SWINDON

1951

HARES on the Vickers-Armstrong playing field at South Marston may or may not have become used to the scream of jet aircraft at the plant, but it seemed they still thought of human beings as highly dangerous. Before the start of a recent visit by a Fleet Air Arm squadron, a group of employees assembled outside, prompting three of the creatures to emerge from cover and run for their lives.

METHODIST clergyman the Rev LG Bridgeman, originally from Swindon, appeared on the BBC Welsh Home Service radio station to talk about religious life in Wales. Mr Bridgeman, whose parents lived in Dean Street and were prominent in the faith locally, attended Commonweal School and Richmond College. He was currently at Clare Gardens Methodist Chapel in Cardiff and had recently obtained a Bachelor of Divinity degree.

1961

RUMOURS that roads in the Goddard Avenue area were to be widened were denied during a Swindon Town Council meeting. Coun IWJ Homer, chairman of the Streets and Planning Committee, suggested the rumours had arisen because lamp posts had been set back from the kerbs. He added that they had only been set back in this way to make them more efficient.

THE Chief Constable of Wiltshire, Lieut-Col HG Golden, was criticised at a Highworth Parish Council meeting after writing to say the town didn't need a second police officer. One member, Mr A Robinson, said: "He must have a crystal ball to say the population of the town will never increase and crime will never come to Highworth. A more stupid comment I have never heard by anybody in authority or out of it."

1971

A SWINDON minister landed a contract to sing on German Radio. The Rev Norman Charlton, of Immanuel Congregational Church, was to record a song recital with the South-West German Radio Orchestra early the following year. He was invited to make the recording by the orchestra's conductor, Emmerich Smola, after meeting him during a visit to Germany.

A FILM of Swindon's Railway Works, made in 1911 and recently uncovered by chance in the National Film Archive, was to be shown at the new Wyvern Theatre. The reel had been found in a can marked Locomotive Building at Crewe.

THE WORLD

1535: Miles Coverdale's translation of the Bible was published.

1883: The Boys' Brigade was founded in Glasgow by Sir William Alexander Smith.

1895: Deadpan hero of the silent screen Buster Keaton was born in Kansas. His parents were acrobats in vaudeville, and by the time he was three, Buster was in on the act.

1911: Britain's first escalators were introduced, connecting the District and Piccadilly platforms at Earl's Court underground station in London.

1957: Russia launched Sputnik I, the world's first satellite.

1958: The first transatlantic passenger jet service began operating.

1970: The American rock singer Janis Joplin died. She left 2,500 dollars in her will ''so that my friends can get blasted after I'm gone''.

2010: Comedian and actor Sir Norman Wisdom died in a nursing home on the Isle of Man, aged 95.

2016: Sterling plunged to a new 31-year low against the dollar as fears over a so-called ''hard Brexit'' intensified.

BIRTHDAYS

Sir Terence Conran, designer, 86; Susan Sarandon, actress, 71; Ann Widdecombe, politician/TV presenter, 70; Anneka Rice, TV presenter, 59; Chris Lowe, pop musician (Pet Shop Boys), 58; Mark Powley, actor, 54; Alicia Silverstone, actress, 41; Stacey Solomon, singer, 28.