1952

A TELEPHONE box at the bottom of Swindon's Croft Road was reported to be constantly occupied, although comparatively few calls seemed to be made from it. The explanation involved the climate and the fact that a nearby bus stop had no shelter. We said: "In wet weather as many as four schoolgirls have been seen sheltering from the wind and the rain in the kiosk, for in this part of the town there are no shop doorways."

1962

THE Swindon-born vice-chancellor of Reading University, Sir John Wolfenden, told pupils of Headlands Grammar School to push themselves to the limits of their capabilities. Sir John, an academic mainly remembered today for a groundbreaking report which paved the way for the decriminalisation of homosexuality, was speaking at the school's annual speech day.

1972

MAGAZINES and advertising copywriters across the country were having trouble spelling the name of the Wyvern Theatre, which had opened a few months earlier. In the space of a single week, one music paper called it The Wyverne, another The Wyevern, still another The Wyeverne and a fourth came up with the most creative rendering when it referred to The Wyverne Hall.

THE WORLD

1800: The Irish parliament passed the Act of Union with England.

1854: The Crimean War began after the United Kingdom and France declared war on Russia.

1868: The 7th Earl of Cardigan, who led the Charge of the Light Brigade to

disaster at Balaclava in the Crimean War, died. He is now best remembered for

the woollen garment named after him.

1890: Paul Whiteman, American jazz bandleader, was born in Denver, Colorado.

1920: Douglas Elton Ullman wed Gladys Smith in Hollywood. The couple were

better known as screen stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford and their

marriage was described as "Hollywood's first royal wedding".

1930: Turkey's capital city Constantinople changed its name to Istanbul.

1939: Madrid surrendered to Franco to end the Spanish Civil War.

1942: British commandos destroyed the U-boat base at St Nazaire.

1964: The pirate station Radio Caroline began transmitting from a ship in the

North Sea.

1965: Nearly 25,000 people joined Dr Martin Luther King on the steps of the

state capital of Montgomery, Alabama, to highlight black grievances.

1979: There was a radiation leak alert at Three Mile Island nuclear station,

near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, when the atomic core began to melt down.

1991: A jury returned a verdict of accidental death at the end of an inquest

into the deaths of 96 Liverpool football fans who died in the Hillsborough

stadium disaster in Sheffield in 1989. In December 2012, The High Court quashed the original verdicts and ordered fresh inquests.

2017: Nestle announced that a new version of their popular KitKat bars was soon to appear on shelves, containing more milk and cocoa as part of efforts to reduce sugar.

BIRTHDAYS

Michael Parkinson, broadcaster, 83; Mario Vargas Llosa, novelist, 82; Neil Kinnock, former Labour Party leader, 76; Mike Newell, film director, 76; Richard Stilgoe, TV presenter and musician, 75; Dianne Wiest, actress, 70; Lord (John) Alderdice, politician, 63; Chris Barrie, actor, 58; Nasser Hussain, former cricketer, 50; Julia Stiles, actress, 37.