SWINDON...

1947: PC LC Young from Wiltshire Constabulary, Swindon Division, was promoted to sergeant.

1957: Entries in horse classes, excluding jumping events, at the Bath and West Show in Swindon totalled 682, which was more than 250 above last year’s entries the then all time record for the show.

1977: Parachutist Patrick Farrelly was lucky to be alive and owed his life to a tree that happened to be in his way as he plumetted 7,000 feet to earth. He visited Princess Alexandra Royal Airforce Hospital in Wroughton undergoing major surgery to patch up broken bones. Patrick was a 35-years-old traffic controller with Northern Ireland Civil Aviation Authority.

2013: The Central Library was the venue for a new exhibition about the work of Research Councils UK, based at Polaris House in North Star which has an annual budget of £3bn.

THE WORLD...

1885: American sharpshooter Annie Oakley was hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West

1916: Easter Rising: The Irish Republican Brotherhood led by nationalists Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, and Joseph Plunkett starts a rebellion in Ireland

1918: First tank-to-tank combat, at Villers-Bretonneux, France, when three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs

1932: Benny Rothman leads the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, leading to substantial legal reforms in the United Kingdom

1953: Winston Churchill, pictured, is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II

1957: The BBC first broadcasts The Sky at Night presented by Patrick Moore

1993: An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area of London

2013: A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1,129 people and injuring 2,500 others.

BORN...

1815: Anthony Trollope, English author (d. 1882)

1889: Stafford Cripps, English politician (d. 1952)

1903: José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Spanish lawyer and politician, founded the Falange (d. 1936)

1931: Bridget Riley, British artist

1942: Barbra Streisand and American singer-songwriter, actress, and producer

1992: Laura Trott English track and road cyclist, World, European and Olympic Champion

DIED...

1731: Daniel Defoe, English journalist and spy (b. 1660)

1947: Willa Cather, American author (b. 1873)

1974: Bud Abbott, American actor and producer (b. 1895)

1986: Wallis Simpson the American-French wife of Edward VIII (b. 1896)

1993: Oliver Tambo, South African lawyer and politician (b. 1917)