SWINDON

1952: The main Swindon and Shrivenham Road was closed to all classes of vehicles during work on the Acorn Skew Bridge, which crossed the main road on the Berkshire side of the Wiltshire/Berkshire border. The Acorn Bridge was bring reconstructed and traffic was diverted via Highworth.

1952: A boy, about 13-years-old, who got into difficulties while trying to swim to the diving board at Coate Water, was rescued by a Swindon Press employee, Edward Hopkins, 16, of Devizes Road, Swindon. Edward ran down the steps to the first board and dived in. At first the drowning lad pulled him under the water but eventually Edward reached the diving board along with the boy.

1962: A total of 24,854 people visited Swindon’s Great Western Railway Museum in the first two months since it was opened, reported the Borough Council Librarian and Museum Curator M H Jolliffe. Mr Jolliffe said that this was a very good figure indeed and that out of every three people who visited the museum, two were adults.

1962: Hoping for a little more sun was Mr Edgar Ovens of The Hyde, Purton, who wants the sun to ripen his tobacco plants. For the past 20 years Mr Ovens has been growing and smoking his own tobacco. Mr Ovens said he usually grows about 100 plants in different varieties and this year it was Golden Virginia and Havana. Mr Ovens said he smoked between three and four ounces of tobacco a week.

1972: Building workers’ pickets tightened their hold on Swindon construction sites as they stopped supplies to the Brunel Centre. A coach load of pickets from Bristol came to Swindon to help local strikers shut down more sites. The pickets stopped lorries getting into the Brunel Centre and then attempted to persuade other workers to down tools.

1972: A Hawker Siddeley Shackleton MR3 Aircraft, believed to be the last of the 45 made of its class still flying, took off from RAF Kemble to take its place in history. It took 30 minutes to fly to the airfield in Cambridgeshire where the Imperial Warm Museum planned to put it on show. The aircraft was with the 208 Squadron.

THE WORLD

410: Rome fell to a western group of the tribes known as the Visigoths.

1793: France introduced the first national conscription, claiming all unmarried men aged 18 to 25.

1873: The Albert Bridge across the Thames at Chelsea was opened.

1914: The Battle of Mons, in Belgium near the French frontier, began.

1926: Rudolph Valentino, “the world’s greatest screen lover”, died in New York aged 31 from complications of ruptured appendix and gastric ulcer. Thousands of women lined his funeral route.

1938: Len Hutton scored what was then a world record Test score of 364 against Australia at The Oval.

1939: Germany and Russia signed a short-lived non-aggression pact which left Hitler free to attack Poland.

1940: The Blitz began as German bombers launched an all-night raid on London.

1960: Oscar Hammerstein II, American lyricist, died. His collaboration with Richard Rodgers to produce Oklahoma in 1943 changed the whole form and shape of the musical. They followed with South Pacific, The King And I, and The Sound Of Music.

1987: French racing driver Didier Pironi was killed in a power boat race off the Isle of Wight.

2017: The Home Office apologised after around 100 letters were wrongly sent to EU nationals warning them they face detention and removal from the UK.

BIRTHDAYS

Shelley Long, actress, 69; Rick Springfield, singer, 69; Edwyn Collins, singer, 59; Shaun Ryder, singer, 56; Mark Butcher, former cricketer, 46; Scott Caan, actor, 42; Ritchie Neville, singer, 39; Glen Johnson, footballer, 34.