ON THIS DAY
IT’S DAY 307 OF 2015
DIPLOMATIC immunity was introduced
307 years ago in Britain, after the Russian ambassador was verbally and physically abused by bailiffs over a £50 debt. WEIGHING 307lb, the world’s largest fur ball was made from hair collected at a dog walk in Austin, Texas, in April. THE system of house numbers began
307 years ago. After 50,000 Huguenots fleeing religious persecution in France arrived in London, they struggled to find their way around the capital’s often unnamed streets. So they put numbers on their homes to make it easier to locate one another. EVERY 307 minutes, someone dies on Britain’s roads. IT’S 307 years since Britain’s first-known transvestite, the governor of New york, Lord Cornbury, a cousin of Queen Anne, attended his wife’s funeral dressed as a woman.
THERE ARE 58 DAYS LEFT
THE price of red roses goes up by
58 per cent on Valentine’s Day. A BRILLIANT cut diamond is considered perfectly shaped when it has 58 facets. IT TOOK 58,000 tons of steel to build the cantilevered Forth Bridge, near Edinburgh. Alfred Hitchcock used it as the location for a dramatic escape in his 1935 thriller The 39 Steps, but he made it up, as there was no such scene in John Buchan’s original story.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ADAM ANT, 61. Long after his Eighties pop fame, the singer (right) was sectioned under the Mental Health Act after pulling a fake gun on pub-goers. He’s planning a comeback tour next year. ANNA WINTOUR, 66. The editor-in- chief of American Vogue spent two years she may rather forget as fashion editor of Viva, an erotic adult women’s title published by Penthouse founder Bob Guccione. BEN FOGLE, 42. The clean-cut TV adventurer’s drink was apparently spiked in a country pub while out with his family in 2013 and he ended up being treated in A&E.
BORN ON THIS DAY
ADOLF (ADI) DASSLER (1900-1978). With brother Rudolf he built up a sports shoe empire on returning from fighting in World War I. After the two quarrelled, they split the business: Adidas became the company run by Adi, while Rudolf took Puma. CHARLES BRONSON(19212003). The screen hardman known for the Death Wish films (right). As the child of a poor Lithuanian miner, he had to wear his sister’s old dresses to school. JOHN BARRY (1933-2011). It’s no surprise the multi- Oscar-winning composer, best known for his 11 James Bond theme songs, had a passion for film — his family owned eight cinemas across the North of England.
ON NOVEMBER 3 . . .
IN 1534, by the Act of Supremacy, Henry VIII became supreme head of the Church of England, sealing his break with Rome over his marriage to Anne Boleyn. Anne was said to be the only woman who dared answer back to Henry, but it did her little good and she was beheaded in May 1536.
IN 1843, the 18ft-tall sandstone statue of Admiral Nelson was placed on top of his column in Trafalgar Square.
IN 1957, Laika, a stray dog from the streets of Moscow, became the first living creature in space, orbiting Earth aboard Sputnik II. Sadly, the dog died within hours, apparently from overheating and panic.