SWINDON...

1947: Coun N V Toze, the chairman of the Health and Welfare Committee drew attention at the meeting of the Swindon Town Council to the very serious position in the county with staff at the Maternity and Isolation Hospital. He said that of all the full nursing staff at the Isolation Hospital only the matron is left. At the present time there were no cases there.

1955: A Swindon nurse and an officer from the Uganda Police Force, who met in Uganda, were married at Christ Church, Swindon. The bridegroom was Mr J W N Swain and the bride Jeanette Anna Maybury. Jeanette was a nurse at Burderop US Hospital, but they met when she was on holiday in Uganda.

1977: A special exhibition train was to be on show in the British Rail Engineering Works. It was touring Britain as part of the celebrations of 150 years of passenger railway. The train had a cinema coach and two exhibition coaches.

2013: Shawn Grant beat Roma Da Silva to claim the Ultimate Non Pro Boxing Championship at the Swindon Fightclub show at MECA.

THE WORLD...

1644: The English Civil War Battle of Marston Moor took place.

1897: Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi obtained a patent for radio in London.

1934: The Night Of The Long Knives ended with the death of Ernst Röhm.

1937: Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.

1964: US President Lyndon B Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, meant to prohibit segregation in public places.

2002: Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo around the world non-stop in a balloon.

BORN...

1929: Imelda Marcos – Filipino politician, 10th First Lady of the Philippines.
1972: Darren Shan – Irish author.
1973: Peter Kay – English comedian and actor.

DIED...

1566: Nostradamus – French astrologer and author.
1778: Jean-Jacques Rousseau –  Swiss philosopher and composer.
1850: Robert Peel –  English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1961: Ernest Hemingway – American journalist and author.
1973: Betty Grable – American actress, singer, and dancer.
1977: Vladimir Nabokov – Russian-Swiss author.
1997: James Stewart – American actor and singer.
2010: Beryl Bainbridge – English author.