SWINDON...

1947: Mr C Winstone, a cornet player in GWR’s Band, began his ‘Swindon Trip’ holiday at Western Super Mare by winning the L Couch Challenge Cup against 53 other musicians.

1957: Lightning nearly hit a Swindon Trip train bound for Newquay. The train was carrying 450 of the 11,000 holidaymakers which left Swindon last night and this morning. The train ran in to a violent thunderstorm shortly after midnight and lightning struck a battery box beside the track.

1977: Four ex police houses left empty in Swindon for the last 18 months have become a target for young vandals. Windows have been smashed, a gate broken and wire meshing torn.

2013: Matt Hearn, 36, owner of Swindon gay venue The Pink Rooms, earned the praise of police for the club’s zero-tolerance approach to troublemakers. “I want people to be able to come out in Swindon, for the gay and straight communities to all congregate in one venue and have a safe evening out,” he said.

THE WORLD...

1947: The Roswell incident, the (supposed) crash of an alien spaceship near Roswell in New Mexico.

1954: Elvis Presley made his radio debut when WHBQ Memphis played his first recording for Sun Records, That’s All Right.

1985: Boris Becker became the youngest player ever to win Wimbledon at 17 2005: A series of four explosions occured on London’s transport system killing 56 people including four alleged suicide bombers and injuring more than 700 others.

BORN...

1860: Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer
1919: Jon Pertwee, actor
1940: Ringo Starr, drummer with The Beatles
1941: Bill Oddie, comedian and actor
1944: Tony Jacklin, golfer
1965: Jeremy Guscott, former England rugby player
1965: Jeremy Kyle, talk show host
1988: Jack Whitehall, comedian and actor

DIED...

1930: Arthur Conan Doyle, author, created Sherlock Holmes
2006: Syd Barrett, singer-songwriter with Pink Floyd
2013: Anna Wing, actress, starred in EastEnders