ON THIS DAY

FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE

JUNE 2, 1944 THE first authenticated story of Stalag Luft III [later known as The Great Escape] was told yesterday by a man who was there at the shooting of 47 RAF officers. Warrant Officer Norman Tart confirms the escapees were tunnelling their way to freedom under the leadership of the senior officer. He said: ‘For months, using improvised tools, the men dug a long tunnel under two lines of barbed wire and a stretch of grassland.’ JUNE 2, 1952 THE Royal Dolls’ House, completed for Queen Mary in 1924 and exhibited at Windsor Castle, now has a midget television receiver with a one-inch viewing screen. The dolls’ house was already equipped with tiny models of a radio and a gramophone.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

CARLOS ACOSTA, 44. The rags-to-riches Cuban dancer (right in Romeo And Juliet) was the first black principal of the Royal Ballet. Growing up, his family was so poor that the children went shoeless, with Carlos running wild on the streets of Havana. His father got his wayward son — the youngest of 11 — into the local ballet school just so he’d get fed. Carlos said: ‘I didn’t know what ballet was — and I don’t think my father did, either.’ CONSTANTINE II, 77. The last king of Greece is a cousin of the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince William’s godfather. In 1960, he became the first Greek since 1912 to win an Olympic gold, in sailing. He fled Athens in 1967 after a group of army officers seized power, was dethroned by a referendum in 1974 and stripped of his citizenship 20 years later. He returned to his homeland in 2013.

BORN ON THIS DAY

JOHNNY WEISSMULLER (1904-1984). The American swimmer-turned-actor won five Olympic golds and set 67 world records in the Twenties. He then went to Hollywood, starring as Tarzan in 12 films. He said that the role was ‘like stealing’. ‘There was swimming in it, and I didn’t have much to say. How can a guy climb trees, say, “Me Tarzan, you Jane,” and make a million?’ SIR EDWARD ELGAR (1857-1934). The Worcestershire-born composer was also a keen amateur scientist. He carried out experiments in his shed and created a device, which briefly went into production, for synthesising the industrial chemical hydrogen sulphide.