SWINDON

1952: Owing to illness Mr H G D Gisburn of Exeter was unable to show his collection of Sudanese stamps at the Philatelic Society meeting in Swindon. As a deputy he sent his daughter Miss A T A Gisburn with an illustrated display entitled Post On The High Seas. A vote of thanks was proposed by Mr G H J Bond.

1952: The Elusive Victory, a feature film, was shown at United Dairies Sports Hall in Wootton Bassett when about 60 people attended. The subject of the film was the cricket Test Tour in Australia. Afterwards there was a quiz under the chairmanship of Mr D Bell, Managing Director of United Dairies, who was a keen cricketer.

1962: Walt Disney and Huckleberry Hound puppets, made at the world famous Marlborough factory of Messrs Pelham Puppets, were ordered for Japan. The principal, Mr Robert Pelham, said the order was placed at the recent Brighton Toy Fair. Not many countries around the world did not put in orders for Pelham puppets but one was Russia. So, Mr Robert Pelham said that his puppets would help break down barriers by creating pen friendships between children in the Pelham Puppet Club and children behind the Iron Curtain.

1962: Art students at The College Swindon were busy preparing for the new exhibition in design held in the ground floor of McIlroys in Swindon. Head of Graphic Design was Kenneth Lindley, who said the students were working on three major projects with the overall theme of Summer, including a large mosaic mural made from beer bottle tops, fabric, stray and even hair from a horses tail.

1972: A Highworth man, Sqd Leader Alexander Mackenzie one of the VC 10 navigators and a Wroughton man Master Air Loadmaster George Hose were with the Queen on the Royal tour of the Far East. A Comet of 216 Squadron at Lyneham was among the planes flying the royal party.

1972: A special reception was held at RAF Kemble to commemorate officially the installation of the Gloster Meteor Jet at the maintenance unit’s main gate. After the reception the guests were shown the jet by the station’s commanding officer Wing Commander J W Morrice. The plane served in Malta for seven years before coming to RAF Kemble.

the world

1791: The optical telegraph (semaphore machine) was unveiled in Paris.

1836: Texas was proclaimed a republic, independent of Mexico.

1882: Robert MacLean tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Queen Victoria at Windsor.

1930: Novelist DH Lawrence died in France of tuberculosis.

1949: The first round-the-world non-stop flight was completed by Captain James Gallagher and his 13-man USAF crew. It took 94 hours, during which the plane, Lucky Lady II, was refuelled four times in flight.

1958: A British team led by Vivian Fuchs completed the first crossing of the Antarctic, covering 2,158 miles from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea in 99 days.

1969: The French-built supersonic airliner Concorde made its maiden flight from Toulouse.

1970: Southern Rhodesia broke away from Britain and became a republic under Ian Smith.

1986: The Queen signed the Australia Bill in Canberra, formally severing any Australian constitutional ties with Britain.

1988: A new political party was born when Liberals merged with the Social Democrats to form the Social and Liberal Democrats.

1995: Financial dealer Nick Leeson, whose multimillion-pound dealings on the high-risk derivatives market in Singapore bankrupted Barings Bank, was arrested at Frankfurt airport after a week-long manhunt.

BIRTHDAYS

Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet Union president, 87; Tom Wolfe, novelist, 87; John Irving, novelist, 76; JPR Williams, former rugby player, 69; John Altman, actor, 66; Ian Woosnam, golfer, 60; Jon Bon Jovi, actor/rock singer, 56; Daniel Craig, actor, 50; James Arthur, singer, 30.