ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE AUGUST 8, 1951
BRITISH atomic scientists are ready to build the world’s first experimental nuclear power station. The plan is that the first atomic power station should be working in four years’ time. (The world’s first full-scale nuclear power station was opened by the Queen on the Cumbrian coast in 1956.)
AUGUST 8, 1959
THE QUEEN is expecting her third child between January 21 and February 14. The previous official denials that the Queen was expecting a baby caused yesterday’s announcement to come as a surprise. The BBC and ITV interrupted their programmes to broadcast it at 2pm. [Prince Andrew was born on February 19, 1960.]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
PRINCESS BEATRICE, 29. Prince Andrew’s elder daughter, the Queen’s fifth grandchild (pictured) was the first female in the line of succession at number six, until the birth of Princess Charlotte in 2015 moved her down a place. In the film The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt, Beatrice played a lady in waiting — becoming the first royal to appear in a non-documentary film. DAVID EVANS, 56, the London-born, Irish-raised U2 guitarist known as ‘The Edge’ last year became the first rock star to play in the Sistine Chapel. He said: ‘Being Irish you learn that, if you want to be asked back, it’s important to thank the parish priest for the loan of the hall,’ before thanking Pope Francis ‘for allowing us to use the most beautiful parish hall in the world’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
ESTHER WILLIAMS (1921-2013). The U.S. swimmer (pictured) was due to compete in the 1940 Olympics before the Games were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II. So she became Hollywood’s ‘Million-Dollar Mermaid’, starring in ‘aqua musicals’ in the Forties and Fifties. WILLIAM ASHER (19212012). The New York-born TV pioneer, known as ‘the man who invented the sitcom’, directed 100 episodes of I Love Lucy. Its star Lucille Ball owned the production company, but he told her off when he found her giving instructions to fellow cast members, saying: ‘There can only be one director, and you’re paying me.’
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION Bathycolpian (coined 1825)
A) Having a nose like an elephant’s trunk B) Having a deep cleavage C) Blub-cheeked, wide-mouthed Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED Not worth the candle:
A waste of time. Thought to derive from 16th- century France, it means it wasn’t worth the price of a candle to light an activity, such as a game of cards where the winnings were low.
ON AUGUST 8…
IN 1963, £2.6 million was stolen in the Great Train Robbery — on robber Ronnie Biggs’s 34th birthday.
IN 2008, the Beijing Olympics opened, at 8pm on 08/08/08. The number eight is considered a lucky number in China and many parts of the Far East.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
‘I’m half British, half American. My passport has an eagle with a tea bag in its beak.’ BOB HOPE, comedian (1903-2003)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call fake spaghetti? An impasta. Guess The Definition answer: B.