SWINDON...

1947: Air Commodore Ronald L Phillips, only son of Mr P Phillips of Drove Road, General Secretary and Librarian of the GWR Mechanics Institute, had received the CBE from the King. He went to Buckingham Palace with his wife and son, Michael, to be presented with his medal.

1957: A fete at Bushton made more than £100 towards the £1,000 needed for the restoration of the defective stonework in Clyffe Pypard’s 14th century parish church. Nearly £500 had already been raised.

1977: Bride Diana Pearce would be able to fly through kitchen chores with the greatest of ease after today, as she was marrying Swindon inventor of the giant flat iron, Peter Ball. It was also his plan to put a giant flying frying pan into orbit, but Diana just wanted a down to earth wedding at St Paul’s Church in Covingham.

2013: The Swindon film industry had been playing a starring role at the home of the big screen – Hollywood. Swindon-based film Mr Wiggles had its American premiere on Sunday as part of the Awareness Film Festival. The festival selected films from around the world to raise awareness of pressing issues and the film, which was co-directed by Stephen Ware and Stephanie Palmer, tackled the taboo subjects of domestic violence and child abuse.

THE WORLD...

762: Baghdad was founded by caliph Al-Mansur.

1629: An earthquake in Naples, Italy, killed about 10,000 people.

1930: In Montevideo, Uruguay won the first FIFA World Cup.

1975: US union activist Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at about 2.30 p.m. He was never seen or heard from again, and would be declared legally dead on this date in 1982.

2006: The world’s longest running music show Top of the Pops was broadcast for the last time on BBC 2. The show had aired for 42 years.

BORN...

1818: Emily Brontë, English author and poet (d. 1848)
1863: Henry Ford, American businessman, founded the Ford Motor Company (d. 1947)
1940: Clive Sinclair, English businessman, founded Sinclair Radionics and Sinclair Research
1947: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-American bodybuilder, actor, and politician, 38th Governor of California
1958: Kate Bush, English singer-songwriter and producer
1961: Laurence Fishburne, American actor and producer
1970: Christopher Nolan, English-American director, screenwriter, and producer
1974: Hilary Swank, American actress and producer
1980: Justin Rose, English golfer
1982: James Anderson, English cricketer

DIED...

1718: William Penn, English businessman and philosopher, founded the Province of Pennsylvania (b. 1644)
2003: Sam Phillips, American record producer (b. 1923)
2007: Ingmar Bergman, Swedish director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1918)
2013: Ron Dias, American animator (b. 1937)