ON THIS DAY
June 24, 2017
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE JUNE 24, 1940
HITLER’S terms for an Armistice with France were revealed last night. They represent the surrender of the French government. Marshal Petain and the French government turned on Mr Churchill over the radio, protesting against his announcement of his ‘grief and amazement’.
JUNE 24, 1965
CASSIUS CLAY is seeking an annulment of his marriage. He says model Sonji Roi, 24, who he wed ten months ago, ‘has not been a good Muslim wife’. The world heavyweight champion, who prefers to be called Muhammad Ali, said in court papers that meant: Not wearing make-up, not drinking whisky or smoking and not going to bars.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
BETTY JACKSON, 68. The fashion designer from Bacup, Lancashire, came up with the look for both Joanna Lumley’s Patsy (right) and Jennifer Saunders’ character Edina in Absolutely Fabulous. Jackson, who lost a leg at six because of birth complications, only wears her own designs, declaring: ‘Why would I wear anybody else’s?’ IAIN GLEN, 56. The Scottish star of Game Of Thrones and Downton Abbey wishes actors would stop ‘intellectualising’ what they do. He says he was disappointed that when he stripped on the West End stage, ‘no one seemed to care’, because they were too focused on ‘a flash of [co-star] Nicole Kidman’s back’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
JACK DEMPSEY (1895-1983). The U.S. world heavyweight boxing champion of the Twenties was the first to feature in a $1million fight. According to his manager, Dempsey used plaster-of-Paris bandages in his gloves that hardened when wet — a claim the boxer denied. MARY WESLEY (1912-2002). The Surreyborn author of Jumping The Queue and The Camomile Lawn became a best-selling novelist aged 70. Some readers were surprised she could write such sexually explicit material, to which she replied: ‘The young always think they invented sex.’
ON JUNE 24 . . .
IN 1509, Henry VIII was crowned King of England.
IN 1983, America’s first woman in space, former tennis champion Sally Ride, returned to Earth in the Space Shuttle Challenger.
IN 2012, giant tortoise Lonesome George (pictured) — aged about 100 and the last of his sub-species — died in Ecuador.
WORD WIZARDRY NEW WORD OF THE DAY
Twittiquette: the etiquette of using the social media website Twitter. GUESS THE DEFINITION Fleshment (coined by Shakespeare for King Lear in 1605) A) A herb that can rekindle love. B) Excitement from a first success. C) The gradual solution of a disease. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
A stone’s throw: meaning a short distance, came from a 16th- century version of the Bible. In Luke it says: ‘he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed’ (cast meaning throw).
QUOTE FOR TODAY
‘Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?’ James Thurber, U.S. humorist (1894-1961)
JOKE OF THE DAY
IT’S hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs because they always take things literally. Guess The Definition answer: B