SWINDON...

1947: Houses were shaken in Swindon, the cause probably being simultaneous dropping by Lincoln aircraft of 14 500lb bombs at a demonstration on the Downs outside Market Lavington, where the purpose was to show how the air services of today may be directed in support of the Army.

1957: A disused clay pit in Wroughton, the subject of a complaint by the Parish Council to Highworth Rural Council, was described as a potential danger to children for many years. The rural council replied that it did not have any responsibility in the matter and advised people not to let their children near the pit.

1977: Street Theatre came to the Brunel Plaza Shopping Parade in Swindon when students from Bristol’s Old Vic Theatre School performed a 20-minute street play to advertise the Royal Bath and West 200 anniversary show.

2013: BT Wi-fi announced it had reached more than 500,000 hotspots in the South West, of which 54,000 are in Wiltshire and more than 13,500 in Swindon. Across the UK and Ireland the company added more than 20,000 new hotspots each week over the past year taking the total to five million.

THE WORLD...

1610: Henry IV of France, “Good King Henry”, was murdered by a mad monk in Paris.

1643: Louis XIV, right, became King of France at the age of four years 231 days – and reigned for more than 72 years.

1727: Artist Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk.

1779: The Oaks was first run at Epsom.

1796: Edward Jenner made his first vaccination against smallpox, and laid the foundation for modern immunology.

1811: Paraguay proclaimed its independence.

1842: The British periodical Illustrated London News was first published.

1921: The British Legion was founded in London – it became the Royal British Legion in 1971.

1948: Israel was established as a Jewish state following the partition of Palestine.

1955: Eastern Bloc countries signed the Warsaw Pact.

2013: Seven members of a sadistic Oxford paedophile ring faced long jail sentencesas as police and social workers apologised to their victims for failing to rescue them.

BORN...

1940: Chay Blyth, round-the-world yachtsman

1943: Jack Bruce, rock musician

1944: George Lucas, film-maker

1945: Francesca Annis, actress

1951: Robert Zemeckis, film director

1952: David Byrne, musician (Talking Heads)

1961: Tim Roth, actor

1962: Ian Astbury, singer (The Cult)

1969: Cate Blanchett, actress

DIED...

1919: Henry John Heinz, founder of the H. J. Heinz Company, dies at 74

1984: Larry Stock, songwriter (Blueberry Hill), dies

1987: American actress Rita Hayworth dies at 68

1993: William Randolph Hearst, US newspaper magnate (Pulitzer), dies at 85

1998: Frank Sinatra American singer and actor, dies at 82