ON THIS DAY Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD
February 17, 2017
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
FEBRUARY 17, 1927 DEnTISTS all over London have been roused by the announcement that any insured person is not allowed to have his teeth filled at choice, but must have them out if the fillings exceed a certain number. A dentist said: ‘The reason is that once a tooth is pulled out and a false one added, there is no further expense, whereas a filled tooth may need further attention.’ FEBRUARY 17, 1967 In THE French general election campaign, which opened this week, wives of party leaders are being careful to stay out of the limelight. not all of them go as far as Madame Claude Pompidou. The frank wife of President de Gaulle’s Premier told an interviewer, who asked about her husband’s political career, that she wished he would give it up. But she confesses that when she talks politics with her 23-year-old son, they display such ignorance the long- suffering M. Pompidou has to tell them to stop.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
REBECCA ADLInGTon, 28 (right). The swimmer from nottinghamshire won two golds in Beijing in 2008 — becoming Britain’s most successful olympic swimmer in a century. Before retiring at 23, after two bronzes at London 2012, she said she wore new goggles at every race ‘and I have to crack my toes’. Renowned for her love of designer shoes, she also said: ‘When I’m swimming, I think about shopping.’ nICK HEWER, 73. Formerly Lord Sugar’s PR man and then aide on The Apprentice, Swindon-born Hewer now hosts Countdown on Channel 4. He said that when he told his father he’d gone into PR, ‘he reacted as though I was making a career in burglary. I was naive enough to think it was about explaining things and telling the truth’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
AnDRE MAGInoT (18771932). The French statesman (right) gave his name to the Maginot Line — the network of fortifications against Germany — which he had argued for as minister of war. But it did not cover the French–Belgian frontier, which was breached by the nazis in 1940. THoMAS J. WATSon, Sr (1874-1956). The American industrialist, called ‘the world’s greatest salesman’, built International Business Machines (IBM) into a global computer titan. But Watson did not see the potential of IT, saying in the Forties: ‘I think there is a world market for about five computers.’
ON FEBRUARY 17 . . .
IN 1904, the opera Madama Butterfly, by Puccini, had its world premiere in Milan. IN 1996, Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion, triumphed against the supercomputer Deep Blue.
WORD WIZARDRY
NEW WORD OF THE DAY Tweleb: A Twitter celebrity (one with more than 1,000 followers). GUESS THE DEFINITION Pugil (coined 1576) A) one who uses evasions in argument. B) A thief who starts fights between others in order to rob them in the confusion. C) A handful or what is taken up between the thumb and two first fingers. Answer below. PHRASE EXPLAINED It ain’t over till the fat lady sings: Reassuring someone there is still time for something good to happen. It comes from a report on a basketball game in 1976, comparing it with an opera with a usual closing aria.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
A Fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other. Samuel Johnson, English writer (1709-1784)
JOKE OF THE DAY
Why did the burglar cut the legs off his bed? he wanted to lie low for a while. guess The Definition answer: C.