ON THIS DAY
July 15, 2017
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE JULY 15, 1940
PRIME Minister Winston Churchill said in a speech broadcast last night: ‘We shall never seek terms. We may give mercy; we ask none. We would rather see London in ashes than see it tamely enslaved.’ Of invasion, he said: ‘Perhaps it will come tonight, perhaps next week, perhaps never. Hitler has not yet been withstood by a great nation with a willpower equal to his own.’
JULY 15, 1965
EMMA PEEL will make her debut in The Avengers in October. She replaces Honor Blackman’s Cathy Gale in the TV series. Shakespearean actress Diana Rigg (right), 26, who plays Emma, will wear zip suits for fighting. She says: ‘I enjoy the rough stuff. It’s fun knocking people about and getting paid for it.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ROBERT WINSTON, 77. The London-born Labour peer has helped bring more than 10,000 babies into the world as a fertility doctor. A colleague once said of his stage appearances at medical school: ‘If he had his time over again, it wouldn’t surprise me if he’d want a theatrical career.’ DAME JOCELYN BELL BURNELL, 74. The Northern Irish astrophysicist was the first to observe pulsars — rotating neutron stars that appear to ‘pulse’ — in the Sixties. Two men in her team, Antony Hewish and Martin Ryle, shared a Nobel Prize, while she was overlooked. She failed her 11-plus and her parents sent her to a Quaker school, where she developed a love of physics.
BORN ON THIS DAY
IAN CURTIS (1956-1980). The Manchester-born former civil servant (pictured) was lead singer of Joy Division. Curtis, who suffered from epilepsy and depression, killed himself, aged 23, before the release of the band’s second album, Closer. DOROTHY FIELDS (1905-1974). The U.S. Oscar-winning lyricist worked on 15 musicals and 26 movies and wrote 400 songs, including On The Sunny Side Of The Street and Big Spender. Barack Obama adapted her song Pick Yourself Up for his 2009 presidential inauguration: ‘We must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.’
ON JULY 15 . . .
IN 971, the remains of Anglo-Saxon bishop St Swithun were moved from a grave outside Winchester Cathedral to a shrine inside it. Legend says he was unhappy at this, triggering 40 days and nights of rain.
IN 1973, Ray Davies quit The Kinks and was hospitalised after attempting suicide.
WORD WIZARDRY
NEW WORD OF THE DAY Wavy: Stylish.
GUESS THE DEFINITION Flamfew (coined 1580)
A) Enough for a cart, not a wheelbarrow. B) In the opposite direction, or wrong way. C) Gaudily-dressed woman. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
To give no quarter: To grant no leniency. A battlefield phrase from the Old English ‘quarter’, meaning mercy.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
WHAT is fame? An empty bubble; Gold? A transient, shining trouble. James Grainger, British physician (1721-1766)
JOKE OF THE DAY
MY BANK manager is so impressed with the way I manage my finances that he sends letters saying my account is outstanding! Guess The Definition answer: C.