SWINDON

1952: Physical Training and Square Dancing exhibitions from children and adults were some of the features of a gathering of the members of the Faringdon Methodist Circuit in the gardens of Sudbury House, Faringdon. It was arranged by the Faringdon Methodist Youth Fellowship. Profits of £6 went to circuit funds.

1952: Jack Winter, a ballad singer from Swindon, appeared on the BBC West Regional Programme. He conducted the GWR Staff Gleemen on broadcasts before the war. During his four year service with the Royal Engineers he took many leading role in Army productions.

1962: Disorder reigned in a road widening scheme on the site where once William Morris, a pioneer in bringing newspapers within reach of the general public, for he began the first provincial penny newspaper - the presided as editor of what became the Swindon Advertiser. It was reported that the High Street house where the Swindon Advertiser was first published on February 6 1854, was to be demolished as part of the road widening of Devizes Road Bridge and Newport Street. It was a project costing £22,232. The paper moved from High Street to Victoria Road in 1857.

1962: Mr H Glastonbury of Headlands Grove, Swindon, took first place in the Garden Section of the Swindon and District Allotments and Garden Association annual competition. In the Wiltshire Allotments and Gardens Council’s annual competition Swindon gardeners gained four places. It was Mr P Walters for allotments and again Mr Glastonbury for gardens.

1973: Swindon dancers have scored successes in the finals of the All England Dancing Competition at St Pancras Town Hall in London. Nicholas Ringham won a bronze medal with third place in the competition for ballet performance. Polly-Ann Tanner was placed third with a special commendation in the Sunshine Challenge Trophy event with her jazz dance.

1973: Bob Wheeler, a surgeon at Savernake Hospital, presented a hedge trimmer on behalf of the Swindon and District Hospital Management Committee to Mr Frederick J R Colley. Mr Colley was retiring as operating theatre technician.

THE WORLD

1807: Round-arm bowling was introduced to English cricket by John Willes of Kent in the Kent v England match at Penenden Heath.

1837: London’s first railway station, Euston, opened.

1871: The English Football Association Challenge Cup Competition was formed, to become better known as the FA Cup. The first final saw the Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers by one goal to nil, watched by a crowd of 2,000.

1885: The original vamp, Theda Bara, was born in Cincinnati. She stunned audiences in her 1915 debut movie A Fool There Was, which was inspired by Kipling’s poem The Vampire - hence the expression.

1940: The first singles charts were published in the US journal Billboard. No 1 was I’ll Never Smile Again by the Tommy Dorsey band, vocal by Frank Sinatra.

1944: An assassination attempt on Hitler was made by a German staff officer, Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, at Rastenberg, East Prussia. He was summarily executed, as were 1,000 other people implicated in the plot.

1968: Actress Jane Asher broke off her engagement with Paul McCartney in a BBC television interview.

1969: “One small step for man, one giant step for mankind,” said Neil Armstrong when he emerged from the Eagle lunar module to take man’s first step on the Moon.

1973: Kung-fu film star Bruce Lee died in Hong Kong.

BIRTHDAYS

Jacques Delors, European politician, 93; Dame Diana Rigg, actress, 80; Kim Carnes, singer, 73; Carlos Santana, rock musician, 71; Paul Cook, rock drummer (Sex Pistols), 62; Charlie Magri, former boxer, 62; Jonathon Morris, actor, 56; Anton du Beke, ballroom dancer, 52; Josh Holloway, actor, 49.