ON THIS DAY

FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE JUNE 4, 1941 BIG BEN, after carrying on, like a good Londoner, through its recent blitzing, sprang a surprise last night. It stopped at 10.13pm for no apparent reason. One House of Commons official who remarked, ‘It’s gone on strike,’ received the retort: ‘No, gone off strike!’ JUNE 4, 1959 FOUR ‘super mice’ were launched in a rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in a vain attempt to put them into orbit, then bring them back alive. Three hours after blast- off, the U.S. Air Force said it was doubtful the rocket had gone into orbit. The mice had no pet names. ‘We didn’t want to “humanise” them,’ a spokesman said. ‘It would make it worse for people who have tender feelings about these things.’ HAPPY BIRTHDAY RUSSELL BRAND, 43. As well as parting company with BBC Radio 2 following his prank calls to Andrew Sachs’s home, the comedian, actor and campaigner from Essex was fired from MTV after turning up to work dressed as Osama bin Laden the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He has called the Queen ‘a little old lady in a shiny hat’ and was thrown out of the GQ Men of the Year awards in London when he gave a Nazi salute during his acceptance speech. VAL McDERMID, 63. The award-winning Scottish crime writer, who grew up in a working- class family in Fife, has said she based one of her most sinister characters, Jacko Vance, a TV celebrity with a secret lust for torture, murder and under-age girls, on her experience as a reporter interviewing Jimmy Savile in 1977. ‘He was a deeply unpleasant man,’ she said. BORN ON THIS DAY ROSALIND RUSSELL (1907-1976). The American actress, who won four Golden Globes, was known for her ‘brassy, sassy, wisecracking’ parts in films such as His Girl Friday, Auntie Mame and Gypsy. She said of herself that she’s played the ‘ eternal, successful career woman’ 23 times. Russell was just as vocal about her dud movies, saying: ‘Flops are a part of life’s menu, and I’m never a girl to miss out on any of the courses.’ GEORGE III (1738-1820). The king who lost the 13 U.S. colonies was famous for going mad, though his condition may have been the result of a hereditary disorder called porphyria. The father of 15 bought Buckingham House for his wife Queen Charlotte to use as a family home. It later became known as Buckingham Palace. ON JUNE 4… IN 1940, the ten-day Allied evacuation from Dunkirk came to an end. IN 1989, hundreds of pro- democracy protesters were shot dead by the Chinese army in Tiananmen Square. WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Mumpsimus A) A vague unwell feeling. B) A view stubbornly held even when wrong. C) A hiccough. Answer below

PHRASE EXPLAINED

Keep a stiff upper lip — Meaning to keep your emotions in control and be brave in the face of adversity, it was first used in 17thcentury America to refer to the British.