SWINDON...

1947: Louis Page, the Swindon Town manager, announced he had signed three new players – Jimmy Bain from Chelsea, Harry Kay from Liverpool and Walter Nunn from Charlton.

1955: Half of Highworth turned out to watch a beer and pram race around the nine pubs in the town.

1975: Bus fares in Thamesdown would go up again if councillors accepted a report from the borough’s directors of technical and financial services.

2013: The Adver launched the Get Swindon Working campaign, designed to help some of Swindon’s 4,000-plus unemployed find a job.

THE WORLD...

1631: Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, would spent the next 17 years building her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.

1579: Sir Francis Drake claimed a land he called Nova Albion (modern California) for England.

1885: The Statue of Liberty, arrived in New York Harbor.

1939: Last public guillotining in France: Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, was guillotined in Versailles outside the Saint-Pierre prison 1944: Iceland declared independence from Denmark and became a republic.

1991: The South African Parliament repealed the Population Registration Act which required racial classification of all South Africans at birth.

1994: Following a televised low-speed highway chase, OJ Simpson was arrested for the murders of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

BORN...

1239: Edward I of England (d. 1307).
1947: Paul Young, English singer-songwriter (Sad Café and Mike + The Mechanics) (d. 2000).
1963: Greg Kinnear, American actor and producer.
1969: Paul Tergat, Kenyan runner
1980: Venus Williams, American tennis player
1981: Shane Watson, Australian cricketer

DIED...

1898: Edward Burne-Jones, English painter (b. 1833).
1982: Roberto Calvi, Italian banker (b. 1920)
2008: Cyd Charisse, American actress and dancer (b. 1922).
2012: Rodney King, American victim of police brutality (b. 1965).