SWINDON

1952: From 17 entrants, 14-year-old Susan Trinder, of Chelworth Road, Cricklade, was chosen to be carnival queen for the fourth Leigh Carnival. Susan was the first carnival queen of the village and she, and her two attendants, made their own dresses from material paid for by the carnival committee. Her two attendants were Miss Veronica Butt from Leigh, and Miss Patricia Witts from Blakehill.

1952: At a wedding in the Church of Christ, Broad Street, Swindon, the bride’s father performed the ceremony. He was Mr H T Ponting. Cynthia Ponting, from Curtis Street, Swindon was married to Mr Leonard Hewer of Tydeman Street. The organist was the bride’s cousin, Mr W A Bretell and she was given away by her brother, Mr R F Ponting.

1962: Accompanied by their house mistress, Mrs F Nowell, 35 girl pupils at Westcott Secondary Modern School, Swindon visited Bolingbroke House, Lydiard Park. The visit was a reward for success in the school’s house championships. It was arranged by the Town Clerk’s Department, Civic Offices, Swindon and enabled the girls, all members of Bolingbroke House, to learn something of the derivation of their house name.

1963: A total of 9,500 men, women and children left Swindon by train on the annual Trip fortnight. The spokesman for British Rail in Swindon told the Evening Advertiser that the number of people leaving Swindon was down on last year. He said that there was not the same demand for special trains. A special train left with 550 passengers for Penzance, 400 for Blackpool and 600 passengers for Great Yarmouth.

1973: Lord Snowdon made a secret visit to Swindon. Looking as incognito as possible, dressed in pale blue jeans, white shirt and dark glasses. He was seen on Cheney Manor Road, Swindon, filming part of a documentary with an ATV film crew. Lord Snowdon had lunch in the nearby pub, The Steam Train, but was giving nothing away except that the documentary would be shown later in the year.

1973: A new president of Swindon Rotary Club was installed at the club’s weekly luncheon, in The Goddard Arms Hotel. Mr Geoff Edie a surveyor with the Swindon Customs and Excise, took office from the retiring president, Mr Ted Bamplan. Mr Edie has been a Rotarian for 10 years.

THE WORLD

1535: Sir Thomas More, English statesman and Lord Chancellor, was executed on Tower Hill for refusing to accept Henry VIII as head of the Church of England.

1685: The Battle of Sedgemoor in Somerset - the last on English soil - took place with victory for James II’s Royalist forces over the rebels under the Duke of Monmouth.

1875: South Cliff Tramway, the first cliff railway, opened in Scarborough.

1885: Louis Pasteur administered his first successful treatment with an anti-rabies vaccine.

1886: Box numbers were introduced in classified advertisements by the Daily Telegraph.

1907: Brooklands motor racing track near Weybridge, Surrey, was opened. It closed in 1939.

1919: The British airship R34 became the first to cross the Atlantic, from Edinburgh to New York in 108 hours.

1971: Jazz legend Louis Armstrong died of a heart attack. He once said: “Musicians don’t retire, they stop when there’s no more music in them.”

1988: 167 men died in an explosion on the Piper Alpha oil rig in the North Sea.

2017: A dark green convertible Audi used by Diana, Princess of Wales, sold for £58,000 at auction.

BIRTHDAYS

The Dalai Lama, 83; Dame Mary Peters, former Olympic pentathlon champion, 79; George W Bush, former US president, 72; Sylvester Stallone, actor, 72; Geraldine James, actress, 68; Geoffrey Rush, actor, 67; Jennifer Saunders, actress/comedian, 60; 50 Cent, rapper, 43; Kate Nash, singer-songwriter, 31.