ON THIS DAY

FEBRUARY 19, 1945 EMpLOyEES of the Ministry of Supply are to be warned that on Armistice Day they must behave in a ‘dignified way and not become inebriated’. The confidential directive also stresses that they should be decorous ‘wherever they happen to be’. FEBRUARY 19, 1964 THE Beatles dropped in today at the Miami Beach gym where Cassius Clay is training for his fight with world heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. ‘We’re all champs, aren’t we, fellas?’ Clay said, casually lifting Ringo with one arm. When he got them to pose lying ‘knocked out’ in a heap with him standing over them gloves upraised, their press agent said angrily: ‘Clay’s taking over — he’s turning the boys into stooges.’ HELEn FIELDInG, 60. The English author (pictured) is best known for Bridget Jones’s Diary, which started out as a newspaper column inspired by her own life in London. She was the girlfriend of Richard Curtis when they were at Oxford — and it was she who insisted the script for his first hit film, which he wanted to call Four Weddings And A Honeymoon, needed a funeral. WILLIAM ‘SMOkEy’ ROBInSOn, 78. The U.S. singer-songwriter was the founder and lead singer of Motown group The Miracles, who had hits with The Tears Of A Clown and I Second That Emotion. He said the name ‘Smokey’ came from his favourite uncle, who used take him to see cowboy films and gave him his own cowboy name — Smokey Joe. ‘So from age three, if people asked me what my name was, I didn’t say William, I told them my name was Smokey Joe.’ JUSTIn FASHAnU ( 1961- 1998). The London- born norwich City footballer became the first black player to transfer for £1 million when he was bought by Brian Clough for nottingham Forest. Twentyeight years after first speaking about his sexuality, Fashanu remains the only British professional footballer ever to have come out as gay. He was found hanged after being accused of sexual assault in the U.S. — a charge he denied in his suicide note. DAVID GARRICk ( 1717- 1779). The thespian from Herefordshire was the most famous actor of his age and the first actor to be buried at poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, before which more than 50,000 people bought tickets to see him lying in state. A West End theatre and private members’ club are named after him.

IN 1906, U.S. industrialist W.k. kellogg opened the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company — or kellogg’s.

IN 1985, American William J. Schroeder became the first artificial heart recipient to leave hospital. GUESS THE DEFINITION: Scrouge (1755) A) To play with one’s food. B) To discomfit a person by pressing against them or by standing too close. C) A greedy sponger. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED Jiggery-pokery — meaning underhand practices or trickery, it’s a 17th-century word and a variant of the Scots joukery-pawkery. IF YoU are afraid of loneliness, don’t get married. Anton Chekhov, playwright (1860-1904) HOW did the rocket lose its job? It was fired. Guess The Definition answer: B