SWINDON...

1947: Five people had a lucky escape when the air connecting line of the braking system between a 16-ton lorry and trailer, on which was a 35-ton Sherman tank, parted halfway down Blunsdon hill.

1955: Swindon won the Wiltshire Schools’ Athletic Association’s championship held at Ferndale Road Playing Fields, for the second year in succession.

1975: A record crowd flocked to Wroughton Carnival, with between 2,000 and 3,000 people at Saturday’s fete.

2013: A campaign to bring back the Christmas market received the support of hundreds just days after it was launched.

 

THE WORLD...

1779: Spain declared war on Great Britain, and the Great Siege of Gibraltar began.

1903: The Ford Motor Company was incorporated.

1911: IBM was founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.

1915: Foundation of the British Women’s Institute.

1944: At 14, George Junius Stinney Jr became the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century.

1961: Dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected from the Soviet Union.

1963: Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space.

 

BORN...

1829: Geronimo, American tribal leader
1890: Stan Laurel, one half of the Laurel and Hardy comedy duo
1912: Enoch Powell, English politician
1927: Tom Graveney, English cricketer
1938: James Bolam, English actor
1971: Tupac Shakur, American rapper
1990: John Newman, English  singer
1991: Joe McElderry, English singer

 

DIED...

1722: John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, English general and politician
1982: James Honeyman-Scott, guitarist  with The Pretenders
1999: Screaming Lord Sutch, English singer