SWINDON

1952

A NIGHTINGALE was delivering evening serenades to people living in Swindon's Fitzroy Road. One resident, Mr PH Sheppard, told the Adver that on the previous Saturday night he had been awakened by birdsong at midnight, and assumed he'd been dreaming. A couple of evenings later, wide awake, he was delighted to hear the creature once more.

1962

A MEMBER of Highworth Parish Council claimed at a meeting that the town was the dirtiest in England. The councillor, Mr C Constable, speaking during a discussion about providing larger litter bins, said Highworth "...didn't want any more litter bins. What we want is to tell the people what the litter bins are there for." He added that road sweepers only seemed to be sent out to pick up litter when complaints appeared in the press.

1972

CHILDREN were playing on and around the main railway line at Green Bridge in Stratton St Margaret, where according to horrified local people fences were practically non-existent. There was a partly derelict hut at the site which children called their den, and they played hide-and-seek among trackside greenery.

THE WORLD

1519: Leonardo da Vinci, Italian artist and man of science, died at the Chateau

Cloux near Amboise.

1670: King Charles II granted a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America.

1859: Jerome K Jerome, novelist whose Three Men In A Boat sold more than one million copies, was born in Walsall.

1942: HMS Edinburgh was sunk in the Barents Sea off Norway. Its cargo of gold bars lay in 803 feet of water until salvaged in 1981.

1952: The first jet passenger service began between London and Johannesburg.

1953: Stanley Matthews, at 38, won his first FA Cup winners medal as Blackpool beat Bolton 4-3 after trailing 3-1.

1969: The Queen Elizabeth II sailed from Southampton on her maiden voyage.

1982: The Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by British submarine HMS Conqueror off the Falklands.

2011: US president Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted man, was dead.

BIRTHDAYS

Bianca Jagger, 73; David Suchet, actor, 72; Alan Titchmarsh, horticulturist and broadcaster, 69; Isla St Clair, TV personality, 66; David O'Leary, former footballer/manager, 60; Jimmy White, snooker player, 56; Brian Lara, former cricketer, 49; David Beckham, former footballer, 43.