ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE FEBRUARY 14, 1927
SPEED and reliability in aerial travel are now being allied with a new phase of luxury for the passenger. For new long- distance routes, such as from Berlin to Madrid and Rome, a corps of flying waiters is being recruited for the service of cold dishes and light refreshments.
FEBRUARY 14, 1949
MORE than 700 actors and actresses agreed yesterday to support the TUC’s recommendations against communist influence in their own union, Equity. But they turned down a resolution that ‘no communist should be allowed to hold office in the union’. Stars, including Richard Attenborough, queued outside the Whitehall Theatre to have their cards checked before going in.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
KEVIN KEEGAN, 67. Grew up near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, where his school sports master said: ‘He will never make a footballer as long as he lives.’ As well as playing for and managing England he also championed the bubble perm and Brut aftershave. DAME MARY PERKINS, 74. The billionaire from Bristol is a co-founder and main shareholder of Specsavers. The business she started on a table-tennis table in her spare bedroom has made her three times richer than the Queen.
BORN ON THIS DAY
JIMMY HOFFA (1913-disappeared 1975, declared dead 1982). The U.S. union boss was linked to the Mafia and spent four years in prison for bribery, fraud and jury tampering before being pardoned by Richard Nixon. Hoffa vanished on the way to meet a Mafia boss. Martin Scorsese is making a film called The Irishman about Frank Sheehan, a hitman who claimed to have killed Hoffa. LOIS MAXWELL (19272007). The Canadian-born actress, right, who played Miss Moneypenny in 14 Bond films, spoke fewer than 200 words in them. Her character was PA to 007’s boss M, but Roger Moore said: ‘I think it was a great disappointment to her that she had not been promoted to play M.’
ON FEBRUARY 14…
IN 1852, Great ormond Street Hospital for Children (with two doctors and ten beds) admitted its first patient: George Parr.
IN 1997, jurors at the inquest into the death of black teenager Stephen Lawrence decided he was unlawfully killed ‘ in a completely unprovoked racist attack’ by five white youths — four years after his death in Eltham, South-East London.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Bottomry (1662) A) Use of the ship as collateral to finance a sea voyage B) Fair words without sincere intention C) Genteel irony or mockery Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
The pot calling the kettle black — used to describe anyone who blames another for faults that they too possess and is therefore hypocritical; it is a 17th century phrase from the time when pots and kettles became blackened with soot after long use over an open fire.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure why take the chance? Ronald Reagan, 40th U.S. President (1911-2004)
JOKE OF THE DAY
I’VE just booked a table for me and my girlfriend on Valentine’s Day. I hope she knows how to play snooker. Guess The Definition answer: A.