Swindon

1951: An unnamed reader got in touch to report witnessing a good deed by a small boy. The boy, aged about eight, was walking along Drove Road when he saw an elderly woman’s hat blown off by a gust of wind as she walked her dog. In her efforts to save her hat she dropped the lead, and the dog ran off. The boy retrieved the headgear and the pet, drawing applause from other passers-by.

1961: Swindon-born Peter J Matthews, a former Ferndale Road School pupil who had moved to America in 1951, won a First National Bank of Fort Collins Scholarship to study veterinary science. The married father of three, who lived in Colorado City, was a senior at the state university.

1971: For the first time ever there were no entries in the chrysanthemum section of Wootton Bassett and District Chrysanthemum and Horticultural Society’s annual early show. A spokesman said: “Owing to a bad season - particularly the cold June - the blooms are not sufficiently developed for showing but we hope there will be plenty of chrysanthemums at the annual late show on the first Saturday in November.”

The world

1666: The Great Fire of London ended: Ten thousand buildings, including Old St Paul’s Cathedral, are destroyed, but only six people are known to have died.

1826: John Wisden, original compiler of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack of cricket statistics, price one shilling (5p), was born in Brighton. He had a sports goods shop in Leicester Square, London.

1839: The United Kingdom declared war on the Qing dynasty of China.

1840: Premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s Un giorno di regno at La Scala of Milan.

1847: Jesse James, American outlaw, was born near Kansas City. With his elder brother Frank, he led the first gang to carry out train robberies.

1882: Tottenham Hotspur, the Premier League football club was founded as Hotspur FC.

1887: A fire at the Theatre Royal, Exeter, killed 186.

1921: Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s party in San Francisco ends with the death of the young actress Virginia Rappe.

1963: Christine Keeler, one of the girls at the centre of the Profumo scandal, was arrested and charged with perjury.

1972: Palestinian terrorists, members of the Black September Group, killed 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games.

1980: The 10-mile St Gotthard road tunnel in Switzerland, the longest in the world, was opened.

1982: Douglas Bader, pictured, famed pilot with false legs and leader of ‘’the few’’ - the several hundred RAF pilots who defeated the German Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain - died.

1987: No Sex Please, We’re British closed after 6,671 performances over 16 years - the longest running theatre comedy in the world.

1991: The USSR was no more as the Congress of People’s Deputies in Moscow scrapped the old power structures built up over 70 years and gave the Soviet republics their independence.

2016: World leaders were treated to a spectacular light show at the G20 summit.

BIRTHDAYS Johnny Briggs, actor, 82; Dick Clement, scriptwriter, 80; George Lazenby, actor, 78; Raquel Welch, actress, 77; Werner Herzog, film director, 75; Al Stewart, singer 72; Michael Keaton, actor, 66; Mark Ramprakash, cricketer, 48; Adam Hollioake, cricketer, 46.