SWINDON

1952: Nearly 50 students from Wiltshire, including Swindon, and other parts of the country attended the annual Wiltshire Rural Music School at Grittleton House. For the first time since the school began in 1944, students from abroad attended. There were three students from Germany and one from Denmark. The BBC recorded a special programme on the music school for This Week In The West.

1952: Possibly the only qualified woman football referee in England, Miss Brenda Russell of County Road, Swindon, was married at Christ Church, Swindon. She met her husband George Hayson of Portsmouth, while rehearsing for a production of The Mikado. Her father, the late Major W E Russell, refereed the FA Cup Final of 1924.

1962: More than 3,000 people packed the grass in front of the bandstand at the Town Gardens, Swindon, to watch the Swindon heats of the Miss TWW 1962 contest. Twelve bathing belles, nine from Swindon, were judged by a panel of three, with Swindon’s deputy Mayor Ald G Gay, presiding as chairman. The other judges were TWW’s Guy Thomas and Alan Curthoys, editor of TV Weekly. The winner was Maureen Gay, 18, from Bristol, who won £10.

1962: The head of the commerce department at The College, Swindon Mr N J Davenport, has taken up an appointment in Pakistan. He was in Swindon for five years before going to Pakistan as advisor on commercial education to the Government. He was chairman of Walcot Youth Club and secretary of Swindon Productions Association.

1972: About 200 representatives from the 17 hospitals within the Swindon and District Hospital Management Committee area attended the School of Nursing presentations, at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Swindon. Chairman of the committee, Sir Maurice Dorman, gave certificates and badges to state registered and state enrolled nurses. The ceremony was conducted in the presence of the Mayor of Swindon Ald Mrs Gladys Knapp.

1972: A group of Swindon dancers narrowly missed the chance to appear before an audience including top agents and producers after the All England Sunshine Dancing Competition. The Tanwood School team, which had appeared on ITV’s Opportunity Knocks programme with a Scottish routine, performed the same routine at the finals of the Sunshine Competition, and then raced for their bus home. After their coach had left the adjudicator announced that the Tanwood team had been chosen to perform at the final concert, but it was too late.

THE WORLD

1745: The first recorded women’s cricket match took place at Gosden Common near Guildford, with neighbouring village Hambledon against Bramley.

1788: New York became the 11th of the United States.

1856: George Bernard Shaw, playwright, was born in Dublin.

1875: Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist, was born.

1895 Robert Graves, English poet, novelist and critic, was born. He wrote IClaudius in 1934 and more than 100 other books.

1908: The Federal Bureau of Investigation was established in Washington, DC.

1945: Clement Attlee’s Labour post-war government came to power with a huge majority. He said: “Labour can deliver the goods.”

1952: King Farouk of Egypt abdicated after a coup led by General Neguib. On the same date in 1956, President Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal just a month after taking power.

1952: Eva Peron (Evita), Argentina’s First Lady, died of cancer, aged 33.

BIRTHDAYS

Barbara Jefford, actress, 88; John Howard, former prime minister of Australia, 79; Sir Mick Jagger, Rolling Stone, 75; Dame Helen Mirren, actress, 73; Roger Taylor, rock musician (Queen), 69; Susan George, actress, 68; Kevin Spacey, actor, 59; Sandra Bullock, actress, 54; Kate Beckinsale, actress, 45.