ON THIS DAY
OCTOBER 20, 1959
FROM Sunday week, British holidaymakers abroad can spend what they like wherever they like. With the Treasury’s new travel allowance, there will be no limit on the amount of foreign currency anyone can obtain, be it for a holiday, sport or study.
OCTOBER 20, 1966
TWO teenage girls were taken to a Jersey police station to have their mini- skirts measured. The skirts were 8in above the knee. They were allowed to leave after being told to wear longer skirts in future. A Jersey police officer said yesterday: ‘We are not making a general check, but these girls were taken in because the suspenders of one of them were showing well below her skirt.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
VIGGO MORTENSEN, 59. The American actor, star of A Dangerous Method and The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, in which he played Aragorn (right). The film’s swordmaster described him as ‘the best swordsman I’ve ever trained’. Known for his intensive research, for the post- apocalyptic film The Road, Mortensen slept out in sub-zero temperatures and wore wet shoes during filming. NIAMH CuSACK, 58. The Dublin-born actress, star of Heartbeat in the 1990s and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time in the West End, describes herself as a frustrated tap-dancer. Sister of fellow thespians Sinead, Sorcha and Catherine, and sister-in-law of Jeremy Irons, she has said: ‘I prefer seeing my family one by one than all together. It can be a bit overwhelming.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
DAME Anna Neagle (1904-1986). The Londoner (pictured), voted most popular actress for seven consecutive years after World War II, played Queen Victoria in Victoria The Great and Sixty Glorious Years. A historian claims Neagle’s great-grandmother was the illegitimate daughter of Victoria’s uncle, Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex — which would have made Neagle a cousin of the Queen. TOM PETTY (1950-2017). The u.S. singer, songwriter and guitarist found fame with The Heartbreakers and notched up hits including American Girl, Breakdown, and Learning To Fly, selling more than 80 million records. He said the biggest turning point in his life was when, aged 11, he met Elvis Presley: ‘I caught the fever that day and I never got rid of it.’
ON OCTOBER 20...
IN 1973, the Queen opened Sydney Opera House, which had taken 14 years to build. IN 2011, Colonel Gaddafi’s 42-year rule of Libya ended when he was killed by rebels.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION Nidor (coined 1619)
A) An embarrassment; a shaming. B) Aroma of cooked food, especially meat. C) Settling snow. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
To blow the gaff — to reveal a secret. It may derive from the French ‘ gaffe’ meaning a blunder, or from the English ‘gab’, meaning speech. In the 18th century, the phrase ‘blow the gab’ was common.