ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
FEBRUARY 21, 1941 MANy complaints are being made by farmers of attacks on stock by bombed-out, homeless dogs roaming the countryside. The trouble is increasing, a meeting of the National Farmers’ Union Council in London heard yesterday. FEBRUARY 21, 1967 ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK is No 1 in the Melody Maker disc chart this week with Release Me. But when he was plain old Gerry Dorsey he wasn’t doing too well, until Gordon Mills said: ‘Call yourself Engelbert Humperdinck. It’s a good name and it rolls beautifully off the tongue.’ Mills then took him to Decca, who signed him.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
VANEssA FELTz, 56 (right), is the BBC’s joint third highest-paid female presenter. she has a first in English literature from Cambridge and in 2003 was ranked 93rd in a poll of the 100 Worst Britons. she once wrote a book of sex tips for women called What Are These strawberries Doing On My Nipples? I Need Them For The Fruit salad. BARONEss (Janet) Fookes, 82. The former Conservative MP became a viral star in the week of the 100th anniversary of women first getting the right to vote thanks to a 1970 interview in which the BBC’s Cliff Michelmore says: ‘I think we ought to say, incidentally, that Miss Fookes is the most gorgeous redhead — if you’re seeing it in black and white, it is something you are missing.’ KELsEy GRAMMER, 63. The U.s. actor starred in Cheers and Frasier, and is the voice of sideshow Bob in The simpsons. Grammer proposed to his wife when both were naked in a vegetable garden. They enjoyed their marriage ceremony so much they have gone on to have four more.
BORN ON THIS DAY
NINA sIMONE (1933-2003). Born Eunice Waymon, the U. s. singer- songwriter ( right) gave up on her dream of becoming the country’s first black concert pianist due to a lack of money. Often described as argumentative, simone was later diagnosed as bipolar. she once shot at a record executive who hadn’t paid her for an album — and was given an eight-month suspended sentence for firing at noisy teenagers near her home in Provence in 1995. RUE McCLANAHAN (1934-2010). The U.s. actress played Blanche Devereaux in TV’s The Golden Girls, and said the character gave her a confidence boost: ‘since Blanche thought she was so irresistible and attractive, and I looked exactly like her, why didn’t I take it to heart?’ Married six times she named her autobiography My First Five Husbands... And the Ones Who Got Away.
ON FEBRUARY 21…
IN 1848, the Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, was published in London.
IN 2001, the EU banned all British milk, meat and livestock exports after the UK’s first foot-and-mouth outbreak in 20 years.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Taw (1709) A) second swarm of bees in same season. B) A large, choice or fancy marble. C) Path up to a steep hill. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED Infra dig:
Early 19th-century abbreviation of the Latin phrase infra dignitatem meaning ‘beneath one’s dignity’.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
ThE world breaks everyone, and afterwards many are strong at the broken places. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do ghosts dance to? Soul music. Guess the Definition Answer: B.