SWINDON...

1947: Messrs Loveday and Loveday held a sale of pea and bean sticks and tomato stakes at their sale yard, The Planks, in Swindon. There was a good attendance and some of the prices realised were pea sticks at 2s 9d a bundle.

1957: In the days when Commercial Road, Swindon, was a residential street and trams were running down Market Street, Mr A P Slatter, piano tuner, opened his shop at 5, Commercial Road. This was in 1922 and he had to close his business after spending 35 years at the same address.

1977: Around 40,000 children in the Swindon area were at risk of catching athlete’s foot in school gyms, warned Swindon Senior Child Health Officer, Dr James May. He said children were catching the disease through barefoot gymnastics.

2013: Samsung renewed its sponsorship of Swindon Town for the 2013/14 campaign. The deal, which the Advertiser understood was worth between £75,000 and £80,000 to the club in its entirety, saw the electronics giant’s logo emblazoned across of both the Robins’ home and away shirts next season.

THE WORLD...

311: Christians were legally recognised in the Roman Empire.

1789: George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States of America.

1803: The USA bought Louisiana and New Orleans from France.

1900: Engine driver Casey Jones died at the throttle of the Cannonball Express at Illinois Central, slowing down the train to save passengers’ lives.

1906: London bus routes were numbered.

1944: The first of 500,000 prefabricated homes (prefabs) went on show in London.

1945: Adolf Hitler shot himself dead in his underground bunker beneath the Chancellery in Berlin. Eva Braun, whom he had married the previous day, died beside him by taking a cyanide pill.

1975: The Vietnam War ended when the South Vietnam Government surrendered to North Vietnam. Fighting had continued despite the signing of peace treaties in 1973.

1980: Armed terrorists seized the Iranian Embassy in London and threatened to blow it up if their demands were not met.

2013: Official figures showed that thousands of secondary school teachers are giving lessons on subjects that they do not hold a degree in.

BORN...

1933: Willie Nelson, country singer

1940: Burt Young, actor

1943: Bobby Vee, singer

1946: King Carl Gustav of Sweden

1947: Leslie Grantham, actor

1954: Jane Campion, film director

1982: Kirsten Dunst, actress

1986: Dianna Agron, actress/singer

DIED...

1883: Edouard Manet, French Impressionist painter, right (b. 1832)

1983: George Balanchine, co-founder of NYC Ballet (b. 1904)

2007: Gordon Scott, actor who played Tarzan (b. 1926)