SWINDON...

1947: The painting by Hubert Cook, the Swindon artist, entitled Rogers’ Mill Knaresborough, was purchased by the borough’s Art Collection for £21. It was painted in oils while the artist was stationed in Yorkshire during the war.

1957: For the tenth anniversary of the Swindon Film Society, Les Grands Manoeuvres was shown at the Arts Centre. The film was written and directed by Rene Claire. The support film was Mountain Moods.

1977: Care assistant Sheila Barnes was the latest member of the Calne Marden Court Elderly Persons Home to have seen the ghost there. Sheila was on her way to the sewing room when she saw what appeared to be a stooping figure in a grey suit and carrying a walking stick. It disappeared into room 13 but when she entered the room there was no one there.

2013: Workers at John Lewis in the town received a bonus equivalent of nine weeks’ pay for the year. Staff at the Mannington store in Swindon gathered for the big reveal, which involved them solving a Rubik’s Cube.

 

THE WORLD...

1799: Napoleon Bonaparte captures Jaffa in Palestine and his troops proceed to kill more than 2,000 Albanian captives.

1912: Roald Amundsen announces that his expedition had reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911.

1965: Bloody Sunday: A group of 600 civil rights marchers are forcefully broken up in Selma, Alabama.

1985: The song “We Are the World” receives its international release.

2009: The Real Irish Republican Army kills two British soldiers and two civilians, the first British military deaths in Northern Ireland since The Troubles.

 

BORN...

1872: Piet Mondrian, Dutch painter (d. 1944).

1930: Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, English photographer.

1944: Ranulph Fiennes, English soldier and explorer.

1952: Viv Richards, Caribbean cricketer.

1956: Bryan Cranston, American actor, director, Breaking Bad.

1977: Ronan O'Gara, Irish rugby player.

 

DIED...

1983: Igor Markevitch, Ukrainian conductor and composer (b. 1912)

1988: Divine, American drag queen performer (b. 1945)

1999: Stanley Kubrick, American director, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1928)

2000: Pee Wee King, American singer-songwriter (b. 1914)

2013: Peter Banks, English guitarist and songwriter (Yes, The Syn, and Flash) (b. 1947)