ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE MARCH 28, 1945
MORE than 200 British and U.S. PoWs have been liberated by the U.S. First Army breakthrough to Limburg and beyond in Germany. This is the first time the Allied armies of the West have set free Allied war prisoners. Among the liberated was Private William McAllister. His wife lives at Farnborough, Hants. Her reaction was: ‘I’ll go out tomorrow and spend all my clothing coupons.’
MARCH 28, 1946
WOMEN wearing slacks are to be banned from the galleries of the House of Commons. The ban will not apply to Women’s Land Army members, whose uniforms include breeches or slacks.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
LADy GAGA, 32. The U. S. singer-songwriter, born Stefani Germanotta, has summed up her fashion sense by saying: ‘I feel freer in underwear, and hate pants [trousers].’ The classically trained pianist is godmother to Elton John’s two sons. The Guinness World Record for Lady Gaga impersonators is 121, set at the 2011 Grammy Awards. SIR MICHAEL PARKINSON, 83. The South yorkshire-born son of a miner, whose chat show was voted one of the top-ten Best Television Programmes, believes celebrities were better in his heyday. ‘In those days,’ he said, ‘they were different, they were extraordinary creatures. Now everyone is famous.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
JOSEPH BAzALGETTE (1819-91). The first chief engineer to London’s Metropolitan Board of Works saved tens of thousands of lives with his sewerage system, built after several cholera outbreaks. His great-greatgrandson, Sir Peter Bazalgette, brought TV show Big Brother to the UK, leading wags to joke that while one Bazalgette channelled waste away from British homes, his descendant reversed the process. DAME FLORA ROBSON (1902-84). The Oscar-nominated, County Durham-born actress starred in 60 films including Fire Over England (as Elizabeth I, right) and Wuthering Heights. Described as ‘England’s finest emotional actress’, she appeared with Burton and Olivier, but never found her own leading man, saying: ‘I’ve known very little personal love, but the public has always shown me great affection.’
ON MARCH 28…
IN 1991, a jury returned a verdict of accidental death on 95 football fans at Hillsborough stadium. In 2016, a new inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing on 96 fans (Tony Bland died from his injuries in 1993).
IN 2017, the world’s largest dinosaur footprints — measuring 1.7 metres — were discovered in Western Australia.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Zugzwang (coined 1904)
A) Diagonally across from something else. B) Position where a chess player has to move, but can’t without disadvantage. C) More on one side than on the other, illbalanced, shaky. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED What a fiasco:
Complete failure, especially if humiliating. From the Italian for a flaw in a blown glass, so it had to be made into a common flask — fiasco.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
BeHind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes. Jim Carrey, U.S. actor
JOKE OF THE DAY
A GROUP of fonts walked into a bar . . . The bartender said: ‘Sorry, we don’t serve your type here.’ Guess The definition Answer: B.