SWINDON...

1947: Highworth Council School held their annual ‘potted’ sports day when 300 children took part in one or more of the 19 events. .

1955: Because of the weather, hay making in farms surrounding Swindon and in Wiltshire generally was at a standstill but there was still time for conditions to improve and there was a good crop waiting to be harvested.

1975: Children from Greenmeadow and Savernake Street learnt how to play American-style when Chicago-born Jane Balanoff and Stacey Silverstone, a New Yorker, came to town as part of the Winant and Clayton Volunteer Scheme.

2013: Sanford House, a historic former school in the town centre, was set to become a hub for key community groups under a £350,000 Swindon Council plan.

THE WORLD...

1936: The Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.

1948: The Western allies began an airlift to Berlin after the Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin.

1955: The South African Congress Alliance adopted the Freedom Charter at the Congress Of The People in Kliptown.

1963: US President John F Kennedy gave his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, underlining the support of the United States for West Germany shortly after East Germany put up the Berlin Wall.

1977: The Yorkshire Ripper killed 16-year-old shop assistant Jayne MacDonald in Leeds, changing public perception of the killer as she was the first victim who was not a prostitute.

2000: US President Bill Clinton announced the completion of the first survey of the entire human genome.

BORN...

1817: Branwell Brontë – English painter and poet.
1892: Pearl S Buck – American author, Nobel Prize laureate.
1898: Willy Messerschmitt – German engineer and businessman.
1903: Big Bill Broonzy – American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
1909: Colonel Tom Parker – Dutch-American talent manager.
1914: Laurie Lee – English author and poet.

DIED...

1541: Francisco Pizarro – Spanish conquistador.
1793: Gilbert White – English ornithologist.
1810: Joseph-Michel Montgolfier – French inventor, co-invented the hot air balloon.
1830: George IV of the United Kingdom.
1939: Ford Madox Ford – English author, poet and critic.
2012: Nora Ephron – American director, producer and screenwriter.