SWINDON

1952: Sanford Street Congregational Church announced that there was to be no sermon the following Sunday evening. There was instead to be a screening of a film called God of Creation, produced by Chicago religious organisation the Moody Institute. The film explored the latest scientific discoveries from a Christian perspective, and set out to show the presence of what it termed a Divine Creator in all things.

1962: Field Marshal Lord Montgomery of Alamein, the most famous British military leader of the Second World War, announced a visit to the Royal Military College of Science in Shrivenham later in the month. He was to give a talk entitled The World Situation in 1962 to students and staff as part of the college’s normal routine instruction. Lord Montgomery had last visited the college shortly after the war ended in 1945.

1972: Wroughton man Brin Jones had a nasty shock when he opened his gas bill. Although the gas board had recently announced a price rise, he was expecting the quarterly fee to be about £30. Instead he was asked for £216, which was more than many people earned in a month at the time. The Gas Board blamed a clerical error.

THE WORLD

1792: Sir John Herschel, astronomer who first mapped the stars of the southern hemisphere, was born in Slough.

1802: Sculptor and animals painter Sir Edwin Landseer was born in London. He designed the bronze lions at the base of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square.

1875: Maurice Ravel, French composer, was born.

1876: Alexander Graham Bell patented the first telephone.

1917: The Dixie Jazz Band One-Step was the world’s first jazz record to be released - ironically by the all-white Original Dixieland Jazz Band.

1941: British troops invaded Italian-held Ethiopia.

1965: State troopers and local law enforcement assault 600 civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama. The event was dubbed Bloody Sunday.

1975: The body of kidnapped heiress Lesley Whittle was found in a 60ft drain shaft. She had been held for 52 days then strangled by Donald Neilson, The Black Panther, who was later given five life sentences.

1989: China declares martial law in Lhasa, Tibet. Reports claim Chinese troops fired on Tibetan monks and civilians demanding independence, killing hundreds.

2017: A rhinoceros in a French zoo was shot in the head three times before having its horn sliced off with a chainsaw, described by conservation charity Tusk as a ‘devastating blow’.

BIRTHDAYS Michael Eisner, former Disney CEO, 76; Sir Ranulph Fiennes, explorer, 74; William Boyd, author, 66; Sir Vivian Richards, former cricketer, 66; Bryan Cranston, actor, 62; Ivan Lendl, former tennis player, 58; Mary Beth Evans, actress, 57; Rachel Weisz, actress, 48; Bel Powley, actress, 26.