SWINDON

1952: Mr F M Heywood, Master of Marlborough College, gave an outdoor leaving party. About 270 guests attended and numerous presentations were made to the Master, who leaves the college for Felthorpe Hall in Norwich. Leaving gifts included an electric coffee perculator and a cigarette lighter.

1952: Swindon and district Young Baptists annual rally was held at Upper Stratton, Green Road Baptist Church. Representatives attended from Lower Stratton, Upper Stratton, Swindon Tabernacle, Rodbourne, Lechlade and Gorse Hill, and The Rev Godfrey Robinson, secretary of the Young People’s Department of the BMS. The Lechlade representative read the scriptures.

1962: It was reported that a new model of the VA-3 Hovercraft was planned to be used on the world’s first scheduled Hovercraft service between Hoylake and Rhyl. The service was operated by British United Airways in co-operation with Vickers Armstrong South Marston near Swindon.

1962: Swindon Cage Bird Society members held a lively meeting at the Cricketers Arms, Swindon when four new members were enrolled and a panel that consisted of Messrs D Beel, R Powell, C Austin and M Watkins were kept busy answering the Any Questions session by the largest attendance for several years. The new chairman Mrs G N Watkins presided.

1972: Ricky Porter, Swindon welterweight, was adjudged to have been out-pointed by local boy Johnnie Stracey, after eight hard rounds at York Hall, Bethnal Green. Referee Harry Gibbs marked Stracey the winner by 39 and a half points to Ricky’s 39 points, a decision with which there was some strong disagreement.

1972: Residents in the north east of Marlborough urgently needed a Pied Piper as they claimed they were being overrun with rats. Residents of roads in the vicinity of Portfields claimed the rats were coming from the Borough Council rubbish tip which was closed down. The council claimed the rats were from an old pig farm. Mr and Mrs W G Clarke from Chiminage Close, Marlborough said they got up one morning to find four rats in their bathroom. Mr Clarke said he shut his dog in with them and it killed one but the others got away.

THE WORLD

1614: American Indian Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.

1827: Joseph Lister, the surgeon who introduced antiseptics, was born in London.

1874: Johann Sebastian Strauss’s opera Die Fledermaus was first performed, in Vienna.

1900: Spencer Tracy, American actor who won Oscars two years in succession (1937 and 1938), was born.

1902: A stand at Ibrox Park stadium in Glasgow collapsed during a Scotland v England match, killing 26 people and injuring more than 500.

1908: Herbert von Karajan, one of the most prominent conductors of the post-war period, was born in Salzburg.

1908: American actress Bette Davis was born in Massachusetts.

1910: Kissing was banned on the French railways because it could cause delays.

1955: Sir Winston Churchill, aged 80, resigned as Prime Minister, and the following day Anthony Eden took office.

1976: Billionaire recluse Howard Hughes died on his private jet on his way to Houston, Texas.

1982: A British Task Force set out to recover the Falklands from their Argentine occupiers.

1994: Kurt Cobain, the iconic singer of US grunge band Nirvana, committed suicide - his body was not discovered until three days later.

2008: Hollywood legend Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing Ben-Hur, died at the age of 84.

2017: Rising numbers of parents were being prosecuted after their child missed school without permission, with many facing fines and in some cases community sentences or prison, it was reported.

BIRTHDAYS

Colin Powell, former US Secretary of State, 81; Michael Moriarty, actor, 77; Jane Asher, actress/writer, 72; Agnetha Faltskog, singer (ABBA), 68; Stan Ridgway, singer, 64; Pharrell Williams, singer, 45; John Hartson, former footballer, 43; Hayley Atwell, actress, 36.