ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
APRIL 24, 1961 BE PREPARED — for the disappearance of Boy Scouts’ knobbly knees. Rover or Senior Scouts will be allowed to wear long trousers, it was announced last night. A protest came from Lord Baden-Powell, 47-year- old son of the founder. ‘I shall continue to wear shorts,’ he said. APRIL 24, 1968 ELIzABETH Chadwick, 35, Britain’s top woman golfer, said yesterday that she is giving up competition play because: ‘It is difficult to concentrate on your game when you are in love.’ Next month she will become engaged to 25-year-old Tony Pook, who works for a mail order firm.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SHIRLEY MacLAINE, 84, star of Terms Of Endearment, Irma La Douce and The Apartment. Her younger brother Warren Beatty was due to produce Bonnie And Clyde and wanted MacLaine to star as Bonnie. But he decided to play Clyde himself and ditch his sister, who quipped: ‘It would have been adding incest to injury.’ JEAN PAUL GAULTIER, 66. The French fashion designer, who was hired by Pierre Cardin on his 18th birthday, is best known for the conical bras and corsets he created for Madonna. He said his earliest memory is of his teddy bear Nana, which he dressed up. He has said he wants the David Bowie song Fashion played at his funeral.
BORN ON THIS DAY
ANTHONY TROLLOPE (1815-1882). The Victorian author of The Chronicles of Barsetshire and The Way We Live Now wrote almost 50 novels. The invention and design of the pillar box are usually attributed to Trollope, who worked as a post office inspector in St Helier, Jersey, where the the first box was installed in 1852. JILL IRELAND ( 19361990). The London-born actress was married to The Man From U.N.C.L.E star David McCallum, but fell for Charles Bronson when the two men worked on The Great Escape and later married him. When she died, aged 54, of cancer, Bronson
with her) was said to have had her ashes put into a walking cane which he used until it was buried with him in 2003.
ON APRIL 24…
IN 1957, the BBC’s The Sky At Night was first broadcast, featuring Patrick Moore. The amateur astronomer would present the show for more than 50 years.
IN 1986, Wallis Simpson, the American divorcee whose relationship with Edward VIII led to his abdication, died, aged 89.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: chalicosis (coined 1878) A) persistent winking B) an hallucination C) a stone-cutters’ lung disease (answer below)
PHRASE EXPLAINED
To keep at bay — meaning to prevent either a person or an event from advancing nearer; from the Old French word ‘abbay’ meaning ‘barking’, it was to be in a standoff with a baying dog intent on killing.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
NeARLy all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President (1809-1865)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you get when you cross a magician with a camera? Hocus focus. Guess The Definition answer C