ON THIS DAY
MAY 31, 1946
GERMAN POWS working on farms throughout Britain — about 100,000 — will have a holiday while the Allied victory over their country is being celebrated here. The Germans will be unable to work because the men and women who transport them to and from their jobs will be on holiday.
MAY 31, 1966
THE Musicians’ Union has won its fight to have miming to records banned from British TV programmes. Mr Hardie Ratcliffe of the union, said: ‘We object to pop programmes playing records so that artists can mime when musicians should be employed to put over the live accompaniment.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
STEPHEN JONES, 61. The Wirral-born milliner, whose work has been worn by everyone from Princess Diana to Mick Jagger, made the hats for Meghan Markle’s mother Doria and Amal Clooney (right) at this month’s Royal Wedding. He says the key to his success is to have ‘a jolly workroom’: ‘If you’re in a good mood, you will make a happy-looking hat. If you are in a miserable mood, it will look miserable.’ ARCHIE PANJABI, 46. The London-born actress shot to fame with Keira Knightley in Bend It Like Beckham, starred in thriller The Fall and also voiced several characters in Postman Pat for a decade. Also a star of U.S. series The Good Wife, she was once told by an American talent agent ‘an Indian woman could never have a career in Hollywood’. She confesses that, when she visits the UK, she stocks up on salad cream.
BORN ON THIS DAY
WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892). The American poet also wrote a guide to ‘manly health’ under a pseudonym, recommending dancing, brisk walks and bathing in cold water. He visited friends in the nude, once writing: ‘Nature was naked, and I was also.’ JOHN BONHAM (19481980). The Led Zeppelin drummer (right) once rode a motorbike through the lobby of Los Angeles’s Chateau Marmont hotel. Instructions to journalists on the band’s 1977 U.S. tour included: ‘Do not make any sort of eye contact with John Bonham. This is for your own safety.’ He was found dead at 32 with the equivalent of 40 shots of vodka in his system.
ON MAY 31…
IN 1957, playwright Arthur Miller, husband of Marilyn Monroe, was convicted of contempt of U.S. Congress for refusing to reveal the names of alleged communist writers.
IN 1991, 102-year- old Australian Minnie Munro became the oldest bride in history, according to Guinness World Records, when she married Dudley Reid, 83.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Yepsen (coined in 14th century) A) As much as the cupped hands will hold. B) A trial in which a suspect eats barley bread and cheese to test his innocence. C) The opposite direction. (Answer below)
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Sugar basin — rhyming slang for a marble mason, because rough white marble resembles a sugar lump.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
In Youth, the absence of pleasure is pain, in old age the absence of pain is pleasure. Henry Addington, former prime minister (1757-1844)
JOKE OF THE DAY
GOT my IQ test result . . . and I’m relieved. Thank goodness it came back negative! Guess the Definition answer: A.