SWINDON 1952: On the steps of Swindon Town Hall, where 15 months earlier Princess Elizabeth had waved to hundreds of Swindon people, the proclamation was made that Queen Elizabeth II was proclaimed Queen of England. The ceremony was led by the Mayor. Several hundred people had gathered, police wearing black bands round their arms controlled the crowd. Officials filed out of the Town Hall, the town clerk with his wig and black ceremonial robes followed, and as the clock struck 12.45 four trumpeters from the Wiltshire Yeomanry sounded a fanfare.

1952: Mr Francis Fernau, clerk to the Accession Privy Council, who read to the council, sitting at St James Palace, the proclamation proclaiming the new Queen, was well known to Swindon people. He was the officer in charge of the military training school at Messrs Skurrays Ltd, motor engineers of High Street, during the war. He was then Major Fernau of KRR and visited Swindon many times and lived, for a time, at St Margaret’s Road.

1962: A weather vane in oak and copper representing himself in fisherman’s outfit having hooked a large salmon, was made by Mr REF Fawkes of Lechlade. The weather vane was mounted on a post in his garden at Riverside. Mr Fawkes was former Chief Mechanical Engineer for the Sudan Government Railways and Steamers.

1962: Dorrie Brown and Noreen Bishop showed that they preferred the Charleston to the Twist during a Marlborough Parish Church party where they performed the dance. The party was held in the Marlborough Town Hall and the two girls were from the Marlborough Youth Club.

1972: Mrs Iris Cundy of Churchward Avenue, Swindon, was voted one of the best looking women in Britain by judges in a photography magazine contest. Iris reached the final of the Amateur Photography Cover Girl ‘72 Competition with a picture taken by Mr D Barns of Thurlestone Road, Swindon.

1972: Anthony and Sylvia Farrell of Ashbury Avenue, Nythe, Swindon, won through to the semi finals of the Butlins National Amateur Veleta trophy and the Butlins National Over 35s Veleta held in Blackpool.

THE WORLD 1587: Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringay Castle in Northamptonshire, implicated in a Catholic plot to overthrow Elizabeth I.

1725: Catherine I became Empress of Russia on the death of her husband Peter the Great.

1819: John Ruskin, writer and artist, was born in London.

1886: Rioting and looting followed a protest march by the unemployed in Trafalgar Square.

1904: The Russo-Japanese War broke out, provoked by Russian penetration into Manchuria and Korea.

1915: DW Griffith’s epic The Birth Of A Nation was released.

1931: James Dean, cult actor, was born in Marion, Indiana. He made just three films, East Of Eden, Rebel Without A Cause and Giant, before he died in a car smash.

1965: The government announced a ban on cigarette advertising on TV.

1976: Fourteen British mercenaries died by firing squad in Angola.

1990: American pop singer Del Shannon shot himself.

2017: Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, a former London socialite and god-daughter of the Prince of Wales, died at the age of 45.

BIRTHDAYS John Williams, film score composer (Jaws, Star Wars), 86; Nick Nolte, actor, 77; Mary Steenburgen, actress, 65; John Grisham, author, 63; Mohammad Azharuddin, Indian politician and former cricketer, 55; Seth Green, actor, 44; Abi Titmuss, model/TV personality, 42; Dani Harmer, actress, 29.