SWINDON...

1947: Donald Charles Willis of Country Road, on leave from the navy, became a licentiate from the Auctioneers and Estate Agents Institute. He heard that he had passed the rural section of the Institute’s Intermediate exam.

1957: A total of £230 was collected in Swindon and district during Flag Day in aid of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution Swindon branch.

1977: Gangs of youths were beating up Arab and Persian students in Swindon, claimed students at Swindon College. Some students from the college were afraid to go out alone at night. Students say there had been seven attacks by gangs in the last two months.

2013: The lunchtime speaker on day five of the Swindon Festival of Literature was former Controller of Radio 4 Mark Damazer.

THE WORLD...

1824: The National Gallery in London opened to the public.

1940: Winston Churchill appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1941: Rudolf Hess parachuted into Scotland to try to negotiate a peace deal between the UK and Nazi Germany.

1981: François Mitterrand won the presidential election and became the first Socialist President of France in the French Fifth Republic.

1994: Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first black president.

BORN...

1899: Fred Astaire, American actor, singer, and dancer

1915: Monica Dickens, English author

1915: Denis Thatcher, businessman husband of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

1933: Barbara Taylor Bradford, English author

1946: Graham Gouldman, singer and bass player with 10cc

1946: Maureen Lipman, English actress

1952: Lee Brilleaux, singer-songwriter with Dr Feelgood

1952: Sly Dunbar, Jamaican drummer

1953: John Diamond, English journalist

1957: Sid Vicious, bass player with The Sex Pistols

1960: Bono, singer with U2

1965: Linda Evangelista, Canadian model

1966: Jonathan Edwards, English Olympic athlete and TV presenter

1968: Al Murray, English comedian

1969: Dennis Bergkamp, former Dutch footballer

DIED...

1863: Stonewall Jackson, American general

1977: Joan Crawford, American film star