APRIL 18, 2017 ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE APRIL 18, 1956 Britain is to have its first State Lottery, with £1,000 top prizes. [The Chancellor] Mr Macmillan will sell £1 Premium Bonds which entitle the buyer to take part in the draw for prizes. All winnings will be tax-free. MPs cheered at this. Then they laughed when Mr Macmillan added: ‘This is not gambling for the subscriber cannot lose.’ APRIL 18, 1935 ThE latest instalment of ‘ Announcer’s English’, the quaint BBC patois manufactured exclusively in [BBC hQ] Langham Place, contains some remarkable new acoustic effects. Examples: Landscape — ‘Landskip.’ heinous — ‘haynus’. Marylebone — ‘Marribon’. Pall Mall — ‘Pell Mell’.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Hayley MILLS, 71. The former child star — who started work at age 12 — appeared in Tiger Bay, The Parent Trap and, more recently, ITV’s Wild At heart. The daughter of actor Sir John Mills, she was the last-ever recipient of the Academy Juvenile Award, at the 1961 Oscars, for her role in Pollyanna. ROSIE Huntington-whiteley, 30. The Devon-born model and actress who has starred in two Transformers films and Mad Max: Fury Road. Described as ‘the face that launched 1,000 bras’, her lingerie range for M&S became the fastest-selling underwear collection in the firm’s history.
BORN ON THIS DAY
Lucrezia BORGIA (14801519). The famously beautiful Italian noblewoman was the illegitimate daughter of Pope Alexander VI and his mistress. She has been depicted as a femme fatale, taking part in murder, incest and multiple orgies. however, many modern historians see her instead as a victim of her family’s intrigue. Clarence DARROW (1857-1938). The American — described as ‘ perhaps the greatest murder defence lawyer of his time’ — made his name defending a man accused of teaching evolution, in what became known as the ‘monkey trial’. he defended more than 100 people and not one of his clients was ever executed.
ON APRIL 18...
IN 1593, Shakespeare had his first work published, the poem Venus And Adonis. IN 1955, physicist Albert Einstein died in a new Jersey hospital, aged 76. IN 1956, actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco.
WORD WIZARDRY NEW WORD OF THE DAY
Demitarian: Someone who restricts the amount of meat they consume to lessen the environmental impact of their diet. GUESS THE DEFINITION
Parnel (coined 1362) A) Priest’s mistress. B) Pathway up to a steep hill. C) Beggar who’s pretending to be deaf and dumb. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED Great hit: Meaning a piece of good luck, it alludes to the game ‘hit and miss’ or backgammon, where two hits equal a gammon.