SWINDON

1952: Preliminary plans for the Coronation celebrations were discussed by Purton Parish Council. It was agreed to get in touch with several brass bands and try to arrange provisional bookings, although it was not known what funds were likely to be available. In other business, the clerk revealed that £94 had so far been raised by the parish council's appeal in aid of the North Devon communities recently struck by severe flooding.

1962: What is your Life? was announced as the title and theme of a new mission at St Mary's Church in Rodbourne Cheney. The vicar, the Rev H Watkins, said the purpose of the mission, which involved a 12-strong team from Bristol, was to encourage local men and women to be open to the Christian message, and to understand that there was more to life than material things.

1972: Engineering firm Plessey Hydraulics of Swindon announced that it would have a presence at two major international industrial shows during the remainder of the month - on either side of the Iron Curtain. One was the Selkhostekhnika in Moscow and the other was the Farm Construction and Industrial Machinery Show in Milwaukee, USA.

THE WORLD

1297: Scottish hero William Wallace defeated the English at Stirling Bridge.

1777: The British, under General Howe, beat the Americans commanded by George Washington at the battle of Brandywine Creek in the American War of

Independence.

1841: The commuter age began for the south-east of England when the London to Brighton commuter express train began a regular service, taking just 105 minutes.

1885: DH Lawrence, poet and novelist, was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire.

1895: The FA Cup was stolen from football outfitters William Shillock in

Birmingham - 68 years later an 83-year-old man confessed that he had melted it down to make counterfeit half-crown coins.

1914: WC Handy published his St Louis Blues which has since been recorded more than 100 times.

1915: The first Women's Institute was formed in Anglesey, Wales.

1928: The world's first television play was transmitted live by station WGY in

New York. The Queen's Messenger, a 40-minute transmission had only two

characters, but there were four actors, as old-fashioned cameras could not be

moved around.

1972: The BBC TV quiz programme Mastermind was first transmitted.

1978: Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov was stabbed by a poisoned umbrella point wielded by an unknown secret agent at a London bus-stop. The unidentified poison brought on a coma and Markov died on September 15.

2001: 2,977 people - 67 of them British - were killed when passenger jets

hijacked by al-Qaida terrorists struck the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth hijacked plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.

2012: Andy Murray capped an astonishing year by finally clinching his first

Grand Slam title - the US Open - a month after being crowned Olympic champion.

2017: Badger culling was given the go-ahead in 11 new areas of England as part of efforts to tackle tuberculosis in cattle.

BIRTHDAYS

Brian De Palma, film director, 78; Franz Beckenbauer, former

footballer, 73; Roger Uttley, former rugby player/coach, 69; Amy Madigan,

actress, 68; Virginia Madsen, actress, 57; Moby, composer and musician, 53;

Harry Connick Jr, singer and actor, 51; Richard Ashcroft, rock singer, 47.