SWINDON 1952: Well known Swindon broadcast pianist, Joan Baker, was booked for another performance by the BBC. She was invited to perform a half hour recital on the London Home Service but many of her Swindon enthusiasts were unable to hear her play, as the radio programme was broadcast from nine to nine thirty on Monday morning.

1952: About 200 people attended the combined Royal Artillery Association South Western area dance in the Town Hall, Swindon. Music for dancing was provided by the Royal Air Forces Association Band from Yatesbury. Modern and old time dances were included in the programme and spot prizes were awarded.

1962: A Lechlade couple set off for a 1,000-mile trip through France in a 1914 open car. Mr and Mrs A Brigden, mine-hosts of The Trout Inn, were taking part in an international veteran car rally at Le Mans. Their car was a Stellite with a Vickers engine. The car was on show at Vickers-Armstrong factory at South Marston the week before they set off.

1962: A rally held in the Methodist Central Hall was the climax of a one day visit to Swindon by the Rev Dr Maldwyn L Edwards, the president of the Methodist Conference. In the morning he met ministers from Swindon, Faringdon, Cirencester, Cheltenham and Witney at Queen’s Drive Methodist Church. Following a service in the afternoon there was a film show on Methodist education.

1972: Swindon Town Council Chief Executive and Town Clerk, Mr D Murray John, who was due to retire, had agreed to continue on in his post to help with the re-organisation of local government, and to choose an assistant to help him. A corporation spokesman said that the appointment, on a short term basis, of a suitable person, recommended by the Chief Executive, had been approved. Mr Murray John was appointed Town Clerk in 1938 at the age of 29. He was said to be the youngest Town Clerk in England at that time.

1972: The roads to Imber, the Salisbury Plan village evacuated in the war to provide troops with realistic training in street fighting, were opened to the public for a few days. Roads were opened several times during the year to allow the villages to return to tend graves in the village churchyard. It was reported that the village was currently part of the Army training ranges.

THE WORLD 1461: England’s bloodiest battle raged for 10 hours around the village of Towton in Yorkshire. More than 28,000 died as Henry VI’s Lancastrian forces were crushed and the throne was claimed by Edward IV.

1788: Death of evangelist Charles Wesley, writer of more than 5,500 hymns and co founder, with his brother John, of Methodism.

1871: The Royal Albert Hall, London, built in memory of Prince Albert, was opened by Queen Victoria.

1886: A new fizzy drink was launched by graduate chemist John S Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia. Described as an ‘Esteemed Brain Tonic and Intellectual Beverage’, it is now better known as Coca-Cola.

1891: Georges Seurat, the French impressionist painter primarily responsible for the development of Pointillism, died.

1912: Captain Robert Falcon Scott died in Antarctica returning from his expedition to the South Pole.

1940: Metal strips were introduced into the Bank of England £1 notes, as an anti-forgery device.

1951: First performance of The King And I at St James’s Theatre, Broadway, with Yul Brynner as the King and Gertrude Lawrence as Anna.

1960: Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and US President Dwight D Eisenhower agreed on new proposals for a nuclear test ban treaty.

1963: The right for any territory to secede from the Central African Federation was granted by Britain.

1971: Charles Manson and three members of his cult were sentenced to death in Los Angeles for the murders of seven people and one unborn child.

1974: The US spacecraft Mariner 10 took the first close-up pictures of Mercury.

1981: The first London marathon was won by Norwegian Inge Simonsen and American Dick Beardsley - crossing the tape hand in hand.

2004: The Republic of Ireland became the first country in the world to ban smoking in all workplaces, including bars and restaurants.

2017: The Prince of Wales’ tour of Europe began with a traditional red carpet welcome in Romania, as the UK formally began the process of leaving the EU.

BIRTHDAYS Lord (Norman) Tebbit, former Cabinet minister, 87; Julie Goodyear, actress, 76; Eric Idle, comedian and actor, 75; John Major, former prime minister, 75; Vangelis, composer, 75; Terry Jacks, singer, 74; Christopher Lambert, actor, 61; Lucy Lawless, actress, 50; Jennifer Capriati, former tennis player, 42.