ON THIS DAY
September 7, 2017
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE SEPTEMBER 7, 1944
HERE is the final scene of the capture of Antwerp, Belgium, by Allied forces. In the lions’ and tigers’ cages of the zoo are all the German soldiers and sailors and the quislings [traitors] and the collaborationists taken by the local resistance movement.
It is a fantastic sight. On the right, where the lions were, are German officers. The tigers’ places are taken by men of the Blackshirt Fascist Movement. And in the corner on the left, where there used to be wildcats, is a throng of weeping women.
SEPTEMBER 7, 1959
REx HARRISON drove, broken-hearted from the London Clinic yesterday after watching his film star wife Kay Kendall die of leukaemia. The Yorkshire-born actress, 32, died not knowing the fearful secret about her health that her husband kept from her for three years. He did everything to stop her learning the truth, giving ‘happy reports’ to the Press as illness followed illness.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
EvAN RACHEL WOOD, 30. The U.S. actress (right) hit the headlines at 18 when she dated controversial rock star Marilyn Manson. She has one son from her brief marriage to Billy Elliot actor Jamie Bell and received a Golden Globe nomination for her role in hit Tv series Westworld. DIANE WARREN, 61. The American Grammy-winning songwriter has written more than 1,000 tracks for stars including Celine Dion, Elton John, Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin. They include Because You Loved Me and Un-Break My Heart, but she has said: ‘I’ve never been in love like in my songs. I’m not like normal people.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
J.P. MORGAN (1867-1943). U.S. banker and philanthropist John Pierpont Morgan inherited $50 million and took over the family bank when his father died in 1913. In 1920, he donated his London home, 14 Princes Gate, to the American government for use as its embassy. Residents included U.S. ambassador Joseph Kennedy, father of JFK. DAME EDITH SITWELL ( 1887- 1964). The English avant garde poet was famous as much for her eccentric dress and a ‘nose so beaky she may use it to spear cocktail olives’ as for her verse. A Wyndham Lewis portrait of Dame Edith now in the Tate is unfinished because she ran out of the studio when the painter lunged at her.
ON SEPTEMBER 7…
IN 1822, Brazil declared its independence from Portugal. IN 1940, the London Blitz began, with German bombers attacking the capital on 56 nights out of the next 57. IN 1943, actress Rita Hayworth married actor and director Orson Welles.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION
Empyrean (coined 1614) A) Person on opposite side of the Equator. B) One living inland, not on the coast. C) The highest heaven. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Peeping Tom: A voyeur. From the 11th century, when Lady Godiva rode naked through the streets and her husband insisted people stay behind shuttered windows. Only a tailor, Peeping Tom, looked out.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? All the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewellery. John Lennon, English singer-songwriter (1940-1980)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY did Tarzan spend a lot of time on the golf course? He was perfecting his swing. Guess The Definition Answer: C.