ON THIS DAY

DECEMBER 1, 1939

UNLIKE Hitler, Britain has warned the world of her new minefield, 300 miles in extent, between the Thames estuary and the Schelde river, Holland. The BBC last night warned all vessels entering the area that they do so at their own peril.

DECEMBER 1, 1964

FRANK SINATRA and 18-year-old film actress Mia Farrow (right) were reported in Hollywood tonight to be the ‘ maddest, merriest romance of the year’. Mia met the singer, 48, on the set of Von Ryan’s Express, currently shooting at the 20th Century studios. (They married in July 1966, but divorced just two years later.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

BARONESS (Jane) Willoughby de Eresby, 83. The granddaughter of Nancy Astor was, at 18, the youngest of the six maids of honour at the Queen’s coronation. She said: ‘In the rehearsals there was lots of stopping and starting and people fainting. The train was so heavy it was like lifting up a carpet.’ STEPHEN POLIAKOFF, 65. The British screenwriter, playwright and director, whose plays have been performed at the RSC and the National Theatre, started young — a show he produced at school was reviewed by The Times. His grandfather Joseph fled the Soviet Union in the 1920s and ran a company that sold hearing aids to clients including Winston Churchill.

BORN ON THIS DAY

PABLO ESCOBAR ( 1949- 1993). The Colombian drug-trafficker’s Medellin cartel earned up to $ 420 million a week. He reportedly offered to pay off his country’s $10 billion debt in exchange for not being extradited to the U.S. and burned $2 million in cash in one night to keep his daughter warm while his family was on the run. Sixteen months after escaping jail, he was killed in a shootout with Colombian police. LORD GLENCONNER (19262010). Colin Tennant, who bought the Caribbean island of Mustique for £45,000 in 1958, gave his friend Princess Margaret a plot of land there as a wedding gift. Tennant (right), who turned Mustique into a playground for the rich and famous, once said: ‘I’ve always found that people envy you less if they get things for free.’

ON DECEMBER 1…

IN 1913, Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford introduced the first moving assembly line to mass produce a car.

IN 1952, American George Jorgensen Jr became the first person reported to have undergone sex- reassignment surgery, becoming Christine Jorgensen.

WORD WIZARDRY

GUESS THE DEFINITION Unsned (coined 1513) A) With one’s shoes off. B) Naked. C) Unsevered. Answer below.

PHRASE EXPLAINED It’s an ill wind:

Contraction of ‘It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good’, said to show even a bad situation must have some good results. It is an early nautical expression.

QUOTE FOR TODAY

OnE thing I shall miss in heaven is gardening. We shan’t have weeds in heaven, shall we? Catherine Bramwell-Booth, Salvation Army leader (1883-1987)

JOKE OF THE DAY

DON’T be worried about your smartphone

and TV spying on you. Your vacuum cleaner has been gathering dirt for years . . . Guess The Definition answer: C.