ON THIS DAY
June 5, 2017
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE JUNE 5, 1940
DUNKIRK has fallen. The last Allied land and naval forces were withdrawn in the early hours of yesterday. Mr Churchill gave the nation’s vow in the Commons: ‘We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.’
JUNE 5, 1964
TRIALS of breath-testing equipment to combat drunken driving have begun in police stations. The Minister of Transport warned that Britain could face a new concept of a fixed alcohol limit.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
DAME Margaret Drabble, 78. The Sheffield- born novelist (pictured) has had a long literary feud with her older sister, fellow novelist A.S. Byatt, also a dame, born out of sibling rivalry. Dame Margaret said: ‘She was upset when she found that I had written about a particular tea set that our family possessed because she had wanted to write about it herself.’ The pair seldom see each other and neither reads the other’s books. DAVID WEIR, 38. The wheelchair athlete, who was born without the use of his legs, has six Paralympic golds and in April won a record seventh London Marathon. ‘The race has been in my blood since I was eight years old,’ he said. ‘It was my 17th year in a row.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
SHEILA SIM, Lady Attenborough (1922-2016). The Liverpool-born actress met Richard Attenborough at RADA. They were married in 1945 and remained so for 69 years — until his death in 2014. Her film debut was as a modern-day pilgrim, a land girl, in A Canterbury Tale in 1944. Fittingly, she had served in the Women’s Land Army during the war.
ON JUNE 5...
IN 1963, John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War, resigned, telling the House of Commons that he had lied about his relationship with call girl Christine Keeler (pictured).
IN 1968, Senator Robert Kennedy, younger brother of President John F. Kennedy, was shot after winning California’ s Democratic presidential primary election.
IN 1975, Britain held a referendum on its membership of the european economic Community (EEC). Sixty-seven per cent of voters opted to remain.
WORD WIZARDRY
NEW WORD OF THE DAY Babymoon: A holiday taken by a couple expecting their first child. GUESS THE DEFINITION Whiffler (coined 1539) A) An officer who clears the way for a procession; also the man with the whip in Morris dancing. B) A sudden and powerful gust of wind. C) A robed waiter at table in the Inner Temple. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED
Down in the doldrums: In low spirits; from the name given to a region of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans near the equator, known for its calms and baffling winds that can becalm sailing ships for weeks.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
THERE is no charm equal to tenderness of heart Jane Austen, English novelist (1775-1817)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a snowman in June? A puddle. Guess The Definition answer: A