SWINDON

1952: Elderly people would be encouraged to make things in their homes for sale from a central depot, according to a scheme agreed in principle by Swindon Old People’s Welfare Committee. The plan, partly modelled on a scheme operating in Oxford, would involve men aged 65 and over and women aged 60 and over trying crafts ranging from carpentry to glove-making, as studies showed such activities helped to preserve physical and mental health.

1962: An anonymous caller directed an Adver reporter to a phone box in Okus Road, telling him to look in the pages of the directory for a letter. The reporter found the letter, which was a threat to bomb the Old Town railway station if the police continued investigating a recent series of break-ins at Swindon businesses including a milk bar at the bottom of Victoria Road. In another raid, this time at a bakery, the criminals were evidently frustrated at the lack of cash on the premises, as they threw cream cakes at the walls.

1972: A big drop in entry numbers forced Swindon Cage Bird Society to cancel its annual show. Alarmed club officials were mystified as to why the entry figure was less than half that for 1971. One said taking the decision to cancel was heartbreaking, but that running the show as normal would have been disastrous for the club.

THE WORLD

1312: Edward III, King Of England from 1327, was born.

1460: Prince Henry Of Portugal - Henry The Navigator - died aged 66.

1805: Johann Georg Lehner invented the hot dog.

1850: Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde, was born in Edinburgh.

1851: The start of a telegraphic service between London and Paris.

1941: HMS Ark Royal torpedoed by German U-boat, she sank the next day.

1947: Hugh Dalton, Chancellor of the Exchequer, resigned after admitting he had disclosed tax proposals to a reporter minutes before he presented the Budget.

1954: Great Britain won the first Rugby League World Cup, defeating France

16-12 in Paris.

1969: Anti-war protesters in Washington, DC staged a symbolic “March Against Death”.

1970: A 120mph tropical cyclone hit the densely populated Ganges Delta region of east Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an estimated 500,000 people in one night.

1990: Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first web page on a NeXT workstation.

1994: Voters in Sweden decided to join the European Union in a referendum.

2017: A 7.3 magnitude earthquake near the Iraq-Iran border killed more than 400 people and sent residents fleeing their homes into the night.

BIRTHDAYS

George Leonard Carey, Baron Carey of Clifton, former Archbishop of Canterbury, 83; Howard Wilkinson, former football manager, 75; Joe Mantegna, actor, 71; Chris Noth, actor, 64; Whoopi Goldberg, actress, 63; Steve Zahn, actor, 51; Kelly Sotherton, former heptathlete, 42; Dana Vollmer, American former swimmer, 31.