ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE FEBRUARY 12, 1940
BRITAIN and France have started a loudspeaker offensive on the Western Front, using the most powerful loudspeakers yet made. The Allies broadcast real news and world opinions of Germany every night. The Germans tried a similar tactic on the French front line months ago, but gave it up when they were greeted with derisive laughter.
FEBRUARY 12, 1969
WOMEN won a big victory last night when 15 unions accepted an offer by Fords of equal pay for equal work. It means 1,500 women may get rises of £2 15s to £3 a week, giving them the same rate as the men. Some 187 women machinists at Fords — the ‘Dagenham Girl Strikers’ — have been fighting for equal pay for the past year.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
DAME NORMA MAJOR, 76. When the wife of former PM John Major learned of his affair with Edwina Currie, she reportedly gave him an ultimatum: end it instantly or lose his wife and children. She was made a dame in 1999 for her charity work, raising millions for children and disabled people. The former needlework and domestic science teacher went to boarding school aged four, a year after her army officer father was killed in a car crash. SIR NICHOLAS SOAMES, 70. The Tory MP for Mid Sussex is Winston Churchill’s grandson. The former minister for food is said to have weighed 20 st before slimming. Asked in TV interviews what he’d had for breakfast so technicians could do a sound check on his microphone, he used to say: ‘A cold grouse and half a bottle of claret — what about you old boy?’
BORN ON THIS DAY
CHARLES DARWIN (1809-1882). Although the naturalist is best remembered for his theories on evolution, he only used the word once in his book, on The origin of Species. His editor, fearing it would be too technical, suggested Darwin write a book on pigeons instead, insisting: ‘Everybody is interested in pigeons.’
SIMON MacCorkindale (1952-2010). The actor from Cambridgeshire ( right) wanted to join the RAF but failed an eye test. He was once rumoured to be a contender to play James Bond. Best known for his work in I, Claudius and as Harry Harper in Casualty, a role he was playing when he was diagnosed with bowel cancer, which spread to his lungs.
ON FEBRUARY 12…
IN 1554, 16-year-old Lady Jane Grey, who had been on the throne for just nine days, was beheaded at the Tower of London.
IN 1994, one of four versions of Edvard Munch’s The Scream was stolen from a gallery in oslo, Norway.
WORD WIZARDRY
Guess The Definition: Fantod (1839) A) A pole across a stream to stop cattle B) A scarecrow C) A state of acute anxiety Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
A kettle of fish: Derived from the term for a fish pan, in the context of a ‘pretty kettle of fish’, it means a muddle or bad job, while a ‘different kettle of fish’ means something different from what came before, and dates from the late 19th century.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
ANYONE could write a novel given six weeks, pen, paper, and no telephone or wife. Evelyn Waugh, English novelist (1903-1966)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY should you not eat pasta by yourself? It will make you feel cannelloni. Guess The Definition answer: