ON THIS DAY
December 19, 2017
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE DeCemBeR 19, 1942 PEOPlE who give away cigarettes as Christmas presents will be unpatriotic. That is the view of Mr A. H. Maxwell, the Tobacco Controller. He said last night that if there is an acute shortage of cigarettes and tobacco during Christmas week it will be the fault of the public and retailers alike. ‘I warned them two months ago that there would be no extra release for Christmas,’ he said. DeCemBeR 19, 1969 BRITAIN finally got rid of the hangman’s rope last night when the lords voted by a 46 majority permanently to abolish capital punishment for murder. Cheers and sighs of relief greeted the result in a packed chamber. The only crimes for which capital punishment still stands in peace time are treason, piracy, certain military offences and sabotage in Government dockyards. [That ended in 1998 under the Human Rights Act].
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
lIMAHl, 59. Christopher Hamill ( an anagram of limahl) from Wigan was lead singer of Kajagoogoo, who had a number one hit with Too Shy in 1983. At the peak of his fame, he was friends with Elton John and says: ‘Elton’s extravagant spending was extremely hard to keep up with’ — but now limahl (above) says he is far more careful, collecting Tesco points and switching energy supplier every year. RICHARD HAMMOND, 48. The TV presenter left Top Gear in 2015 with James May after Jeremy Clarkson’s fracas with a producer. While filming the trio’s new show, The Grand Tour, earlier this year, he escaped with a fractured knee after he flipped a £2 million supercar and it rolled down a hill, bursting into flames. It was his second brush with death while filming on location — in 2006, he was in a coma for two weeks after crashing a jet-propelled car at 288mph.
BORN ON THIS DAY
EDITH PIAF (1915-1963). The French singer (right), known as The little Sparrow, lived in a brothel and with a circus as a child. In World War II, she gave concerts at Nazi-run prisoner of war camps — and is said to have helped many escape, by insisting on meeting prisoners to sign autographs, then secretly giving out maps and identity cards. MAuRICE WHITE (1941-2016). The u.S. drummer, singer and songwriter was a cofounder of Earth, Wind & Fire, who sold 90 million albums thanks to hits such as Boogie Wonderland, September and Fantasy. He continued to perform with his band despite suffering from Parkinson’s.
ON DECEMBER 19… IN 1783, William Pitt the Younger became Britain’s youngest prime minister, aged 24. IN 1843, A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, was published. WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION Obacerate (coined 1656) A) To stop one’s mouth. B) To displace or scatter with gusts of air. C) To dig up weeds. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED
Stool pigeon: A police informer. It may derive from the old French estale, for a decoy bird used to trap birds of prey. later, it described informants used to catch criminals. QUOTE FOR TODAY IT IS not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Colombian novelist (1927-2014) JOKE OF THE DAY WHY is a broken drum the best Christmas present? You just can’t beat it. Guess The Definition answer: A.