ON THIS DAY
QUOTE FOR TODAY IN A consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy. Ivan Illich, U.S. sociologist (1926-2002)
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
AUGUST 9, 1944 EIGHT of the men who tried to kill Hitler were last night hanged in Germany. They included Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben and four generals. They died two hours after the Reich People’s Court found them guilty. The condemned men were denied the ‘honour’ of being shot. ‘Such a shameful act cannot be punished by an honest bullet,’ said the President of the Court. AUGUST 9, 1963 POSTMASTER- GEnERAL Reginald Bevins cut short his holiday and flew to London last night to get the answers to the Great Train Robbery. Mr Bevins put the haul of old bank-notes at about £1 million, though Scotland Yard estimates it at £3 million. Amazingly, the Yard had known for weeks that a mail train was to be robbed, probably ‘somewhere in Buckinghamshire’.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MELAnIE GRIFFITH, 60. The U.S. actress (pictured) was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Working Girl. She is the daughter of Tippi Hedren, star of The Birds, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. As a Christmas present, Hitchcock gave a six-year-old Griffith a wax doll of her mother in a coffin. ‘Can you imagine the psychological effect?’ she said. ‘He was a very weird guy.’ JAMES nAUGHTIE, 66. The Aberdeenshire-born BBC Radio 4 presenter, formerly host of Today, is best remembered for an unfortunate mispronunciation of the then Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s name, and for a 1989 neil Kinnock interview in which the Labour leader said he was not going to be ‘bloody kebabbed’ by the broadcaster.
BORN ON THIS DAY
PAMELA LYnDOn TRAVERS (1899-1996). As P. L. Travers, the Australian-born British author wrote the Mary Poppins books and was courted for 20 years by Walt Disney, who eventually turned it into a film starring Julie Andrews (pictured). Travers rowed with the producers, wasn’t initially invited to the premiere, then spent the screening in tears. IZAAK WALTOn (1593-1683). The biographer from Stafford wrote The Compleat Angler, hailed as ‘the most famous work in the literature of sport’. He said of the pastime: ‘God did never make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation.’
ON AUGUST 9…
IN 1902, Edward VII was crowned after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria. IN 1945, three days after bombing Hiroshima, Japan, the U.S. dropped an atom bomb over nagasaki, killing 74,000 people. IN 1974, Richard nixon became the first U.S. president to resign.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION Dangle (coined late 18th century) A) To follow a woman without actually addressing her. B) The leather strap to bind a hawk’s wing. C) Spur attached to a fighting cock’s heel. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Hair of the dog: Alcoholic drink to cure a hangover. An ancient belief holds that burnt canine hair is an antidote to its bite.
JOKE OF THE DAY
DID you know that today is national Middle Child Day? Don’t worry, no one else remembered either. Guess The Definition answer: A.