields were not a playground.

1961: There were 1,890 war-disabled pensioners in Swindon, Chippenham and District at the end of 1950, according to figures from the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance. Of the total, 1,150 were veterans of World War Two and 740 were veterans of World War One. There were 67 classified as severely disabled.

1971: An infamous World War Two massacre was the subject of an exhibition at the Polish Ex-combatants Club in Milton Road. The Soviet Union still insisted the murder of 4,500 Polish officers in a forest at Katyn was the work of the Nazis, but admitted the truth - that it had been responsible - after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

1971: Wootton Bassett and District Budgerigar Society announced plans to hold two members’ invitation shows for exhibitors from the area. These were to be in addition to a forthcoming show for all budgerigar keepers, to be held at the town’s Roman Catholic Church, with a rosette for the best bird.

THE WORLD

1100: William II of England was killed by an arrow in the New Forest, allegedly mistaken for a deer.

1784: The first specially built Royal Mail coach ran from Bristol to London.

1788: Thomas Gainsborough, English painter, died.

1865: Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was published, but was quickly withdrawn because of bad printing. Only 21 copies of the first edition survived, making it one of the rarest 19th century books.

1876: James Butler, or Wild Bill Hickok, Marshal of the West, was shot dead by Jack McCall while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota. He was holding two black aces, two black eights and the jack of diamonds - known to this day as ‘’the dead man’s hand’’.

1894: Death duties were introduced in Britain.

1921: Enrico Caruso, the great Italian tenor, died aged 48 from peritonitis.

1969: The US Mariner unmanned spacecraft beamed the first pictures of Mars back to Earth.

1973: More than 40 people died when fire swept through the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man.

1980: Right-wing terrorists exploded a bomb at Bologna railway station in Italy, killing 84.

1990: Iraq invaded Kuwait and took control after eight hours. The Kuwaiti royal family fled to Saudi Arabia, and a puppet government was installed.

2015: Singer Cilla Black died at her home in the south of Spain.

2016: One of the most endangered species of big cat, the leopard, gave birth to two cubs.

BIRTHDAYS Isabel Allende, novelist, 75; Rose Tremain, author, 74; Joanna Cassidy, actress, 72; Sammy McIlroy, former footballer and manager, 63; Edward Furlong, actor, 40; Donna Air, TV presenter, 38.