SWINDON...

1947: A corsage competition, held in connection with the annual meeting of the Florists Telegraph Delivery Association, at the Kings Arms Hotel in Swindon, was judged by Mr Lewis, president of the Association and Mr D Klein. The competition was won by employees of David Critchley from Oxford.

1957: Swindon Round Table were to provide transport to take visitors to St Margaret’s Hospital, Stratton St Margaret, if the bus strike was still on. There would be between 10 and 12 cars and a 32-seater coach leaving Gaunt Cinema between 2pm and 2.30pm. The transport is free.

1977: A temporary road built to divert traffic from Drake’s Way, Swindon, was possibly set to become permanent. It connected Drake’s Way with an escape in to a service road during recent road works. Norman Pritchard, Thamesdown Technical Services Director, was calling for it to be made permanent.

2013: An inspirational maths teacher was hanging up his protractor after teaching in Swindon for more than three decades. David Jones had been a teacher at the Swindon Academy, and previously Headlands, since 1979. Staff and pupils paid tribute to the 60-year-old, who admitted it was an emotional day.

THE WORLD...

1567: Mary, Queen of Scots, is forced to abdicate and replaced by her 1-year-old son James VI.

1911: Hiram Bingham III re-discovers Machu Picchu, “the Lost City of the Incas”.

1922: The draft of the British Mandate of Palestine was formally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations; it came into effect on 26 September 1923.

1927: The Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled at Ypres.

2013: A high-speed train derails in Spain rounding a curve with an 80 km/h (50 mph) speed limit at 190 km/h (120 mph), killing 78 passengers.

BORN...

1783: Simón Bolívar, Venezuelan commander and politician, 2nd President of Venezuela (d. 1830).
1802: Alexandre Dumas, French author and playwright (d. 1870).
1895: Robert Graves, English author 
(d. 1985).
1964: Banana Yoshimoto, Japanese author.
1966: Martin Keown, English footballer and coach.

DIED...

1962: Wilfrid Noyce, English mountaineer and author (b. 1917).
1974: James Chadwick, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1891).
1980: Peter Sellers, English actor, singer, director, and screenwriter (b. 1925).