July 17, 2017 ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JULY 17, 1964 DoNALD CAMPBELL has set a new world land speed record, reaching 403.1mph in Lake Eyre, Australia. He made the second run in Bluebird (right), with the tread ripped off one of his tyres. JULY 17, 1965 SCoTLAND YArD will start using hidden TV cameras in Soho and Mayfair today. Thirty uniformed beat officers will be equipped with buttonhole microphones so they can report their movements back to the control room. When these officers leave a district with shops containing valuables, the mobile camera takes over.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
WAYNE SLEEP, 69. At 5ft 2in, the former royal Ballet principal dancer, actor and reality TV regular is the shortest male dancer ever admitted to the royal Ballet School. In 1985, he danced with Princess Diana at the royal opera House as a surprise for Charles’s birthday. ‘ The audience gasped when Diana appeared, as if they’d all taken one huge breath,’ he said. ‘She loved it but was most thrilled we’d kept it secret from Charles and the paparazzi.’ PETEr SISSoNS, 75. The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 newsreader, who went to school with Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison, retired in 2009 as Britain’s longest-serving national news presenter.
BORN ON THIS DAY
JAMES CAGNEY ( 1899– 1986). The oscar-winning actor was known for playing short-fused tough guys in films such as White Heat (right, with co-star Virginia Mayo) and Angels With Dirty Faces. Cagney was nearly as tough off-screen as on, and became one of the first actors to sue a studio over a contract and win. GorDoN GouLD (1920-2005). The u.S. physicist is credited by many as the inventor of the laser, though he spent three decades in court trying to prove it, but universally accepted that he coined the term, which stood for light amplification by stimulated emissions of radiation. He made millions of dollars from his patents, but spent 80 per cent of his income on lawyers’ fees.
ON JULY 17...
IN 1955, Disneyland opened in California. IN 1976, the 21st olympic Games opened in Montreal with 29 countries boycotting the Games in protest at New Zealand’s sporting links with apartheid South Africa. IN 2000, Bashar Assad succeeded his father to become president of Syria.
WORD WIZARDRY
NEW WORD OF THE DAY Wasband: A former husband. GUESS THE DEFINITION Zygodactyl (coined 1831) A) Two toes pointing forward and two backwards. B) A handful, or what is taken up between the thumb and two first fingers. C) Having a forked tongue. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED To give short shrift: To treat someone unsympathetically and give them little attention. Comes from ‘shrift’ — a penance imposed by a priest in confession.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
PoLitics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. i have come to realise that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. Ronald Reagan, 40th U.S. President (1911-2004)
JOKE OF THE DAY
I ALMoST got caught stealing a board game. it was a Risk i was willing to take. Guess the Definition answer: A