SWINDON...

1947: Swindon runners were well to the fore at the annual Athletics Sports meeting. The programme included the WIltshire County Amateur Athletic Championships and winners included N A Porter from Swindon and J Wooden, of Swindon, who came first and second in the 880 yards.

1957: A Beetle Drive organised by members of Wroughton Toc H raised five shillings for Local Society For The Prevention of Cruelty To Animals.

1977: Classes 2T and 2K of Mountford Manor School, Swindon, had plenty to smile about when an envelope arrived from Buckingham Palace. The pupils listened excitedly as the head Edith Watson read out the letter from the Queen that thanked the children for their congratulatory letters for her forthcoming jubilee.

2013: Business groups and politicians were teaming up to try to rescue Swindon’s Christmas market after the town centre management firm said it was too late to organise one. In November, InSwindon decided to axe the 2012 event, planned to take place in Canal Walk.

 

THE WORLD...

1679: The Habeas Corpus Act, stating that nobody could be held in prison without trial, was passed.

1703: Tsar Peter the Great founded St Petersburg and proclaimed it the new capital of Russia.

1900: Belgium became the first country to elect a government by proportional representation.

1936: The Queen Mary left Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York.

1937: The 4,200ft Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco was opened.

1940: Operation Dynamo – the evacuation of British and French troops from the Dunkirk beaches – began.

1941: German battleship Bismarck was sunk.

2013: Foreign Secretary William Hague warned that extremism in Syria could flourish if the EU refused to ease an arms embargo preventing the supply of weapons to rebels opposed to Bashar Assad.

 

BORN...

1626: William II, Prince of Orange
1818: Women’s rights campaigner Amelia Jenks Bloomer was born in New York. She caused such a stir by wearing trousers that they acquired her name – bloomers.
1837: Wild Bill Hickok, American lawman
1867: Arnold Bennett, English author
1877: Isadora Duncan, American dancer
1923: Henry Kissinger, German-American politician
1946: Lewis Collins, English actor
1957: Siouxsie Sioux, English singer-songwriter
1958: Neil Finn, New Zealand singer-songwriter
1975: Jamie Oliver, English chef and author

 

DIED...

1840: Niccolo Paganini – Italian violin virtuoso
2011: Gil Scott-Heron, American singer-songwriter and poet
2013: Bill Pertwee, English actor