ON THIS DAY
September 15, 2017
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE SEPTEMBER 15, 1945
BRITISH exports are booming. Although short of food as never before, the country is exporting more food and drink than in the first half of 1938. It is restocking Europe’s war-starved larders with huge amounts of margarine, meat, biscuits, clothing and other goods that UK housewives will have to forgo for many months.
SEPTEMBER 15, 1949
A SIX-WEEK holiday at Riccione, on Italy’s Adriatic coast, has been offered to 100 children in Spalding by an Italian, Mr G. Podoan, once a prisoner of war in the Lincolnshire town.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
PRINcE HARRY, 33. His formal title is Prince Henry of Wales, but his father, Prince charles, once said that as a child, his son was only called Henry when he had been ‘very, very naughty’. Harry ( right) apparently once told a friend at nursery school: ‘Mummy doesn’t go to Sainsbury’s — we have our own farm.’ AMANDA WAKELEY, 55. The English fashion designer and baronet’s daughter started making clothes by cutting up her mother’s bedsheets. Later, as a boarder at cheltenham Ladies’ college, she made outfits for friends for extra cash. Wakeley, who has dressed Angelina Jolie and Kate Winslet, also made dresses for Princess Diana. She regrets banking the first cheque sent by Prince charles, as ‘it would have been funny to have it hanging in the loo’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
MARGARET Lockwood (1916-1990). The 16-yearold budding actress got a small part in Noel coward’s London play cavalcade — but her Scottish mother removed her after learning that some of the cast swore. Lord knows what Mum thought of Margaret’s later turn as a sexy highwaywoman in 1945 film The Wicked Lady (pictured): her scenes were re- edited to show less cleavage. YISRAEL KRISTAL (1903-2017). Born in Poland, he was the world’s oldest living man before his death in Israel last month, aged 113. Kristal, a confectioner, was the only one of his family to survive the Holocaust. When rescued, in May 1945, he thanked his Soviet liberators by making them sweets.
ON SEPTEMBER 15…
IN 1940, the RAF claimed to have shot down 176 German planes, while losing just 25, as the tide turned in the Battle of Britain.
IN 1978, Muhammad Ali became the first boxer to win the world heavyweight title three times, by defeating Leon Spinks.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION Crawk (coined 1930s)
A) Scarecrow made of old garments. B) Performer acting as an animal imitator. c) Shoot of a stored potato. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED To grasp the nettle:
Meaning to tackle a difficulty boldly. Derives from the nettle’s ability to sting the skin through hairs which ooze an acrid liquid when touched. The point of the phrase is that nettles do not sting so readily when handled firmly.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
ASK yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so. John Stuart Mill, English philosopher (1806-1873)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you get if you throw a piano down a mineshaft? A flat miner. Guess The Definition answer: B.