SWINDON

1952: Bill Amor, the Reading footballer and member of the Borough Police Force, who was born in Pewsey, captained the British police team who won the International Police Football Tournament held in Scotland. Bill received the cup from the Duke of Edinburgh after the British team had beaten Sweden 1-0.

1952: Fifty members of the Swindon Over 30s Club from the Conservatives Association took a coach trip when they visited the White Horse in Uffington, calling at Wantage and Faringdon.

1962: A story of personal and family sacrifice and dogged determination lay behind the silver medal won for Great Britain by Swindon’s Brian Jenkins at the European Swimming Championships in Leipzig. Brian, 19, completed two years of training before winning the medal in the men’s 200 metres butterfly race. His mother took on a full time job to help fund him and his girlfriend, Gillian Miles of Church Walk North, spent her holiday working on timing him as he swam, before he left for the championships.

1962: Among 300 British teenagers en route for an educational cruise to West Africa were two local students, Anthony Loncraine of Pewsey and Jennie Lee of Shrivenham. 400 French students joined the British contingent on the first International cruise of its kind. Also on board the Devonia were 26 African boys who won scholarships for English language from the Senegal Government.

1972: Mrs Ruby Hughes from Aston House, Pewsey, has been reunited with the wedding ring she lost more than 30 years ago. When she was living with her parents at Walcot, while her husband was away serving in the Army, she lost her wedding ring. It finally turned up again when the current owner of the house, Mr Giddings, was digging the garden. Ruby was surprised at what good condition it was after all those years.

1972: It was congratulations all round for Private David Warren of Aldbourne Close, Penhill, Swindon, when he received the prize for best machine-gun shot at the passing out parade of Inkerman Platoon at the Wessex Depot of the Prince of Wales Division in Exeter. David, 17, a former pupil of Penhill School, received a crested spoon from Ald G A Joy, Mayor of Exeter.

THE WORLD

79 AD: Vesuvius erupted, destroying the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and killing 2,000 people. Paradoxically, the eruption destroyed Pompeii but also preserved it for the rest of time.

1572: The St Bartholomew’s Day massacre took place in Paris when thousands of French Huguenots were killed by order of the Catholic French court.

1724: Painter George Stubbs was born in Liverpool.

1814: British troops under General Ross invaded Washington and set fire to the White House and the Capital. Both were rebuilt and enlarged.

1875: Matthew Webb, British merchant navy captain, became the first person to swim the English Channel, doing the breaststroke from Dover to Cap Gris Nez in 21 hours, 45 minutes.

1891: The motion picture camera was patented by Thomas Edison.

1916: Eight people died when Zeppelins raided the outskirts of London.

1965: The 450,000-year-old body of a man was found in a Hungarian limestone quarry.

2006: The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefined the term “planet” such that Pluto was then considered a dwarf planet.

2008: Gordon Brown promised that the London Games would be “the best Olympics Ever” as the official handover to Mayor Boris Johnson took place in Beijing.

2014: A 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck Napa, California, in the northern San Francisco Bay area, it was the largest earthquake to strike northern California since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

2017: Devastating floods triggered by monsoon rains killed more than 950 people and displaced close to 40 million people across northern India, southern Nepal and northern Bangladesh.

BIRTHDAYS

Antonia (AS) Byatt, writer, 82; Jean-Michel Jarre, composer, 70; Sam Torrance, golfer, 65; Stephen Fry, actor/writer/presenter, 61; Steve Guttenberg, actor, 60; Jared Harris, actor, 57; Chad Michael Murray, actor, 37; Rupert Grint, actor, 30.