swindon

1952: At a crowded Pewsey Carnival Ball at The Bouverie Hall, Pewsey Vale, selected its 1952 Carnival Queen. The successful candidates were Miss Jean Broadlay, Uphaven Married Quarters, the new queen with 60 votes, and her two attendants Misses Daphne Turner with 52 votes and Joan Draper with 46 votes. There were 300 attending the ball and music was by The Georgians Band.

1952: In recognition of his work for the movement, Mr L N Cheesley of Wanborough, was appointed as the speaker for the British Legion Pension Campaign. He had spent a good deal of his time explaining the campaign to various British Legion branches in Wiltshire. He had addressed an average of three meetings a week.

1962: Screaming Lord Sutch was described as: ‘He must be seen to be believed!’ when he visited Swindon. He kept the crowd waiting for an hour and then during his band, The Savages’, drum roll, he sprang on to the stage screaming and prancing around. He was only rivalled in noise by the girls in the audience screaming back at him. Jane Clarke, 17, from Swindon, thought it was a good gimmick, while Susan Maundrell, 16, thought he was silly. Swindon Town footballer Keith Morgan wasn’t impressed either saying: He’s stark raving bonkers. Screaming Lord Sutch was visiting Swindon’s Locarno Ballroom for the first time.

1962: A competitor in an RAF Gliding Qualifying Competition for the National Championships was forced to come down in Swindon when the pilot lost his lift while attempting to turn over at South Marston. The glider was an Olympia Mark B and came to rest in WD and HO Wills’ Sports Ground at Shrivenham Road, stopping a few yards from the boundary railings. The pilot, Flying Officer Peter Kevan, 26, was unhurt.

1972: Wanborough Carnival Queen, Carol Brown, 15, of Bishopstone, and her attendants Mandy Emmett, 16, of Upper Wanborough, and Katherine Tyler, 15, of Upper Wanborough, presided over the week of carnival events including the famous Wanborough Pram Race.

1972: A Swindon firm was reported as taking over the doomed Nicholson raincoat factory in County Road, saving most of the jobs. News of the reprieve came and redundancy notices were withdrawn as Catherall-Foster, which makes children’s clothes in Manchester Road, bought the Nicholson factory for an undisclosed sum.

THE WORLD

1593: Izaak Walton, the “father of angling” - he wrote The Compleat Angler - was born in Stafford.

1721: Prisoners in Newgate Gaol were offered a pardon if they agreed to be inoculated against small pox - to test Dr Charles Maitland’s theories on the subject. Seven men volunteered - and all survived to live in freedom.

1870: The Elementary Education Act was passed, giving compulsory free education to every child in England and Wales between the age of five and 13.

1902: Edward VII was crowned. The Coronation, set for June 26, had been postponed because he had an emergency appendectomy.

1941: RAF fighter pilot Douglas Bader was shot down and seized by German troops, who were surprised to discover his apparently fractured legs were both artificial.

1945: The second atomic bomb of the war was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.

1963: Ready Steady Go! was first transmitted by ITV to rival the BBC’s Top Of The Pops - presenter Cathy McGowan became known as “Queen of the Mods”.

1967: English playwright Joe Orton was battered to death by his male lover who then committed suicide.

1969: The bodies of actress Sharon Tate, eight months pregnant, and four others were found butchered at a Beverly Hills mansion. Members of a commune known as The Family led by Charles Manson were later arrested, tried and jailed.

1979: Brighton established the first nudist beach in Britain, despite protests from those who feared great depravity.

2010: British adventurer Ed Stafford became the first person to walk the entire length of the Amazon after a 4,000-mile trek lasting nearly two-and-a-half years.

2017: Fewer young people think they are likely to go to university, according to a poll published on this day, with many suggesting they have financial concerns or simply do not like the idea.

BIRTHDAYS

Rod Laver, former Wimbledon tennis champion, 80; Sam Elliott, actor, 74; James Naughtie, broadcaster, 67; Melanie Griffith, actress, 61; Gillian Anderson, actress, 50; Eric Bana, actor, 50; Mikael Silvestre, former footballer, 41