ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
MAY 19, 1947 SINCE the Budget, Ministers have stopped smoking at Cabinet meetings. And Mr Hugh Dalton, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said at Bishop Auckland, County Durham: ‘I am glad to tell you that there is now a strict rule against smoking at these meetings.’ MAY 19, 1969 TWO members of The who pop group have been charged with assaulting a policeman after he leapt on stage at a new York theatre. Roger Daltrey, 25, and Peter Townshend, 23, were alleged to have ‘jumped on’ the officer who was telling the audience to leave the Fillmore East Theatre because there was a fire next door. Theatre manager Kip Cohen said: ‘ They thought the man yelling “Fire!” was a nut.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
JAMES FOX, 78. The actor (pictured) is the brother of producer Robert and Day Of The Jackal star Edward, as well as the father of Lewis star Laurence. He made his first movie at 11, but took a break from acting in the Seventies to become a doorto- door salesman for an evangelical Christian movement. HEATHER WATSON, 25. The Guernseyborn tennis player, a former British no 1 and now no 2 behind Johanna Konta, was a promising swimmer and her club was ‘distraught’ when she left.
BORN ON THIS DAY
ALMA COGAN (1932-1966). The singer (right) was the highest-paid female entertainer of her era, with hits such as never Do A Tango with An Eskimo. The Beatles were regulars at parties in her Kensington flat and John Lennon, said to have been her lover, was ‘inconsolable’ when she died of cancer aged 34. Paul McCartney played her the tune of Yesterday soon after it came to him in his sleep, because he thought it was an old melody. NORA EPHRON (1941-2012). The Harry Met Sally screenwriter also wrote Heartburn, which told of her messy divorce from watergate journalist Carl Bernstein. Meryl Streep played Ephron, who said: ‘If your husband is cheating on you with a carhop [a waitress or waiter at a drive-in cafe], get Meryl to play you. You’ll feel much better.’
ON MAY 19 . . .
IN 1536, Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded for adultery. IN 1962, Marilyn Monroe sang Happy Birthday to President John F. Kennedy.
WORD WIZARDRY
NEW WORD OF THE DAY Smack-talk: The use of insults to intimidate someone in a competition or game GUESS THE DEFINITION Palilalia (coined 1908) A) The action of a feverish patient. B) Perpetual grief. C) A speech disorder characterised by the repetition of words. Answer below. PHRASE EXPLAINED To know on which side one’s bread is
buttered: A reminder, since at least the 16th century, to take heed of your own selfinterest; you are likely to enjoy a better outcome to any situation if you know where the advantages lie.