ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE JANUARY 4, 1944
GENERAL Marcel de Baer, chairman of the Inter- Allied Commission on the Prosecution of War Crimes, was asked the correct punishment for Hitler. He replied: ‘Death.’ He added that only the assurance to the peoples of the occupied countries that justice will be done to war criminals can avoid chaos.
JANUARY 4, 1950
BRIGHTON dog owners are boycotting bus services because they charge full fares for dogs. Hissing, booing and barking almost drowned out Alderman Simms when he told them there was no hope of reversing the decision. ‘We want to keep dogs off the buses,’ he shouted.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
RICK STEIN, 71. Famed for his rise as a seafood restaurateur in Padstow, Cornwall, he has expanded to Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire and now Barnes in South-West London. The TV chef (pictured) began his entrepreneurial days with a mobile disco, the Purple Tiger. CLINT HILL, 86. The former U.S. secret service agent jumped on John F. Kennedy’s car to protect his wife Jackie in the moments after the President’s 1963 assassination. He told last year how he regrets he could not save JFK, saying: ‘I still wish that I could have got there quicker, but unfortunately I’m not faster than a speeding bullet.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
ISAAC NEWTON (1643-1727) The scientist who discovered the laws of gravity and motion and invented calculus helped shape our rational world view. He was, however, less successful as an MP. Elected after fighting an attempt by James II to re-Catholicise Cambridge University, he made little impact in the House of Commons, appearing on record only to ask for a window to be closed. STERLING Holloway (1905-1992). The American actor was best known for providing the voice of Winnie the Pooh in a series of Disney films in the Sixties and Seventies, having already made a career as a dancer. He also voiced Kaa the snake (pictured) in The Jungle Book (singing Trust In Me), the Cheshire Cat in Alice In Wonderland and the stork in Dumbo.
ON JANUARY 4…
IN 1948, Burma was granted its independence from Britain.
IN 1972, Rose Heilbron became Britain’s first woman judge at the Old Bailey.
IN 2017, ‘Dippy the diplodocus’ spent its last day on display at London’s Natural History Museum before it was taken down after 112 years to make way for a blue whale skeleton.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION Tyg (1838) A) A small cavity in a rock. B) A mug with two or more handles. C) A path up to a steep hill. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
All grist to the mill: Meaning everything can be made useful, or be a source of profit; grist is corn that is brought to a mill to be ground into flour though, in the Middle Ages, when the phrase was coined, corn would have meant wheat.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
NOT all those who wander are lost. J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a bird that’s afraid of heights? A chicken. Guess The Definition answer: B.