ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVES DECEMBER 11, 1936
WE HAvE passed through the most anxious and astounding day in the history of our Empire. At its close no longer did King Edward vIII hold the most glorious heritage that ever fell to the lot of a ruler. His abdication fills every heart with an overwhelming sense of tragedy. King Edward was faced by alternatives, each awe-inspiring in its implications. He could renounce the Throne or the woman he wished to marry.
DECEMBER 11, 1945
BrITAIN’S documentary film of the battle of the Atlantic, Western Approaches, will not be shown in America’s cinemas, officials decided, after a count of its ‘maritime expressions’ — 47 ‘ hells’, ‘damns’ and ‘blasts’ and one ‘the bastards’.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
rITA MOrENO (right), 86. The Puerto rican — dubbed the ‘ hot Latin spitfire’ — starred in West Side Story, The King And I and Singin’ In The rain. She said she dated Elvis Presley to make Marlon Brando jealous. Moreno had an eight-year affair with Brando — during which he wed twice — ‘until I was forced out of a coma [after an overdose] and had to choose life over him’. rAy KELvIN, 62. The London- born entrepreneur founded the Ted Baker fashion brand, which started as a men’s shirt shop in Glasgow in 1987. He is known for refusing to show his face in photos — covering it with everything from a towel, a hat, a crown and even a lobster. He explains: ‘I am an ugly bugger.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
LIz SMITH (1921-2016). The Bafta- winner (right) starred in The royle Family, The vicar Of Dibley and 2point4 Children. Her mother died when she was two and her father abandoned her at seven. She worked as a postwoman and a quality control inspector in a plastic bag factory after her husband left her to bring up their two children alone. She only got her big break in the film Bleak Moments, aged 49, and worked until 87. ALExANDEr SOLzHENITSyN (19182008). The russian author is best known for The Gulag Archipelago. After he wrote a letter criticising Stalin, he spent eight years in the Soviet gulag prison system. Four years after being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, he was stripped of his citizenship in 1974 and expelled from russia.
ON DECEMBER 11 . . .
IN 1972, humans landed on the Moon for the last time, in the Apollo 17 mission. IN 1986, church leaders condemned the BBC’s Play Safe radio campaign against Aids, for ‘condoning promiscuity’. IN 2014, South African doctors completed the first penis transplant. It had been amputated after a botched circumcision.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION Calk (coined 1587) A) A bald man. B) A hangman’s noose. C) The pointed piece on a horseshoe to prevent slipping.
Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
To pass muster: Meaning to measure up to required standards. It dates from around 1400. Pass means ‘to undergo successfully’, and muster is a ‘military review’.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I can only go one way, I’ve not got a reverse gear.’ Tony Blair, former Prime Minister
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a Spaniard who has lost his car? Carlos. Guess The Definition answer: C.