SWINDON

1952: Upper Stratton-born Edmund Harry Gray retired from Australian parliamentary life after 28 years as a representative of the West Province in the Legislative Council of Australia. For nine years until 1947 he had been an honorary minister in the country’s Labour government. Mr Gray, the son of Mr and Mrs George Gray, attended Sanford Street School and was apprenticed to a Regent Street confectioner. He moved to Hull and worked as a ship’s steward before settling in Australia while still a young man.

1952: A talk on the NSPCC was given by Inspector Wilson from the organisation when he visited Stratton St Margaret Women’s Institute. Branch president Mrs Gardner reminded members of the annual flower show the following month and gave a report of the recent national meeting of Women’s Institutes.

1962: Mrs Frances Focht visited her family’s home in Edinburgh Street, Swindon, for the first time since marrying her American airman husband nine years earlier. He had been based at Burderop when they met. Mrs Focht decided not to tell her parents she was coming to see them. Her mother, Mrs Miles, said: “What a surprise I got when I opened the door and saw her standing there.” According to Mrs Focht, Swindon hadn’t changed much, but was still very nice. Her plans during the visit? “Well, I want to see Stonehenge, ride a bike and sit with a drink in a public house.”

1962: Former Swindon mayor Frank Jefford, 78, was planning a solo tour of Spain. The widower had already visited several other European countries including Austria and Germany since retiring, always travelling by himself. Only a few years earlier, in a biographical note supplied to the Adver, he had written: “I have never believed that strenuous hobbies were the best kind to take up, so I have concentrated on a sitting-down hobby - cards.”

1973: Haydon Wick Parish Council asked Wiltshire County Council for double yellow lines along one side of a 25-yard stretch of High Street, only for the county to respond by painting them along both sides. The parish council, had hoped to ensure residents of a small group of cottages would be able to park their cars without people parking on the other side and blocking the road. In spite of the parish’s objections to the two sets of lines, the county council refused to budge.

1973: Swindon’s Road Safety Committee, the previous year’s winners of the National Trophy for Road Safety Among Children, made it to the finals of the 1973 awards. The town was among 19 finalists from 100 communities entered in the competition.

THE WORLD

64 AD: The Great Fire of Rome took place during the reign of Nero. He played the lyre and was 50 miles away at his villa in Antium when he heard the news.

1817: Author Jane Austen died at the age of 41. Doctors were unable to diagnose her illness (she had written that her skin had gone “black and blue and every wrong colour”), but medical authorities now believe she died from Addison’s Disease.

1848: WG Grace, famous English cricketer, was born in Downend, near Bristol. In his 37-year playing career, he hit nearly 51,000 runs and took more than 2,800 wickets.

1870: The Dogma of Papal Infallibility in matters of faith and morals was proclaimed by the Vatican Council.

1872: The Ballot Act, which laid the foundations of our current voting system, was passed.

1919: The Cenotaph in London’s Whitehall was unveiled. The First World War memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and would later do double duty for the Second World War.

1925: Mein Kampf (My Struggle), which Adolf Hitler wrote while in jail, was published.

1934: The Mersey Tunnel was formally opened.

1936: The Spanish Civil War began when the army, led by General Franco, revolted against the Republican government. It lasted three years.

1969: Senator Edward Kennedy crashed his car into the Chappaquiddick River near Martha’s Vineyard on America’s east coast. Kennedy escaped, but his companion Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned. He didn’t report the incident for 10 hours and was subsequently found guilty of leaving the scene of the accident and given a two-month suspended sentence.

2017: An ancient Roman sarcophagus was excavated from a building site in London,.

BIRTHDAYS

James Brolin, actor, 78; Martha Reeves, soul singer, 77; James Faulkner, actor, 70; Dennis Lillee, former cricketer, 69; Richard Branson, entrepreneur, 68; Nick Faldo, golfer, 61; Vin Diesel, actor, 51; M.I.A, musician, 45; Chace Crawford, actor, 33.