ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
NOVEMBER 3, 1948 MR J BAKER WHITE, Conservative MP for Canterbury, yesterday said: ‘The mink and Marx brigade, dripping with pearls and bescented with Chanel, are to me some of the more nauseating and at the same time rather pathetic supporters of communism we have in this country.’ He was addressing the South-Eastern Area Women’s Advisory Committee One-day School at Caxton Hall. NOVEMBER 3, 1969 THINGS were popping for Lulu yesterday when she started celebrating her 21st birthday a day early. Not just the champagne corks, but her new suede trouser suit too. ‘It’s the fasteners on the front,’ the singer (right) said. ‘I’m still getting used to them.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
DAVID ARMSTRONG- JONES, 56. The second Earl of Snowdon is the son of Princess Margaret and nephew of the Queen. He was born fifth in line to the throne and grew up in Kensington Palace. Last year, describing his flat in Chelsea, the furniture designer said: ‘I’m afraid I’m too poor to have a house.’ IAN WRIGHT, 54. When the former Arsenal player and TV presenter was growing up he slept three to a bed with his two brothers. He met his ex-wife at a bus stop when he was banned from driving. An admirer of Margaret Thatcher, he has said that if he were in power, he would bring back the birch and national service.
BORN ON THIS DAY
JEREMy BRETT (1935-1995). The West Midlands- born, Eton-educated actor is best remembered for playing the lead role in ITV’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in the Eighties and Nineties — a role he declared was ‘ the hardest part I have ever played, harder than Hamlet or Macbeth’. Brett (pictured) smoked up to 60 cigarettes a day, and struggled with breathing so much so that he needed an oxygen mask on set. VINCENzO BELLINI (1801-1835). The Italian composer began playing the piano at six, and according to some stories, was singing arias at 18 months. He inspired Chopin, Wagner and Verdi, who loved his ‘long, long, long melodies such as no one before had written’.
ON NOVEMBER 3…
IN 1839, the first Opium War between China and Britain broke out.
IN 1975, the UK’s first oil pipeline was inaugurated by the Queen, who pushed a gold-plated button at a BP control centre near Aberdeen.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION Sutler (coined 1590) A) Someone who follows an army to sell the troops provisions B) An officer appointed to keep the walls of a city in repair C) A pick-pocket
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Dear John letter: Meaning a letter from a woman to a man, ending a relationship, it originated in America in World War II, when the recipients of these letters were usually armed forces members posted overseas, whose female partners at home had made new liaisons.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
[Dancing is] a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire.
George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright (1856-1950)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHy didn’t the mummy go on holiday? He was afraid he’d relax and unwind. GuEss ThE DEfiNiTiON Answer: A.