SWINDON...

1947: The results were announced from the first heat of the Swindon Cover Girl Competition, which was promoted at the Playhouse. It was part of the search for the national Cover Girl and five girls were chosen to go forward to the semi-finals: Miss P Hinchcliffe, Miss M Clarke, Miss B Packer, Miss R Lovesey and Miss M Roebuck.

1957: Michael Royale, 15, of High Street, Haydon Wick, was one of 12 handicapped Scouts from the whole of England who were chosen to attend the St George’s Day Parade at Windsor Castle, where the Queen took the salute.

1977: Swindon’s Liza Burke, seven, was looking forward to meeting radio personality Terry Wogan and having her face on thousands of posters. Liza, from Bowley Mead, Eldene, was chosen as one of three children to have their pictures on posters advertising national Epilepsy Week.

2013: Hundreds of outgoing Honda workers turned up to a special jobs fair for those being laid off from the Swindon plant.

The Honda task force was set up after the car-maker announced it planned to make 800 staff redundant and would not renew the contracts of 300 others.

THE WORLD...

1770: James Cook arrived at and named Botany Bay, Australia.

1882: The “Elektromote” – forerunner of the trolleybus – was tested by Ernst Werner von Siemens in Berlin.

1910: The British Government passed the People’s Budget, the first budget in British history with the expressed intent of redistributing wealth among the public.

1916: Easter Rising: Martial law in Ireland was lifted and the rebellion was officially over with the surrender of Irish nationalists to British authorities in Dublin.

1953: The first American experimental 3D television broadcast showed an episode of Space Patrol on a Los Angeles ABC affiliate.

1967: After refusing induction into the United States Army the day before (citing religious reasons), Muhammad Ali was stripped of his boxing title.

2011: The wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Kate Middleton took place.

BORN...

1899: Duke Ellington, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1974)

1901: Hirohito, Japanese emperor (d. 1989)

1928: Heinz Wolff, German-British scientist and broadcaster

1931: Lonnie Donegan, singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2002)

1949: Anita Dobson, actress and singer

1952: David Icke, author 1957: Daniel Day-Lewis, actor

1958: Michelle Pfeiffer, actress

1970: Andre Agassi, American tennis player  

1970: Uma Thurman, actress

DIED...

1594: Thomas Cooper, English bishop, lexicographer, and theologian (b. 1517)

1980: Alfred Hitchcock film director and producer (b. 1899)  

2012: Shukri Ghanem, Libyan politician, Prime Minister of Libya (b. 1942)