Swindon

1951: Members of Highworth Rural Council said goodbye to Dr DM Martyn Jones, who had been the District Medical Officer for two years. He was leaving to become Medical Officer of Health on the Isle of Man. The doctor thanked members of the council for the support they had given to him and his work, and praised the work of Senior Sanity Inspector AG Underwood.

1951: Regent Street department store John Anstiss announced it planned to make more of an impact in the world of fashionable clothing. We said: “The store intends to cater for the young girl who, because she is fond of dancing, buys two or three cheaper party dresses a year, and for the older woman who will buy a more expensive model to see her through the few functions she attends.”

1961: A shuttle train service operated from Swindon following an accident which left the track and trackside at Brimscombe, between Gloucester and Stroud on the London-South Wales main line littered with wagons. The shuttle operated between London and Kemble, with buses taking passengers to rejoin the railway service at Chalford.

1961: Visitors to the ancient church at Castle Eaton saw several circles of stones laid outside. They were from the dismantling of the 700-year-old sanctus bell turret, which had been deemed by experts to be in danger of collapsing. Scaffolding had been erected and the painstaking process of dismantling and restoration was under way. The Rector of Castle Eaton, the Rev JA Harrison, said putting the tower back together was expected to take rather longer than taking it apart.

1971: A company called Gardner Merchant Food Supplies was about to open a new South West office in Swindon’s Princes Street, and a number of staff planned to move with their families from the head office in Croydon. The group were taken on a tour of the town by local officials, and one of newcomers, Albert Ford, said: “I don’t think I’ve ever come across a town so enthusiastic about its future.”

1971: Members of Purton Evening Women’s Institute dressed as Elizabethan serving maids for an Old England-themed fundraising fair for the local committee for the care of the elderly.

The world

1405: Pope Pius II was born. Pope Gregory XII also died on this day in 1417, as did Pope Pius III, who died in 1503.

1826: The last state lottery was held in Britain.

1910: The trial of Dr Crippen began at the Old Bailey.

1922: The British Broadcasting Company was officially formed.

1926: Bing Crosby, pictured, made his first commercial recording, I’ve Got The Girl.

1961: Henri Matisse’s Le Bateau attracted big crowds when it went on show in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It was not until 116,000 people had seen it, 46 days later, that someone noticed it was hanging upside down.

1967: The Soviet Union successfully sent a space probe into the atmosphere of the planet Venus for the first time.

1977: German anti-terror troops stormed a hijacked Lufthansa airliner at Mogadishu, Somalia, killing three Palestinian terrorists and freeing all hostages.

2016: Inflation jumped to a near two-year high as the rising cost of clothes, restaurants and hotels pushed up the cost of living.

Birthdays

Barry Gifford, novelist, 71; Martina Navratilova, tennis legend, 61; Jean-Claude Van Damme, actor/director, 57; Wynton Marsalis, jazz trumpeter/composer, 57; Michael Stich, former tennis player, 49; Robbie Savage, former footballer/pundit, 43; Zac Efron, actor, 30.