SWINDON

1951: The fourth open air exhibition of the Swindon Sketch Club was opened at Regent Circus by the Mayor of Swindon Ald A Leonard. On show were a range of oil paintings, watercolours, pastels and pencil sketches.

1951: A portrait in oil by Miss Anna Inkeisen, of the late William Henry Fox Talbot FRS, British inventor of the negative method in photography, was commissioned to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth. It was put on permanent display in Lacock Abbey, the home of the Fox Talbots for many centuries.

1961: An advanced party of 50 German panzer troops, which left Lower Saxony en route for the Castlemartin ranges in Pembrokeshire, landed at Lyneham instead. Two West German Air Force transport planes which carried the men were diverted to Lyneham after bad weather warnings. The troops were given a meal before setting off again in coaches.

1961: The world premiere of a new children’s play by Nicholas Stuart Gray was promised to young actors of the Westcott Evening Institute Drama Group, by the author. The playwright was so impressed on a visit to the Swindon group that he gave the performing rights for the premiere of his new play Rapunzel and The Creatures to them ahead of any professional production.

1971: Bernard Wittram, 20, of Lower Shaw Farm, Shaw, has just returned from a year’s voluntary service in Thailand where he enjoyed his missionary work teaching at the Department of Public Welfare Home for Deprived Boys.

1971: The Mayor of Swindon Coun A Palmer, accompanied by the Mayoress, gave a warm welcome to a group of young people from Goslar, Germany and their leader Peter Riske when they visited the Mayor’s Parlour in the town.

THE WORLD

1530: Ivan IV (the Terrible) was born. He was crowned first Tsar of Russia in 1547 and expanded the Russian state with campaigns against the Tartars. He earned his description from his oppression, in which more than 3,000 were executed.

1900: Writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, playing for MCC in his first first-class match, bowled out the great WG Grace who was batting for London County.

1919: The world’s first scheduled air flights began, between London and Paris.

1928: Anfield’s famous Kop terracing at Liverpool’s football ground was opened. It was most likely named after the Battle of Spion Kop in the Boer War. The word “kopje’’ means small hill.

1960: The 17th Olympic Games opened in Rome, at which Briton Anita Lonsbrough won gold in the 200m breaststroke. The light-heavyweight boxing gold medal was won by an American youth named Cassius Clay.

1985: Pop singer Michael Jackson paid £25m for an ATV catalogue of music which included copyright of 5,000 songs, many by the Beatles.

1985: A re-enactment of the Battle of Edgehill by the Sealed Knot Society turned into the ‘’real thing’’, and Warwick General Hospital filled up with costumed Cavaliers and Roundheads waiting for treatment of battle scars.

1989: The spacecraft Voyager, completing its 12-year voyage to Neptune, sent back pictures of Triton, its moon, and revealed two additional moons previously unknown to scientists.

2008: GB’s Olympians flew home from Beijing with 19 golds and the nation’s best medal haul for 100 years.

2012: Voyager 1 spacecraft entered intersellar space becoming the first man-made object to do so.

2012: Olympic gold medal hero Mo Farah celebrated his second double success of the summer after his wife gave birth to twin girls.

2016: Nigel Farage said he would not vote for US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton if he was paid, but stopped short of explicitly endorsing her rival Donald Trump.

BIRTHDAYS Sean Connery, actor, 87; Frederick Forsyth, novelist, 79; Martin Amis, author, 68; Gene Simmons, rock musician (Kiss), 68; Elvis Costello, rock musician, 63; Tim Burton, film director, 59; Claudia Schiffer, model and actress, 47; Blake Lively, actress, 30; Ray Quinn, actor, singer and dancer, 29.