On this day - 22nd April. A lot has happened in the world, see https://www.beautifulbritain.co.uk/htm/onthisday/April/e222.htm and
https://www.britannica.com/on-this-day/April-22 but little of it is rail in the South West related.  From this sources:

1833 - The death of Richard Trevithick, Cornish born mining engineer and an early pioneer of steam-powered road and rail transport.

1933 - Sir Frederick Henry Royce, co-founder of the English car company Rolls-Royce, died.

1969 - British yachtsman Robin Knox-Johnston sailed into Falmouth Harbour, completing the first non-stop solo voyage around the world. He was at sea for 312 days. His yacht was named Suhaili which means "good wind".

1972 - Sylvia Cook and John Fairfax became the first people to row across the Pacific Ocean (the world's largest ocean). They arrived in Australia in their boat Britannia after being at sea for 362 days.

2000 - The Big Number Change took place. It was an update of telephone dialling codes in Britain in response to the rapid growth of telecommunications and the impending exhaustion of numbers.

2015 - SouthEastern removed the £10 admin fee from ticket refunds https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/t15662.html

2016 - More than 170 countries signed the Paris Agreement on climate change, a landmark treaty that sought to control and reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere; it took effect in November 2016.