ON THIS DAY
March 7, 2018
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE MARCH 7, 1964
ELIZABETH TAYLOR and Richard Burton plan to marry in the United States within days. Miss Taylor was granted a Mexican divorce from singer Eddie Fisher yesterday. [They wed in Montreal on March 15.]
MARCH 7, 1967
AN INQUIRY into the organisation known as Scientology was turned down in the Commons by Kenneth Robinson, Minister of Health, despite him saying: ‘Scientology is not merely ludicrous, it is potentially harmful to its adherents.’ Its founder, Mr Ron Hubbard, is said to have claimed he had visited Venus and Heaven.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
E. L. JAMES, 55. The London- born author of Fifty Shades Of Grey and its sequels, whose real name is Erika Mitchell, is reputed to be worth £110 million. As part of her book research, she phoned a car showroom to ask if it was physically possible for a couple to have sex in an Audi R8 sports car. They said it wasn’t. James paid a visit and decided that it was. IVAN LENDL, 58. The retired Czech tennis star, a former world number one who won eight Grand Slam titles, was Andy Murray’s coach from 2011-14 and 2016-17, and guided the Scot to winning Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Lendl, whose mother Olga had been ranked number two in Czechoslovakia, beat his mum for the first time at age 14. Murray said Lendl was the best coach he’s ever had because he was someone ‘who could normalise failing [and] make it OK to lose’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
ANTONY ARMSTRONGJONES (1930-2017), who became the first commoner to marry into the Royal Family for 400 years when he wed Princess Margaret in 1960. It later emerged that his love- child, Polly Fry, was born while he and Margaret were on honeymoon. When their marriage was dissolved 18 years later, Princess Margaret became the first royal since Henry VIII to divorce. PIET MONDRIAN (1872-1944). The dutch painter, blacklisted by the Nazis, was a pioneer of 20th century abstract art, known for his iconic bold grids of black lines, interspersed with rectangles and squares in primary colours. Visitors to his apartments in London and Paris were startled to find he’d turned them into 3d versions of his art, painting the walls and furniture a brilliant white ‘with the odd patch of red’.
ON MARCH 7...
IN 1530, Pope Clement ruled that Henry VIII could not marry Anne Boleyn.
IN 1965, Alabama state troopers injured at least 50 people on a civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery. Martin Luther King led a second march two days later.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Remipede (1800s) A) Second-hand; reused. B) Having feet that are used as oars. C) Sad or forlorn. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED Not one jot:
Meaning the smallest possible degree or amount; also known as ‘not an iota’, which was the smallest Greek letter.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
EVERYBODY my age (59) should be issued with a 2lb fresh salmon. If you see someone young, beautiful and happy, slap them as hard as you can with it. Richard Griffiths, actor (1947-2013)
JOKE OF THE DAY
I’VE started a dating site for chickens. I need to do it to make hens meet. Guess The definition answer: b