ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE AUGUST 28, 1940
HOLLYWOOD’S British colony, angered at being labelled ‘deserters’, today revealed the extent of their contributions to Britain’s war chest. Actors Anna Neagle and Laurence Olivier, by touring the u.S. making personal appearances, have sent £175,000 [equivalent to £9 million today] to aid our war effort.
AUGUST 28, 1967
BrIAN ePSTeIN, 32-year-old millionaire manager of The Beatles, was found dead in bed in his London home yesterday. His housekeeper called for help because his door was locked and she could get no reply. A phone call gave the news to The Beatles, who had gone to Bangor in North Wales to join an Indian mystic cult. John Lennon said: ‘Brian’s death is a blow. We were all so near achieving perfect bliss.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
FLOreNCe WeLCH, 31. The Londonborn, Brit award-winning singer-songwriter behind Florence + The Machine, whose hits include You’ve Got The Love, has been described as ‘Kate Bush meets Aretha Franklin’. The niece of Daily Mail satirist Craig Brown, she said that as a child she’d wanted to be ‘a zoologist or a secretary’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
DONALD O’CONNOr ( 1925- 2003). The American dancer, singer and actor is best remembered for taking second billing in Singin’ In The rain, as Gene Kelly’s sidekick Cosmo Brown (pictured, centre). His athletic dance routine for Make ’em Laugh, which involved performing somersaults and running up walls while singing, has been described as the best example of the term ‘Hollywood musical show-stopper’. LeO TOLSTOY (1828-1910). The russian author of War And Peace and Anna Karenina was born to aristocratic parents and was himself a Count. At university he was described as ‘unable and unwilling’ to learn, and he gambled away much of his inheritance. Troubled by his privileged upbringing, he made his own shoes out of strips of tree bark in an attempt to immerse himself in the culture of russian peasants.
ON AUGUST 28 . . .
IN 1963, 200,000 marchers in Washington DC listened to Martin Luther King’s iconic ‘I have a dream’ speech calling for civil rights for black Americans.
IN 1994, shops in england and Wales were allowed to open and trade on a Sunday for the first time.
IN 1996, the divorce of the Prince and Princess of Wales was finalised, after 15 years of marriage.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION Tresaiel (coined 1491) A) entertaining a sheriff for three nights. B) A great-great-grandfather. C) Without money, without wit and without manners. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Larger than life: refers to an imposing, gregarious or forceful person, who is more exciting than most people. First recorded in the mid-20th century, the phrase was famously used by The New Yorker to describe wartime prime minister Sir Winston Churchill.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
no one will ever win the battle of the sexes; there’s too much fraternising with the enemy. Henry Kissinger, U.S. politician, born 1923
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY was the belt arrested? Because it held up some trousers. Guess The Definition Answer: B.